Interesting words from David Housel

[Rednilla 5,439]

As for Housel, I've had the same opinion of him for a long time; he's smug, borderline arrogant even, but he's definitely a good old boy.

Have you ever met the man? I have never seen a more inaccurate description of a person in my life. David Housel was and is a great Auburn Man. Having spoken to him on several occasions I can tell you that one of his greatest regrets is the shame he brought upon his beloved institution by going along with the "jet-gate conspirators". He proudly served this institution for more than 30 years and stepped aside when he felt he had wronged the very ideals he tried to instill and uphold. David Housel is a very generous and soft spoken individual.

As for his comments, I agree and disagree. Since I graduated in 2002, the campus has undergone massive restructuring and renovations. Most of you that are current students would not have recognized it as the same campus if you had seen it when I began in 1998. The only thing that has happened since then that I did not agree with and that I voted against while I was a student was the removal of the campus green and Eagles Nest to put a more centrally located student union. The new facility turned out beautiful and they retained more of the green then they anticipated so not all was lost. In the end I think the result is acceptable but I fought that change due to the removal of the Eagles from campus. I truly enjoyed sitting on the green and watching them practice "flying" Tiger when I was a student. I thought that was a tradition worth keeping around. Change is inevitable and most of the changes around campus have been for the best and I for one am proud of that on going advancement that I see when I come to campus. There will always be those things that people become attached to and they attach sentimental value to, but as long as we as Auburn Men and Women remember who we are and where we came from then all will be well.   

Did you read anything else that I wrote, or did you just stop when I called him smug? And to answer your question, yes, I have met him, though it was not for very long and I was only 13 at the time.

[mccamy03 0]

I'm just glad that Auburn is what it is. I'm glad the coaching changes happened the way they did...hindsight is 20/20. After all, this is what got us where we are today....2010 National, SEC, and State Champions! War Eagle!!

[AUBourne 425]

Auburn is a place head coaches tend to stay at.  Louisville is a stepping stone.  And for CBP to leave AU for a NFL job that would have required great success at AU.  I doubt one SEC title would have opened that door for him.  So if at the end of the 2007 season he had NFL offers then that means he would have had AU on top and sitting pretty.  The advantage to CBP is he coaches exciting football.  If he was at a program with a solid recruiting base he would be a nightmare.  We are lucky he is at Arkansas and not LSU or UGA. 

CBP gets a lot of hate for leaving lower tier program at Louisville to take a NFL job.  I don’t blame him for that or for being interested in coaching at Auburn.  I also don’t blame him for leaving a pro team that he was not happy at.  The NFL is not like college where he recruited players and had an obligation to them.  Any college program would be lucky to have CBP. 

Umm in case anyone gets the wrong idea, what is done is done though.  I happy as possible with Coach CGC and the amazing job he has done with the team, coaches, and program.  We are lucky to have him too and I wouldn’t trade him for anyone.

Again, if the coup is successful and Petrino became the head coach in 03, do we go undefeated in 04? In your previous post, you indicated that not hiring him somehow left the door open for Bama to get Saban, but I fail to see how the two are related.

I'm not a fan of Petrino, and it has absolutely nothing to do with Jetgate. He's just not an Auburn man, IMO; too cold, too calculating, too overbearing. Besides that, who is to say that he saw Auburn as a place to come and stay? He strikes me, to a large degree, at least, as a mercenary, and I wouldn't have been surprised to see him hired away from Auburn by a Notre Dame, Michigan, etc. Besides, given the reaction of the fan base, if the administration had hired him, would he have ever been accepted, or would he have been seen as the guy they screwed Tubs over in order to hire?

He is an exceptional offensive mind, but he has yet to prove that he knows the first thing about how to manage an entire team rather than just an offense.

I'm glad with the way things worked out, and not just because we are celebrating a national championship now. As much as Arkansas fans like Petrino, they know full well that he isn't going to stick around too much longer. The guys I worked with last fall are all Razorback fans, and they're already planning/hoping to get Malzahn once Petrino leaves (which I would say is fairly likely, depending on how the chips fall).

I think he would have taken the talent AU had in 2004 and had a much better offense. Since it was a down year in the SEC it is very possible he would have gone undefeated his first season with that much talent on offense.  Of course nobody can say for sure if he would have gone undefeated or not. But If Terry Bowden can do it then absolutely CBP could have with the senior heavy and very talented team we had in 04.  I am 100% confident that he would have at least won the SEC title which was the only real accomplishment that year anyway. I also think he would have capitalized on the success with recruiting.  I also think his offense would have been impressive enough to possibly send AU to the BCS nation title game.  After all when we beat UGA impressively we did jump to number 2.  Unfortunately the team went in the tuber-shell against a mediocre Alabama team so we dropped back down again. 

In regards to Saban.  I was referring to the fact that by keeping xCTT we offered no resistance to Saban on the recruiting trail.  That is the foundation Saban used for instant success.  He owned the state in recruiting until Chizik arrived.  If CBP was at Auburn and running his very exciting brand of offense then I don’t think Saban could have owned us in recruiting and had the same type of success he enjoyed. 

Everything you say about CBP could be applied to almost any coach.  Very few coaches stay in one place their entire career instead of moving around. How is CGC moving around different than what CBP did?  I think the media in Alabama jumped on the bandwagon to villainize CBP because he was an asset to AU and a lot of people swallowed the hook. The idea of CBP at Auburn scared the heck out of Alabama and I don’t blame them.  I just know since we don’t have him I am very happy he is not at a program with a great recruiting base.  Also CBP has taken two different programs to BCS bowls.  I think he has proven he knows how to manage a team.

