bannersociety on coaching search

[aubiefifty 18,231]

bannersociety.com

 

Does Auburn know it’s not a scrappy, also-ran SEC program?

Steven Godfrey

5-7 minutes

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I have, over the course of the last six days, come to the conclusion that Auburn is a Florida that thinks it’s a Mississippi, acts like an Arkansas and is in danger of becoming a Tennessee.

Let’s review:

1. Auburn is capable of winning its division, conference and the national title. The Tigers have won a BCS title and lost another one in the last decade. Hell, they won the SEC West recently enough to earn their now former coach a buyout. Accordingly, they can attract the best talent in the sport. They are on par with SEC programs like Florida, LSU, Georgia, and yes, Alabama.

2. Despite the above fact, Auburn boosters and rank-and-file fans operate (read: BITCH AND MOAN) as if they’re shackled by the chains of a dim fate or scratching against the invisible walls of some unseen curse against them (Alabama, the league office, a God that doesn’t actually favor Baptists, I don’t know.).

That flavor or whining is usually reserved for the Actually Doomed, i.e., the two Mississippi schools to their west. I fundamentally do not understand this mentality, as Auburn (see No. 1) HAS WON NATIONAL TITLES THIS DECADE, but their fans sound the fans I went to college (Ole Miss) with. To 90 percent of college football fan bases, you a**holes look like a royal family complaining about their stipend (I am really enjoying Gillian Anderson on “The Crown” rn).

You can’t promote narratives of helplessness when you very clearly are helped. Auburn, you have agency! You’ve won national titles! It’s offensive to every other hapless crag across the summit of this horrific trickle-down economy when you win it all, hoard resources, enjoy the luxuries of the elite and then act as if you’re put upon. Sirs, I know Mississippi, and you are no crab in that particular bucket.

3. Auburn watched Alabama become Alabama again and, based on the fact Tiger boosters’ present behavior still mirrors their past, must still be convinced it was the result of magic beans or some such other mystical bull****. Here’s how it happened! Take notes! Nick Saban walked into Tuscaloosa 13 odd years ago and declared that, no matter what else happened from that moment on, he was the tip of the spear. What spear? Every spear. **** you, that’s what spear.

Do you remember modern era Alabama before Nick Saban? I do. They were, as a brand, the particular swirl of feckless and grandiose usually reserved for tech CEOs or Louisiana governors. Y’all: If a mother makes a home, a dictator makes a police state. And if you want either, cede your power, idiots.

Auburn still hasn’t figured out that warring factions of boosters, no matter how batshit or craven, cannot produce a functional national title contender. The anecdotes I’ve received this past week absolutely reek of Arkansas’ warring money tribes in the 2000s — a bunch of monied, insecure meddlers horrified that history won’t smile on them as the “real architect” of some imagined dynasty yet to be and willing to burn down the house with everyone in it. Thus is the methodology in a dick measuring contest among men who pay amauteur athletes and put their name on buildings: If no one else is standing, yours is the biggest. Even if it’s still real small.

4. I’ve been told by more than one agent and twice as many coaches that, inexplicably and inexcusably, the phone lines were dead for days on The Plains. Meaning that coaches of a caliber that a job like Auburn should demand, at least on paper, were not contacted when Gus Malzahn was fired.

Far, far worse is that some of those candidates are now incredibly wary of the Tigers. They’re asking questions none of us can answer:

Who’s in charge?

No, really: Who’s actually running the search?

Why is Auburn’s search committee loaded down with Pat Dye-era players who clearly represent one highly vocal faction of money?

Why fire Malzahn on Saturday and implode a recruiting class on a Wednesday? Auburn’s averaged a Top 20 class every year from 2010-’19. This year they’re No. 40 per 247 Sports.

Am I, an outsider candidate (like, say, Alabama OC Steve Sarkisian or Louisiana-Lafayette head coach Billy Napier or Clemson OC Tony Elliott), fighting against Kevin Steele, the incumbent defensive coordinator considered a darling to those meddling individuals I’d be tasked with courting after I beat him out?

If Steele’s strong candidacy is even remotely a reality, is this search simply an exercise in formality and compliance to shove him through?

If so, why would I put my name next to this mess publicly, only to have to justify to my current employer and boosters why I was associated?

Aren’t these the same people who just agreed to eat over $20 million because they’re dissatisfied with a coach who handed them everything but the resumes of Clemson and Alabama?

Congrats, Auburn, you’re driving straight into a granite slab of Rocky Top. It’s one thing to behave in a manner that keeps your fans roiled or the Internet laughing. What you’ve accomplished this week is something most of us considered impossible: You, a Top 10 job, have alienated and/or alarmed any current candidate worthy enough of the salary and expectations of a Top 10 job. How long this stigma lasts is unknown, but if you’re curious how hard it is to wash off, ask the Vols. Or just hire Jeremy Pruitt.

[auskip07 930]

This reeks of you are competitive every now and then and you should be happy about it.  Typical "Auburn needs to know its place" garbage.   

[aubiefifty 18,231]

6 minutes ago, auskip07 said:

This reeks of you are competitive every now and then and you should be happy about it.  Typical "Auburn needs to know its place" garbage.   

i got that he is saying we are not acting like we are as good a school as we really are. that we settle too much. did he not state we are as good as the florida's, etc/ maybe i read it wrong. i think we need to go after napier with a common sense contract that will pay him a ton more money when milestones are reached like ten win seasons, sec championships and national championships. we make sure he has the tools to do this and every year he brings us a natty we make sure he is the highest paid coach for that year. higher than saban even. i mean its not rocket science. and if a coach wants a great buyout make hime earn it.

