11/9/22 Auburn Articles

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Auburn's loss to Mississippi State proves something: The Tigers have heart.

Jack Singley

4 minutes

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Auburn went on the road to Starkville last night and as expected they suffered a loss. The unexpected came when Auburn made second-half adjustments and took a game that was 24-6 at the half, to overtime.

The undoubted reason for this fight and heart is the former running backs coach and now interim head coach, Carnell "Cadillac" Williams. The team and the coaching staff seemed like they had been released from captivity and were finally allowed to be themselves and show emotion. This is incredibly showcased by a highlight of Interim Head Coach Williams and Secondaries coach Zac Etheridge, both Auburn players and graduates, sprinting down the sideline to call a timeout. Etheridge seemed to have hurt himself as well. Williams was a constant source of happiness and energy for the team, the number of sideline yards walked by Coach Caddy might have eclipsed the Tigers' 256 rushing yards.

Todd Van Emst / AU Athletics

The effort, dedication, and energy shown by the Auburn Tigers on Saturday add further evidence that Bryan Harsin was a cancer to this team and needed to be removed. Harsin began his coaching career while Williams terrorized SEC defenses for the Tigers. Harsin became a coordinator in 2006, a year after Carnell Williams won NFL Rookie of the Year. Bryan Harsin became the head coach for Arkansas State while Williams was done with football and starting a family. Williams only became a coach in 2016 and has managed to go from West Georgia Graduate Assistant to Auburn Interim Head coach.

All the experience mentioned above could not prepare a man from Boise for the torture that is an SEC program. The recruiting was not there for Harsin, as his message of work, hard work didn't resonate with the recruits he did decide to put the effort into. A 6-2 start was offset completely by going 0-5 for the rest of the season in 2021. The off-season further proved an inability to connect as players kept transferring and Derek Mason, the defensive coordinator left for a substantial pay decrease. Then the message of "Just Watch" was his main takeaway for those who thought Auburn wouldn't be able to perform well in the SEC in 2022.

The season started and the fans did what he asked, just watched, helplessly as their favorite team withered away, limping to a 3-4 record at the bye week. The nail in the coffin was the Arkansas game and the hiring of new athletic director John Cohen. Williams was named the interim on October 31, 2022.

How did this battered and bruised team manage to show the effort and heart to come back 24-6? How did a desensitized fanbase start to feel again? The answer is a coach who cares, shows emotion, and never gave up on the team. Harsin finished with a 9-12 record at Auburn, and Williams might go 0-4 in the interim position, however, Williams won the fans and the team back and that is more valuable in a season where all hope foe the future was lost.

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Auburn football: Can Cadillac drive the program in the right direction?

Glenn Sattell | 22 hours ago

Carnell “Cadillac” Williams is a placeholder at Auburn Universityb — a placeholder for a job in case a viable candidate isn’t interested. And the knee-jerk reaction, given the way Auburn has treated its head coaches the past handful of years, is: Who would want it?

Well, the reality is there are a lot of coaches who would want the job as head football coach at Auburn. It’s a place where you can compete, a place where you can win big if everyone is pulling in the same direction. Prior to Bryan Harsin’s cup of coffee, the previous 5 and 6 of the previous 7 head coaches at Auburn finished seasons ranked in the top 5. Before Harsin, 2 straight head coaches played for a national championship. Gene Chizik won one in 2010.

So to say this job is unattractive would be a short-sighted statement. Are there obstacles? Of course there are. The same could be said with any job.

In all probability, Williams will not be named the permanent head coach at Auburn. There are some big-name candidates being bandied about. But all that will sort itself out once the season comes to a merciful end.

The Tigers are languishing in a 5-game losing streak, and at 3-6, they would need to win all 3 remaining games just to break even and become bowl-eligible. They lost the last 5 games of the 2021 season, including the Birmingham Bowl to Houston. You’d have to go all the way back to 1950 to find the last time Auburn lost 6 consecutive games in the same season. That year, the Tigers lost all 10, and as a result they ushered in the Ralph “Shug” Jordan era. By the way, just 7 short years later under the guidance of Jordan, Auburn won all 10 games on the 1957 schedule and with it, a national championship.

Here’s to hoping the current turnaround will be at least as swift and successful.

Who guides the ship through these troubled waters is anyone’s guess. Williams would have to be considered a longshot, but so was Ed Orgeron — a placeholder himself who was tabbed as interim head coach at LSU after the Les Miles firing. Orgeron was the longest of longshots to get the job, but he landed it after going 6-2 to finish the 2016 season in Baton Rouge. Three years later, he won the national championship with arguably the greatest college football team in history.

