Then and now
Food for thought…
When Auburn was 5-0 and the offense was churning out impressive numbers against mainly lower tier opponents it was in vogue to point out that Turner Gill, the head coach at Buffalo, had a 1-4 record. Gill was passed over for the coaching job at Auburn in favor of Gene Chizik, who was lured away from Iowa State to coach on the Plains. The five wins equaled Chizik’s total in two years at ISU. The comparison was intended to show that Auburn clearly made the right decision. I thought it was a rather silly and overly simplified point, but it seemed striking. Buffalo lost two key, hard to replace players and anyone could have coached Auburn to at least three of those first five victories.
Now Auburn sits at 5-3 with the team regressing each week. Finishing with a record better than 6-6 at this point is hard to envision. That would be one more win than last season. For what its worth, Buffalo is 2-1 over their last three games with their only loss coming in overtime. But I’m not interested in looking at Buffalo. I’m looking at Ames, Iowa.
Another former Auburn defensive coordinator, Paul Rhodes, took over the head job at ISU after Chizik left. Their team sits at 5-3, which means in Rhodes’ first eight games he equaled the number of wins Chizik had in two years there. Four of those wins came against pretty hapless teams (at least two of which Chizik’s squad lost to) and the fifth came against a Nebraska team that committed a whopping eight turnovers. But they are wins just the same.
All of this isn’t necessarily damning for Chizik or good for Rhodes. One could argue that Chizik had ISU moving in the right direction – it would be hard to make that claim based on 2007-2008 results, but you could try – and that Rhodes is the beneficiary of Chizik’s work. Both AU and ISU got to their 5-3 records by playing a pretty soft early schedule and winning one game each that they weren’t favored in. Auburn has tied one of their own hands behind their back by using only 75 of their 85 allowed scholarships. (Blows my mind how a team would allow themselves to lapse into that category.)
One thing is clear, though: Chizik’s honeymoon is over. If things don’t turn around promptly then fans will be staring at a year about as bad as last season under Tuberville. It might even be more painful given the promising start. In sports winning is a cure all salve. Unpopular personnel decisions can be forgotten and despicable personalities tolerated. After forcing Tuberville out fans expected to see an improvement in order to justify the change.
Of course, it is also instructive to recall that Nick Saban went 6-6 in his first regular season at UAT and Bama fans don’t seem too upset about him right now.
Obviously you can’t judge based on this year – definitely not after the first five games – though it was a fun comparison. The point isn’t that Chizik was the better choice (I personally would have gone with Charlie Strong), but rather that Turner Gill wasn’t so much obviously a better choice as to only leave you with the one reason he wasn’t hired (even Gill’s recent wins aren’t much, Gardner-Webb, that’s a signature win). Chizik is known as a recruiter – time will tell if he can become a Saban or Carroll or if he will be a new version of Orgeron and Zook. However, while both Orgeron and Zook’s teams got tired of them as coach, neither seem to complain about the stable of players left behind. I would have rather Auburn kept Tuberville – he had reached his greatest level of mediocrity.
I’m really sick of the Turner Gill stuff. Gill was my preferred candidate, too, but Auburn was looking for someone with SEC recruiting experience who was “mean” enough to stand up to Saban. Gill is a “nice guy,” which is one of the reasons most fans favored him, but Auburn was not looking for another nice guy. On top of that, word had it that Gill was insisting on bringing much of his Buffalo staff with him, and that was a no-go. Even if Gill’s team were 8-0 right now, it wouldn’t change the things that didn’t get him the Auburn job.
As for the current team, I don’t buy the narrative that Auburn built its 5-0 record against lesser opponents. West Virginia still has only one loss and is ranked, and Tennessee has a very good defense and an improving offense. Both teams are easily better than Kentucky, and West Virginia is arguably better than Arkansas.
Auburn’s new offense was tricky enough to fool or simply overwhelm its early opponents, but it masked major problems on defense and special teams. Once Arkansas and Kentucky — two of the worst defensive teams in the league — showed how to shut down Auburn’s offense, the rest of the team’s weaknesses were exposed and highlighted.
The main problem right now with this team is that it has no heart, no grit, no fight. The offense plodded along Saturday night and not once got mad enough to stand up and fight back. That’s simply inexcusable. Lacking depth and talent is one thing — Laying down is quite another, and it all goes back to coaching.
But look at the bright side: If this continues, at least Auburn can rid itself of Jay Jacobs.
Hey, Saban was 0-13. We cheated and the NCAA took away our wins. Chizik already bested Saban.
If AU can only beat Furman from here on out, then the Chizik hire will look bad. He still win have not had a winning season as a HC and the success of Bama will not help the situation.
That said, AU has a knack for knocking Bama off. Has Bama ever won at Auburn? I think it will be perhaps Bama’s toughest challenge yet (b/c of the spread). One win over a #1 or #2 Bama will have Chizik signing a contract extension.
I think the best coach down there is Malzahn. He makes less than your DC and I think he will be hitting monster.com come bowl season.
I agree with Ben. Jacobs seems to be a big part of the problem.
Go Gators!
Ah, so you’re from Florida. Well, that explains a lot.
Just for you Dale.
And another one.
Sprinkle in a few national titles and you get over those things.
You know what I mean?
Oh, you don’t.
I think Auburn’s concern should be those Ole Miss Rebels coming to town. It will be my pleasure to walk Toomer’s Corner and see no toilet paper whatsoever.
An open letter from SGA President Jacob Watkins
Friends,
I heard a story yesterday that I felt is worth sharing with you all. In the heat of the battle against LSU on Saturday, Kodi Burns took a shot to the chin that cut open his lip and knocked out two of his teeth. Kodi came to the sidelines with the teeth in his hand. The trainers sewed his mouth up, wiped off the blood and Kodi went right back in the game and ran the ball as hard as ever. He never quit.
The game was a tough, tough loss, but none of our players ever quit. They scored their only touchdown of the night on the last play of the game.
One thing I noticed was that the LSU student section got there early, stayed late and made a lot of noise until the very end. They made the difference for their team.
We play Ole Miss on Saturday in a game that we need to win to become bowl-eligible. Between now and Saturday, you might see signs or stickers that simply say “11:21, be the difference.” We had those signs and stickers made to remind all of you that kickoff is early on Saturday. It’s at 11:21 a.m and you need to be there to “be the difference.” We need to get there early, stay late and be loud to show our team we are behind them no matter what.
This season is not even close to being over. There are some big games left that we can win, but we need your help to give our team the home-field advantage that Jordan-Hare Stadium has always been known for!
11:21. Get there early. Stay late. Be loud. Be the difference.
War Eagle!
Jacob Watkins
Auburn University Student Government Association President
Not that I disagree with the goal of Watkins’ email, but I have to take exception with his claim that the LSU fans “made the difference for their team.” That is asinine. LSU’s football team dominated Auburn’s team in every facet of the game. The fans were inconsequential in that game.