The State of the program

[countoff 331]

On 12/15/2018 at 3:54 PM, AURealist said:

If you seriously think 6-6, 7-5, and 8-4 seasons will be good for Auburn and Auburn fans, then keeping Gus is definitely your best bet.  

Of course I don't think going 6-6, 7-5, and 8-4 is good for Auburn or Auburn fans.  Not on a consistent basis.  But if that is a progression over the first 3 years of a new coach taking the program to consistent 12-0, 11-1, or 10-2 seasons.... then I am willing to witness it.

Saban 1st season at Bama was 7-6.  

My point is a new head coach needs the fan base to give him a little breathing room the first year or two.  I don't think the base will allow it now. 

 

 

[nixtosanders94 2,180]

On 12/15/2018 at 1:31 AM, Texan4Auburn said:

Friend of mine is a EXD1 player for power 5 and still has connections and friends in the coaching ranks. They do talk.

Gus getting a job too big for him too early is a legit discussion.

While meddling by boosters does occur everywhere, you are heavily underestimating the reputation of ours vs 99% of programs out there. Why you got Chizik vs Patterson I'm told.

You also, and people will hate this, forget what is going on at Georgia/Alabama right now. There are coaches that will tell you that Auburn isn't either of those programs and job security being tied into beating them with where they are at right now isn't very attractive.

To your last point I would just say this...I can’t speak for every Auburn fan or everyone on this board but I know myself and the Auburn people I hang out with. We are not concerned with beating uat and uga every single year or even being above .500 against them with how they are going right now. In fact, if I was just judging Gus off of his record against lil nicky I would be perfectly fine with 2-4 at this juncture. But 2-4 against uga when two of those uga teams were very clearly beatable, 2-4 against LSU with two baffling losses the last two years and then the other losses that have come every year including this year’s embarrasing HOME loss to a struggling Tennessee team are why I am tired of Gus. Auburn makes excuses like this all the time and its one reason we never elevate the program. Oh poor us, we can’t possibly compete with big bad uat or uga...even though we just beat them both last year...If Gus had finished every year 9-3 or 10-2 or even 9-4 with an occasional 8-5 but the product on the field didn’t look like a complete disaster half the time I could live with that.  But he is averaging 5 losses so its not like he is just losing to uat and uga. Nicky won’t be there forever and I’m still a little skeptical that Kirby will keep that engine going for a long time. But even if both programs slip at some point I have zero confident that a coach who is 3-3 against MSU and couldn’t even beat two bad uga teams will be able to take advantage of it. Gus is not the guy and that is just the way it is. He will be gone after next year when he once again takes a talented squad and underachieves...

[Texan4Auburn 1,626]

2 hours ago, nixtosanders94 said:

To your last point I would just say this...I can’t speak for every Auburn fan or everyone on this board but I know myself and the Auburn people I hang out with.

I'm not talking about fans. Talking about actual coaches in the profession at this very moment. This is what has been relayed by my friend who is friends with some D1 Power 5 coaches and people associated with excellent programs.

[GwillMac6 20,663]

3 hours ago, nixtosanders94 said:

To your last point I would just say this...I can’t speak for every Auburn fan or everyone on this board but I know myself and the Auburn people I hang out with. We are not concerned with beating uat and uga every single year or even being above .500 against them with how they are going right now. In fact, if I was just judging Gus off of his record against lil nicky I would be perfectly fine with 2-4 at this juncture. But 2-4 against uga when two of those uga teams were very clearly beatable, 2-4 against LSU with two baffling losses the last two years and then the other losses that have come every year including this year’s embarrasing HOME loss to a struggling Tennessee team are why I am tired of Gus. Auburn makes excuses like this all the time and its one reason we never elevate the program. Oh poor us, we can’t possibly compete with big bad uat or uga...even though we just beat them both last year...If Gus had finished every year 9-3 or 10-2 or even 9-4 with an occasional 8-5 but the product on the field didn’t look like a complete disaster half the time I could live with that.  But he is averaging 5 losses so its not like he is just losing to uat and uga. Nicky won’t be there forever and I’m still a little skeptical that Kirby will keep that engine going for a long time. But even if both programs slip at some point I have zero confident that a coach who is 3-3 against MSU and couldn’t even beat two bad uga teams will be able to take advantage of it. Gus is not the guy and that is just the way it is. He will be gone after next year when he once again takes a talented squad and underachieves...

I think we need to try and do what Oregon is attempting at doing and very much succeeding in doing so. Hiring a elite recruiter and let the chips fall as they may. They hired cristobal and I am sure most people viewed that as a meh underwhelming hire. But how he is recruiting at oregon a very tough place to recruit at with little to none in state talent to work with is very impressive. More than half the battle in college football is recruiting. If oregon can get a top 5 class with a first year head coach we should have no problem getting a top 3 class with a much better recruiting base as they do. Maybe Jeff Brohm can be the best of both worlds. He has Purdue 27th in the recruiting rankings. That is a absolute miracle for a program like that.