Orgeron got the job because the Tigers succeeded on the field. Off the field, he was one of them — a Cajun to the core whose dream it was to be the head coach at LSU.

Williams’ story has similarities. An All-American running back at Auburn, he helped lead the Tigers to an undefeated 2004 season. He’s definitely one of them. He still holds Auburn’s all-time record for career rushing attempts and rushing touchdowns.

A 1st-round draft pick, Williams spent 7 seasons in the NFL before continuing his football career in the coaching ranks. It began in 2016 at West Georgia as a graduate assistant. He later served as running backs coach at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., and in 2018 he took the same position with the Brimingham Iron of the Alliance of American Football.

In January 2019, Williams came home to Auburn as running backs coach under head coach Gus Malzahn, and he was retained by Harsin.

In his 4th year of coaching at Auburn, Williams is the longest-tenured assistant on the staff. So it made sense that he would be named interim head coach a week ago Monday before the Mississippi State game.

That left Williams, and the rest of the Auburn coaching staff, scrambling to put together a game plan for Mississippi State on the road.

It looked it in the 1st half. Tentative and somewhat disarrayed, Auburn fell behind 24-3 and looked to be in for a very long night.

But give Williams, the staff and the team a lot of credit. At halftime, Williams challenged the Tigers to keep fighting and believing in one another. And they responded, scoring 27 points in the 2nd half before falling in overtime.

The Tigers hadn’t scored 27 points in a half since opening the season with 28 in the 1st half vs. Mercer.

That has to be encouraging. Auburn now gets a full week with Williams to prepare for Texas A&M on Saturday at Jordan-Hare, then finishes up the season with Western Kentucky before the Iron Bowl in Tuscaloosa.

He won’t say it out loud, and maybe he hasn’t yet allowed himself to entertain the idea. But you have to believe that Williams, like Orgeron at LSU, would love to be the permanent head coach. Winning a couple of these final games would go a long way toward helping that cause.

But right now, Williams remains focused on the moment, on the preparation, on getting his team ready for the next challenge. And that’s really the proper approach to take.

 

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Cadillac Williams plans to 'sit in the moment' before 1st Auburn home game

Published: Nov. 07, 2022, 5:31 p.m.

4-5 minutes

Auburn Football

Cadillac Williams on 1st home game as Auburn’s head coach: ‘You can’t make this up’

Auburn's interim head coach Carnell Williams reacts to a replay on the stadium monitor during the first half of an NCAA college football game against Mississippi State in Starkville, Miss., Saturday, Nov. 5, 2022. Mississippi State won 39-33 in overtime. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)AP

Cadillac Williams has made the run through the south end zone tunnel at Jordan-Hare Stadium 52 times during his life — 27 as a player, 25 more as an assistant coach at Auburn.

None of those will have prepared Williams for the one he’ll make Saturday evening, when Auburn hosts Texas A&M in what will be Williams’ first home game as the Tigers’ interim head coach.

“It’s Monday, so I’m going to hold it together,” Williams said. “You can’t make this up. Honestly, I don’t know how I’m going to feel.”

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It’s sure to be an emotional, out-of-body experience for Williams. Then again, just about everything during the last week has been surreal to the former All-American running back. He took over as his alma mater’s interim coach last Monday following the firing of then-coach Bryan Harsin, who was shown the door by Auburn president Dr. Chris Roberts less than two years into his tenure, finishing with a 9-12 record on the Plains.

Since then, life for Williams has been hectic but rewarding. Sleep has been difficult to come by, thanks to late nights at the Auburn athletics complex putting together gameplans and trying to put out fires left and right. It has been like trying to drink out of a fire hydrant for Williams and the remaining members of Auburn’s coaching staff.

It culminated in an overtime loss at Mississippi State in a game that saw Auburn erase a 21-point first-half deficit and claim the lead twice in the fourth quarter before coming up just short of the road upset. But now the Tigers return home, and things are starting to slow down for Williams, who has been able to reflect on a “bombshell” of a week and show appreciation for all the support he has received — support from players and from within the program, support from former teammates and lettermen, and an outpouring of support from the Auburn fanbase.