[chizhead 618]

2 minutes ago, aubiefifty said:

i got that he is saying we are not acting like we are as good a school as we really are

Out of likes, but thats what he's saying and I agree. JABA and will never change because the PTB either don't know how, or don't want to

[aubaseball 2,819]

This entire write up is what I have been saying since tubberville was hired.   The people with the money can’t get out of way.   

[USATiger 741]

The number 1 take from this, and the dude nails it, is good coaches are going to be hesitant as they don't really know who the hell is in charge.  Who would they answer to?  How much freedom would they have to run the program as they see fit?  

The fact these are difficult questions to answer, is why Steele is a serious candidate, hell he may be the only candidate.  Napier would be a fantastic choice, but I'm afraid he doesn't have quite the resume for these numb-nuts to turn over control of the program.  

However, until a decision is made, I choose to believe there are enough common sense folks helping with the search that a good coach will be hired, eventually. 

[auburnphan 6,050]

I was just gonna comment if this was the longest thread title in AUFamily history, but this article really falls in line with what the vast majority of all of us have been saying.

[AURealist 2,194]

This is really just a pathetic love letter from Godfrey to Lane Kiffin - an attempt to dissuade him from jumping to Auburn from his own alma mater. 

[ToomersStreet 798]

1. Is Steele seriously a candidate or is that just smoke?

2. I am more than happy with either Napier or Elliott

[alexava 6,974]

“You just paid over 20 million for a pretty good coach to leave, and you ain’t even trying to hire anyone who would be an improvement “. You are about to go backwards like Tennessee. This is a hammer meets nail article.

[aucanucktiger 1,889]

Rumor-filled article. Typical of a dozen widely published stories in major media outlets this week raking Auburn over the coals while MANY other programs' similar recent coaching searches handled no differently received zero media abuse.

[toddc 13,197]

2 hours ago, auskip07 said:

This reeks of you are competitive every now and then and you should be happy about it.  Typical "Auburn needs to know its place" garbage.   

I think you have it backwards!

[tbone4jc 2,362]

We are the dallas cowboys of the SEC.  All the  owners want to do is be dictators. We need a culture change asap.

[AuburnNTexas 7,317]

An awful lot of what he said is true. If Steele becomes our new HC all of what he said is true.  If we are able to get somebody like Napier we need to pay him a good salary, all kind of bonuses for performance, give him complete control of the program with some protection to allow new HC to have a chance to build program his way. We also need realistic expectations. When you play bama, LSU, Georgia every year throw in a Fla, Oregon, Washington  every now and again the schedule can affect the record.  You should have high goals you should expect to compete for West Title and SEC title every year but with that schedule it won't happen. Realistically we want to be at least 50/50 against bama, LSU, Georgia year in and year out and win SEC West and SEC championships periodically. Goal every year is win the National Championship and every year have a good enough team that it is realistic.

[aucom96 1,652]

No doubt, Auburn is its own particular flavor of mess but this article is a bit over the top. Before Saban, Alabama dealt with booster problems that landed them on multiple probations and could have landed them the death penalty. Their last coaching hire preceding Saban was some of the finest comedy in college football history and the search that led to Saban was a worse clown show than this one until their desperation grew to the point of doing the right thing. 

Our's hasn't. We're trying to stay consistent. We were never that under our last two coaches. We have the ability to be on the level of bama, LSU, UGA and Florida but we haven't been consistently there since Dye left. You could say the same about Florida these days. LSU may be heading into that cycle now too. I'd put a Steele hire as only a bit more underwhelming than Orgeron at LSU and that paid off for them, if only for a year. I'll agree that to reach our goal, we're going to have to somehow diminish the influence of boosters who want to have some level of control of the football program. In a football crazy state like this, the only sure way I know to achieve that is the same sort of horrible desperation that actually unified Alabama's PTB to turn over the keys to Saban. If we hire Steele, I suspect we'll be approaching that. 

[hqsi99 103]

What this article dances around, but which has frustrated me to no end is: Why in the world do you fire Malzahn the Saturday before NSD and NOT ALREADY HAVE THE NEW HEAD COACH PRETTY MUCH LINED UP!!!!???  

And if there is no way to accomplish that, then wait a freaking week or two before you firm him.  There was simply no reason to fire him when they did without a replacement ready to go.  So, unless the PTB are unbelievably stupid then I have to believe they had someone lined up and either (1) there was backlash against this person that resulted in the plans changing (Steele); or (2) they had someone lined up and the deal fell apart for one reason or another.

[milehighfan 1,251]

I've often felt Auburn had too many chiefs and not enough indians.

[Tigger1985 865]

Gus didn’t hand us everything but the resumes of Bama Clemson etc. Bad Ga teams best us and too many times the game plan looked like the three stooges game planned it.  Agree with a lot of it but consistent losses and a widening of talent between us and the top teams has become apparent. We lost a few players on signing day but we seemed to be heading there anyway. 
Poor planning on the Athletic Dept is apparent and some others need to go also. Greene is the second one that needs to go as looking at some of our other programs flounder( see women’s basketball)

[JDUBB4AU 5,287]

100% truth ... what a s*** show we are right now . Something good has to happen soon .