[thrustmaxwell 413]

From reading this and other boards, for most fans they are in a State Of Denial.

War Eagle Anyway.

[WarDamnEagleWDE 12,737]

On 12/15/2018 at 1:31 AM, Texan4Auburn said:

Friend of mine is a EXD1 player for power 5 and still has connections and friends in the coaching ranks. They do talk.

Gus getting a job too big for him too early is a legit discussion.

While meddling by boosters does occur everywhere, you are heavily underestimating the reputation of ours vs 99% of programs out there. Why you got Chizik vs Patterson I'm told.

You also, and people will hate this, forget what is going on at Georgia/Alabama right now. There are coaches that will tell you that Auburn isn't either of those programs and job security being tied into beating them with where they are at right now isn't very attractive.

 

You got Chiz instead of Patterson because AU had a AD who was not qualified to be a AD at this level. Patterson left the meeting with Jacobs and never looked back. 

I'd love to hear what all of these meddling boosters are doing also. From anyone here? I'll await all of these responses. 

[Auburn2Eugene 2,317]

On 12/16/2018 at 3:38 PM, countoff said:

Of course I don't think going 6-6, 7-5, and 8-4 is good for Auburn or Auburn fans.  Not on a consistent basis.  But if that is a progression over the first 3 years of a new coach taking the program to consistent 12-0, 11-1, or 10-2 seasons.... then I am willing to witness it.

Saban 1st season at Bama was 7-6.  

My point is a new head coach needs the fan base to give him a little breathing room the first year or two.  I don't think the base will allow it now. 

 

 

I tend to agree with you. The thing is, people aren't demanding our coach beat UAT or UGA every year. What we want is competence. What we want is for our 9 year old daughter's to not be able to call out the plays before it happens. What we want is for our team to look better. We want our coach to figure out what team he has before the season starts and not in weeks 3 to 5. We want someone who can not only recruit (Gus does this extremely well) but can excel in player progression. We want a coach that can keep the talent we have. We want a coach who doesn't botch a highly recruited players redshirt. We want a coach who hires the best candidates available and not retreads that had been pushed out only a couple of years prior. We want a coach who doesn't hire only yes men or previous players as assistants. 

 

We just want to get better. To be better. Gus has had ample time to take his game to the next level. He has shown that he can't do that. Gus isn't a bad coach, but he certainly isn't a good one. He is a average coach...who averages 5 losses a season. This includes year one that only had 2 losses. 

I don't think there will be one person who complains about the next coach in the first couple of years. But in years 3 to 5, if he has shown he can't improve then the complaining will start. 

No one expects us to be in the playoffs every year. But we do expect improvement. We do expect not to be able to tell what play is coming before the ball is snapped. We do expect NOT to run the ball up the gut after a first down 746 times in a row. We expect to never see a coach jumping up and down yelling at his players where the play is going as soon as we line up. 

 

These are the things most in the Auburn fan base complain about... Not losing 5 games in any given season, but when you average 5 losses per season through over half of a decade, expect that seat to be as hot as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). When they smash gold particles together, for a split second, the temperature reaches 7.2 trillion degrees Fahrenheit. That's hotter than a supernova explosion. 

10 hours ago, GwillMac6 said:

I think we need to try and do what Oregon is attempting at doing and very much succeeding in doing so. Hiring a elite recruiter and let the chips fall as they may. They hired cristobal and I am sure most people viewed that as a meh underwhelming hire. But how he is recruiting at oregon a very tough place to recruit at with little to none in state talent to work with is very impressive. More than half the battle in college football is recruiting. If oregon can get a top 5 class with a first year head coach we should have no problem getting a top 3 class with a much better recruiting base as they do. Maybe Jeff Brohm can be the best of both worlds. He has Purdue 27th in the recruiting rankings. That is a absolute miracle for a program like that.

I will say yes, most in Eugene thought he  was a Meh hire...especially with Chip Kelly returning to the college game and going to a rival in conference school. Even with the recruiting, not everyone is happy with ole Mario... even after yesterday... Oregon has always been a tough place to recruit. As you said, there is very little in state talent (although Herbert is a hometown kid born and raised in Eugene who went to the same high school as my wife) Oregons main recruiting base is Washington (which UDub and Wazzu have started keeping that talent in state) and the left overs that the California schools didn't want. Every now and then they can pull 5 star talent from California, but for the most part, if UCLA, USC, Stanford, or Cal Berkeley want them, they get them. There are exceptions like DeAnthony Thomas, Cameron Colvin, and Kayvon Thibodeaux, but overall it's extremely rare for Oregon to pull 5 star talent from California. People aren't sure what to think about Mario. The kids love him, I can say that much. 

And I agree that Brohm is a superstar in the making. I'm nervous about the show he and Rondale Moore are likely to put on against us in the bowl...