Again I am happy we have CGC and I don’t even mind if he did leave ISU for AU or AU for Texas.  Coaching is a profession and people need to look out for their careers and their families.  I am thrilled where the program is at under his leadership.  Despite the fact he went to UF I am pretty confident that he will have hard time ever leaving AU for another program.

[Guest War Eagle 29]

Housel ruined a lifetime of good works with one brutal stab in the back of ex-coach TT. I have forgiven him for what he did, but I can never forget it. Therefore, his opinions mean nothing to me and I believe many other members of the Auburn Family feel the same way.

[gravejd 3,304]

Well I hate how they are slowly getting rid of tailgating on campus. Or if not getting rid of it then all the good spots will probably be bought on a yearly basis like seats in the stadium. Hope i'm wrong here cause my favorite memories of Auburn as a kid was playing football with all the other kids on campus before the game. But i also think its a bit silly how people get all up in arms about uniforms. When it comes to uniforms or pregame music then I say if the athletes want it then let them have it.

Change always comes but there is nothing wrong with fighting it if you like what you got!

[auclong 1]

Housel ruined a lifetime of good works with one brutal stab in the back of ex-coach TT. I have forgiven him for what he did, but I can never forget it. Therefore, his opinions mean nothing to me and I believe many other members of the Auburn Family feel the same way.

I agree he was involved in a bad situation that wasn`t of his making but he did participate. He probably to this day wishes it never happened but it did, it`s done and he has moved on. We all have things in our past that we wish we had done or handled differently but that`s life.

Now as to the Petrino side of this. Had we run Tubs off and hired Petrino under that scenario, we would have been under more media and press scrutiny than ever with Cam. And I feel it would have split the university supporters down the middle for no good reason. Whether Tubs was good, bad or indifferent at this point and later is irrelevent; this would have created a situation we would have spent years repairing. Just saying you have to becareful what you wish for, you just may get it.

[JMDurron 0]

Well I hate how they are slowly getting rid of tailgating on campus. Or if not getting rid of it then all the good spots will probably be bought on a yearly basis like seats in the stadium. Hope i'm wrong here cause my favorite memories of Auburn as a kid was playing football with all the other kids on campus before the game. But i also think its a bit silly how people get all up in arms about uniforms. When it comes to uniforms or pregame music then I say if the athletes want it then let them have it.

Change always comes but there is nothing wrong with fighting it if you like what you got!

Good example with the tailgating.  We are having to move our annual tailgating off of campus for the first time this year, after 5 straight years of getting together in the Upper Quad.  The parking deck at the library is becoming "Personal Parking License" spots, on deck at a time, just like the lots closer to the stadium. 

[infamousandy 0]

Yeah, I do think there's a lot of truth in it, but there's no way to definitively say one way or the other about it.

As for Housel, I've had the same opinion of him for a long time; he's smug, borderline arrogant even, but he's definitely a good old boy. He is probably the greatest Auburn historian alive, and he is every bit as much an Auburn man as anyone. And those of you who know me know that I don't say such things lightly.

I remember a phrase written in the wake of Jetgate about how Housel, like the good Auburn soldier that he is, fell on his sword to rectify a situation that was never his fault (I think Jay Tate wrote it, one of the few pieces of his I liked), and I think that sums him up perfectly. Sure, he has his faults, just like any of us, but his love of Auburn University runs to his very core; that counts for a lot.

^^^ He was the SID while I was at Auburn and he can can recite Auburn history like no other.

[ff4autigers 0]

An Auburn man through and through,you know he regrets the whole situation.On the other hand,if we had lost the Iron Bowl alot of people would have praised him and welcomed Petrino w/open arms.

[benjazz 0]

I cannot disagree more with David Housel.  I'm proud of the changes that happened at Auburn since I graduated in 1981.  There are now 10000 more students at Auburn and the average ACT score is 4 points higher than when I was there.  Regardless of what an occasional football recruit thinks Auburn is a much much more desirable place to go to college than that school in Tuscaloosa.  I suffered through the entire 5 years of the Doug Barfield era (which is why I have no hair) but I went to all but one football game while I was there.  I still choke up a bit when they show those "family reunion" commercials about Auburn because I've been in so many different places in my life and my Auburn sweatshirt always caused someone to come up to me and ask "did you go to Auburn" and when i said yes, I always got an invitation to dinner, or someone's phone number.  It is indeed a family which is what other schools do not have. 

That being said, I hope my own Auburn experience and attendance has caused someone to know Auburn a bit better.  I went to Washington DC to work in 1984.  I would go to parties with people who didn't get it when I wanted to know about their college experience.  Most of them thought Auburn was in Texas.  They didn't when I finished with them.  And I think if I went there now, they would know a lot more of what Auburn is.  Auburn is a better place now than when I was there and I think most of my generation feels the same.  Yea the gameday experience is different.  When my parents came down to tailgate they parked in the Haley Center Parking lot and we would eat fried chicken and biscuits and ham and there was still no drinking on campus.  I have nostalgia for those days but on the whole that is the price you pay for having been where everyone wants to be.

War Eagle and God Bless Auburn for what it was and what it is today.

[eagleswest05 0]

Auburn has changed a lot in a mere 16 years since I graduated -1995.  I fell in love with the place as a little kid because of my dad, even before I have memories of being there.  It's the people and the atmosphere.  I stayed away much of the last decade because of dealing with life and things so going back a good bit recently has been bitter sweet.  It looks so different and has changed so much in a short time.  My wife has been talking about going back and finishing her degree so we may move back.  That would suit me just fine.  As long as there's a Country's BBQ and a War Eagle Supper Club, all will be right with the world.

And for David Housel, he can screw up all he wants to, he will still always be an Auburn man.