“Honestly it doesn’t surprise me,” Williams said. “It’s why I chose this institution two decades ago, because of that same love that you all are feeling from the Auburn family. They embraced a kid like myself that had a dream to take care of my mom, to change the trajectory of my family. The feeling they gave me on my official visit is one that always stands out to me…. Everybody I ever played with, people are truly reaching out and supporting me and getting behind this. I’m excited. I’m honored that my fellow brothers would actually take time out and get behind this.”

That support has brought Williams some solace during a hectic time. He was finally able to get some sleep Sunday night — five hours’ worth, which nearly matched his total hours of rest from last Monday to Thursday. He’s settling into his new role, embracing the opportunity ahead and taking it one day at a time.

The job’s not done, though. He’s ready for an even better performance this weekend when the Tigers welcome the Aggies to Jordan-Hare Stadium. Kickoff is set for 6:30 p.m., with the game airing on ESPN2.

Shortly before that, Williams will run onto Pat Dye field for the first time as Auburn’s head coach, with the full-throated support of 87,451 adoring fans behind him.

“I do know I have a job to do, to get this team ready to play and get these guys prepared and lead these guys,” Williams said. “I know I can’t make this about me, but I am going to sit in the moment. I’m going to enjoy it. I’m excited for that moment and honor.”

Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde.

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'Auburn being Auburn': AD John Cohen aims to flip script on 'JABA' refrain

Updated: Nov. 08, 2022, 6:25 p.m.|Published: Nov. 08, 2022, 1:36 p.m.

4-5 minutes

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John Cohen has been around the SEC long enough to know the acronym commonly thrown around when it comes to Auburn.

JABA. Just Auburn Being Auburn.

The Tigers’ new athletics director has heard it time and again. He has seen it mentioned on many occasions; it’s usually in reference to the perception of self-sabotage, civil unrest and meddling that outsiders associate with Auburn’s athletics department. Cohen, who was introduced Tuesday as the 16th athletic director in Auburn history, wants to change the stigma of that common refrain.

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“I want to tell you, in my opinion, as somebody who’s been on the outside who’s now coming in, ‘Auburn being Auburn’ is a special thing,” Cohen said toward the end of his opening remarks.

The idea of “Auburn being Auburn,” as a pejorative, isn’t new, but it has come up often this year. It surfaced during February’s university-led inquiry into then-coach Bryan Harsin’s handling of the football program, and again as Harsin’s grip on his job slipped further away early in the season as the on-field product left plenty to be desired.

Auburn fired Harsin last Monday, less than two years into his tenure as head coach, triggering a buyout of more than $15 million owed to him. That was on top of the more than $27 million in buyouts owed to Gus Malzahn and his assistants that Auburn had to pay just to make way for the hiring of Harsin. Just Auburn being Auburn.

Yet Cohen, who spent the last six years as athletics director at Mississippi State and spent extensive time in the SEC before that, believes “Auburn being Auburn” should — and does — carry a different meaning, given the reach of the Auburn brand both academically and athletically.

“Three Heisman Trophy winners is ‘Auburn being Auburn,’” Cohen said. “Athletes who forever changed the nature of their own sport — not just here, not just in the SEC, but nationally — like Bo (Jackson), like The Big Hurt (Frank Thomas), like Sir Charles (Barkley), like Rowdy (Gaines), like Ruthie (Bolton), like Suni (Lee). I can name a bunch more. That is ‘Auburn being Auburn.’ How about Hall of Fame coaches? Shug Jordan, Pat Dye, Joel Eaves, Sonny Smith, Hal Baird — who I got to see the other day — Joe Ciampi, David Marsh, Ralph Spry, Susan Nunnelly, Tim Evans, and many, many more. We have future Hall of Fame coaches in this room right now, and I’m thrilled with that. That is ‘Auburn being Auburn.’

“Twenty-two national championships, almost 100 conference championships, countless individual national champions, that is ‘Auburn being Auburn.’ The great traditions — the Tiger Walk, the eagle flight, rolling Toomer’s Corner — that is ‘Auburn being Auburn.’”

Auburn being Auburn, he said, was “a big why” for him when it came to the decision to leave his alma mater, Mississippi State, for the Plains. The Tigers just need to change the outside perception of that term, which Cohen aims to do in his new role leading the athletics department, with goals of competing for and winning SEC and national championships, delivering “elite” facilities upgrades, staying out front on NIL and bringing forth a prosperous new era for Auburn sports.

Auburn’s new athletics director then echoed another familiar refrain before taking questions: “I believe in Auburn and love it,” he said.

Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde.