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How has Gus split the fan base?


GwillMac6

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2 minutes ago, DAG said:

I guess my question is, who cares if you never attended Auburn? If you grew up rooting and supporting the team, going to the games, buying merchandise, etc you are as big of a fan as someone who attended the school. I particularly don’t like that term either. 

 

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32 minutes ago, AUsince72 said:

Friction seems to be calling ALL realists/pessimists/haters (whatever y'all want to call them) out as being sidewalk alum.  @keesler been one of the most vocal realists (and he can ONLY go by that descriptor) calling out Gus on everything, just as much as us pessimists & haters.  Keesler's point is that through his own family experience, Friction is obviously wrong.

Reread my post bud. I didn't say that at all. I was translating what a previous poster said. 

For the record, I think that previous poster was onto something though. I don't believe all of the Gus haters are sidewalk fans. I do believe most of the sidewalk fans are Gus haters. Sidewalk fans attach themselves to Auburn for sports, so, if sports are doing anything but perfect, it makes sense that they'd freak out. 

I also would very much disagree with calling that group realists. Pessimists though is pretty fitting. We've lost two games against top 10 teams, and the Gus hating group is acting like we've had a losing season. Good grief. What did you all expect this year? A national championship? We have a true freshman at quarterback. That was never really likely to happen. Had our offensive line panned out, we had a shot. But, given that they are a weakness this year, it wasn't going to ever happen. You Gus haters just have crazy unrealistic expectations, and that's why you all feel like the sky is falling right now. 

A tip... Let go of the jealously you have for Bama. They are in uncharted waters in terms of success, and I'm 95% sure that's what's got everyone so nuts. I was where you are now in 2013 (was opposed to hiring Gus at all), 2015, and 2016. I was Gus's biggest hater. I was even so mad after that 2016 Clemson game that I sent a nasty email to the athletic department. 

It was about midway through 2018 that I let go of that feeling of jealousy. I realized that I don't want what Bama has. If I did, I'd be no better a Bama fan. What has always set Auburn apart until now is that the win-at-all-cost philosophy was never there. It is the reason we never hire jerk coaches like Saban or Urban Meyer that succeed but do so without any class. Auburn has always been the place that has hired good coaches that fit the Auburn Creed rather than great coaches that break it. After I "woke up," I realized exactly what has happened to our fanbase in the wake of Bama's insane level of success. We've started to lose what makes Auburn Auburn, and it's happened because we have set unrealistic expectations and get upset when those unrealistic expectations are not met. We can't win the national championship every year. We can't win the SEC west every year. We play in the best division of the best conference in college football. Expecting us to win it all on a regular basis is unrealistic. If you factor in the fact that Bama is doing so well, it makes it even more unlikely. If Malzahn were coaching at Oklahoma or Clemson, he'd probably be seeing the same success that they are. Taking schedule into account, the only team having more success than us is Bama. In 6 years, Malzahn has won the SEC West twice (and came in second a 3rd time), and has taken us to an NC. Those are good numbers. But all the Gus haters can see are two numbers: 0 and 5. 0- Number of Auburn's championships in 6 years. 5- Number of Saban's championships in 10 years.

If you want the win-at-all-cost philsophy and will be upset after losing any game, go join the Updyke nation.

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5 minutes ago, DAG said:

I guess my question is, who cares if you never attended Auburn? If you grew up rooting and supporting the team, going to the games, buying merchandise, etc you are as big of a fan as someone who attended the school. I particularly don’t like that term either. 

LOTS of people care. It's how they tell themselves that they're better than those with whom they disagree.

And maybe somebody should quit with the self-righteous, patronizing bull**** and let Friction explain his own damn comments. 

Edit: I see he did that. I'll leave this here, though. Always happy to admit when I'm wrong. 

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4 minutes ago, McLoofus said:

LOTS of people care. It's how they tell themselves that they're better than those with whom they disagree.

And maybe somebody should quit with the self-righteous, patronizing bull**** and let Friction explain his own damn comments. 

You know you can just reply directly to me right?  You don't have to be afraid or this immature.  I have proven multiple times I am easy to talk to.  I have even tried to make amends with you three times already.  And I know you see these messages to instead of the indirect shots, just man up and talk to me directly.

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1 minute ago, AUFriction said:

Reread my post bud. I didn't say that at all. I was translating what a previous poster said. 

For the record, I think that previous poster was onto something though. I don't believe all of the Gus haters are sidewalk fans. I do believe most of the sidewalk fans are Gus haters. Sidewalk fans attach themselves to Auburn for sports, so, if sports are doing anything but perfect, it makes sense that they'd freak out. 

I also would very much disagree with calling that group realists. Pessimists though is pretty fitting. We've lost two games against top 10 teams, and the Gus hating group is acting like we've had a losing season. Good grief. What did you all expect this year? A national championship? We have a true freshman at quarterback. That was never really likely to happen. Had our offensive line panned out, we had a shot. But, given that they are a weakness this year, it wasn't going to ever happen. You Gus haters just have crazy unrealistic expectations, and that's why you all feel like the sky is falling right now. 

A tip... Let go of the jealously you have for Bama. They are in uncharted waters in terms of success, and I'm 95% sure that's what's got everyone so nuts. I was where you are now in 2013 (was opposed to hiring Gus at all), 2015, and 2016. I was Gus's biggest hater. I was even so mad after that 2016 Clemson game that I sent a nasty email to the athletic department. 

It was about midway through 2018 that I let go of that feeling of jealousy. I realized that I don't want what Bama has. If I did, I'd be no better a Bama fan. What has always set Auburn apart until now is that the win-at-all-cost philosophy was never there. It is the reason we never hire jerk coaches like Saban or Urban Meyer that succeed but do so without any class. Auburn has always been the place that has hired good coaches that fit the Auburn Creed rather than great coaches that break it. After I "woke up," I realized exactly what has happened to our fanbase in the wake of Bama's insane level of success. We've started to lose what makes Auburn Auburn, and it's happened because we have set unrealistic expectations and get upset when those unrealistic expectations are not met. We can't win the national championship every year. We can't win the SEC west every year. We play in the best division of the best conference in college football. Expecting us to win it all on a regular basis is unrealistic. If you factor in the fact that Bama is doing so well, it makes it even more unlikely. If Malzahn were coaching at Oklahoma or Clemson, he'd probably be seeing the same success that they are. Taking schedule into account, the only team having more success than us is Bama. In 6 years, Malzahn has won the SEC West twice (and came in second a 3rd time), and has taken us to an NC. Those are good numbers. But all the Gus haters can see are two numbers: 0 and 5. 0- Number of Auburn's championships in 6 years. 5- Number of Saban's championships in 10 years.

I think you are making a huge ass assumption there sir. The sidewalk thing is pretty divisive talk IMO and @abw0004 unfortunately fell victim to trying to interpret an indefensible accusation. IMO, it is a pretty short sighted view. 

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4 minutes ago, McLoofus said:

LOTS of people care. It's how they tell themselves that they're better than those with whom they disagree.

And maybe somebody should quit with the self-righteous, patronizing bull**** and let Friction explain his own damn comments. 

Like I said I think that is just a silly rationale . That is like saying you can’t be a cowboys fan if you weren’t a citizen of Dallas . It makes no logical sense. 

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3 minutes ago, DAG said:

I think you are making a huge ass assumption there sir. The sidewalk thing is pretty divisive talk IMO and @abw0004 unfortunately fell victim to trying to interpret an indefensible accusation. IMO, it is a pretty short sighted view. 

I am with u on this one.

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1 minute ago, DAG said:

Like I said I think that is just a silly rationale . That is like saying you can’t be a cowboys fan if you weren’t a citizen of Dallas . It makes no logical sense. 

Seems most of us agree.

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I don't need anyone clarifying my posts on here.  I mean what I say and say what I mean - if I'm wrong I own it.

But when someone attempts to lessen the passion and love for Auburn because that person did not attend AU and then labels them a sidewalk fan I will take a very serious stand against it. 

At the end of the day we are all here on this message board to discuss Auburn football.  Most of us are regulars that have been here for years.  We all have Auburn Football in common and we ALL love it and want it to be the best it can be.

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I would like to take a second an apologize if anyone misinterpreted my comments as going after anyone's fandom or their passion.  I was simply making an observation on the correlation on how quick people react.  That is not a good or bad thing, just a reaction, and an observation.  I will try to better convey this in the future.  I do sincerely apologize.

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17 minutes ago, abw0004 said:

Thank you for explaining to me.  Maybe I am the one interpreting Friction wrong although I reread it multiple times to make sure.  In regard to my post, like I said to dan above, I in no way ever would say or will say that makes you less of a fan.  Ever.  And I think you know the immense respect I have for you too.  Honestly my father had a very similar story to yours, even down to the cancer, and he is still a huge Auburn fan.  He goes to all of the games with me when he has enough energy.

You're welcome and thank you, as always, for your kindness.  I may even be totally off-base about Friction's post, and if so, I'm sorry but he/she does often post in such a way that I feel like it's a correct interpretation. 

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Guess I'm somewhere on the middle of all of these classifications of Auburn fans. I attended Auburn but did not graduate. I just had no idea what direction I wanted to go in so I decided to get a job and make money instead of spending more and not having any sense of direction of what I wanted to do. So now, many years later I'm probably as qualified as anyone to have an opinion about Gus because here Auburn University is, spending all this money on Gus and we have no real direction. Sounds just like me at 20 years old. :)

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38 minutes ago, AUsince72 said:

You're welcome and thank you, as always, for your kindness.  I may even be totally off-base about Friction's post, and if so, I'm sorry but he/she does often post in such a way that I feel like it's a correct interpretation. 

You don't ever say stuff like this about me.....smh

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Gus the man is a man of character, principles, and class. He runs a clean program.

Gus the coach is stubborn to a fault, and does not seem to adapt or progress in his coaching.

When he's rolling, he's rolling. The problem is that he only rolls about every 3 years. The talent is there, but he needs a quarterback that can run to bail out his offense in the big games. If his quarterback is a legitimate threat to take it to the house on any given play (Cam and Nick) or he has a dominant run game, his offense is great, but when those factors are missing, it's fairly easy to prepare for due to the simplicity of the plays. 

 

The lack of adaptation of his offense combined with the elite level of talent and play from our defense make his performances in 2017-2019 unexcusable. We are a playoff team each of those seasons with a consistently above average offense. 

 

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1 hour ago, AUFriction said:

Reread my post bud. I didn't say that at all. I was translating what a previous poster said. 

For the record, I think that previous poster was onto something though. I don't believe all of the Gus haters are sidewalk fans. I do believe most of the sidewalk fans are Gus haters. Sidewalk fans attach themselves to Auburn for sports, so, if sports are doing anything but perfect, it makes sense that they'd freak out. 

I also would very much disagree with calling that group realists. Pessimists though is pretty fitting. We've lost two games against top 10 teams, and the Gus hating group is acting like we've had a losing season. Good grief. What did you all expect this year? A national championship? We have a true freshman at quarterback. That was never really likely to happen. Had our offensive line panned out, we had a shot. But, given that they are a weakness this year, it wasn't going to ever happen. You Gus haters just have crazy unrealistic expectations, and that's why you all feel like the sky is falling right now. 

A tip... Let go of the jealously you have for Bama. They are in uncharted waters in terms of success, and I'm 95% sure that's what's got everyone so nuts. I was where you are now in 2013 (was opposed to hiring Gus at all), 2015, and 2016. I was Gus's biggest hater. I was even so mad after that 2016 Clemson game that I sent a nasty email to the athletic department. 

It was about midway through 2018 that I let go of that feeling of jealousy. I realized that I don't want what Bama has. If I did, I'd be no better a Bama fan. What has always set Auburn apart until now is that the win-at-all-cost philosophy was never there. It is the reason we never hire jerk coaches like Saban or Urban Meyer that succeed but do so without any class. Auburn has always been the place that has hired good coaches that fit the Auburn Creed rather than great coaches that break it. After I "woke up," I realized exactly what has happened to our fanbase in the wake of Bama's insane level of success. We've started to lose what makes Auburn Auburn, and it's happened because we have set unrealistic expectations and get upset when those unrealistic expectations are not met. We can't win the national championship every year. We can't win the SEC west every year. We play in the best division of the best conference in college football. Expecting us to win it all on a regular basis is unrealistic. If you factor in the fact that Bama is doing so well, it makes it even more unlikely. If Malzahn were coaching at Oklahoma or Clemson, he'd probably be seeing the same success that they are. Taking schedule into account, the only team having more success than us is Bama. In 6 years, Malzahn has won the SEC West twice (and came in second a 3rd time), and has taken us to an NC. Those are good numbers. But all the Gus haters can see are two numbers: 0 and 5. 0- Number of Auburn's championships in 6 years. 5- Number of Saban's championships in 10 years.

If you want the win-at-all-cost philsophy and will be upset after losing any game, go join the Updyke nation.

Bama never crossed my mind. A seven-year pattern of excusing inconsistency with a new "reason" weekly does. A one-sided 49 million contract extension does too, no matter how much I applaud and appreciate the other gifts of the person who received it. The earning it is up for debate. Still waiting for your solution. 

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1 hour ago, abw0004 said:

It can get tricky when it comes to donations as well as the student athlete portion.  The tax code just changed where it complicates it even further.  Donations to the school to get tickets are no longer deductible so they can only go toward the program.

 Do not understand what the tax code would have to do with personal donations regarding how the University distributes funding. My observation is that athletics at Auburn always makes it clear that funding for their projects is coming from available funds in that department. Obvious they want to make it clear that  a science  lab is not being renovated due to money spent on a weight room.       

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2 minutes ago, ToraGirl said:

Bama never crossed my mind. A seven-year pattern of excusing inconsistency with a new "reason" weekly does. A one-sided 49 million contract extension does too, no matter how much I applaud and appreciate the other gifts of the person who received it. The earning it is up for debate. Still waiting for your solution. 

Bama is a red herring . Point blank period. 

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13 minutes ago, cole256 said:

You don't ever say stuff like this about me.....smh

Cole, I love you brother!  I hope to share a beer with you at a tailgate one day! :cheers:

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4 minutes ago, SaltyTiger said:

 Do not understand what the tax code would have to do with personal donations regarding how the University distributes funding. My observation is that athletics at Auburn always makes it clear that funding for their projects is coming from available funds in that department. Obvious they want to make it clear that  a science  lab is not being renovated due to money spent on a weight room.       

You are correct in what you are saying but what I am referring to is donations coming in you have to dictate what they are for or the university will allocate them for you.  Auburn athletics is an entity within Auburn University itself.  However, funding for the stadium is not tax deductible.  For this reason is why Florida State put a few college administration offices inside their stadium so they whole stadium's funding could then be run through the tax-deductible portion of donations.  It is pretty smart actually.  So, when you donate to the school and do not say where they go, it is up to the school to decide.  Does that help, or no?

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1 hour ago, AUFriction said:

I don't believe all of the Gus haters are sidewalk fans.

I do not believe Auburn has any real "Sidewalk Fans". That was the old term that we, as in Auburn people, labeled the old Bahr fans with. As soon as the winning stopped they were history. Bammer still has their share. Wear all the garb, talk about championships but can not tell who their fullback was last year. Most Auburn people are lifers.

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11 minutes ago, abw0004 said:

You are correct in what you are saying but what I am referring to is donations coming in you have to dictate what they are for or the university will allocate them for you.  Auburn athletics is an entity within Auburn University itself.  However, funding for the stadium is not tax deductible.  For this reason is why Florida State put a few college administration offices inside their stadium so they whole stadium's funding could then be run through the tax-deductible portion of donations.  It is pretty smart actually.  So, when you donate to the school and do not say where they go, it is up to the school to decide.  Does that help, or no?

Would a school of Turf Management with lots of seating be tax deductible?

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1 hour ago, abw0004 said:

I would like to take a second an apologize if anyone misinterpreted my comments as going after anyone's fandom or their passion.  I was simply making an observation on the correlation on how quick people react.  That is not a good or bad thing, just a reaction, and an observation.  I will try to better convey this in the future.  I do sincerely apologize.

I’m very happy that you finally decided to stop digging.  Good job.

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4 minutes ago, I_M4_AU said:

I’m very happy that you finally decided to stop digging.  Good job.

I am not sure how it became about fandom to be honest.  That was never my intention with any of my posts.  I suppose I misinterpreted what Friction was saying so I wanted to apologize to stop the arguing.  Just not worth it and goes against what I was trying to do in unite the divide.

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1 hour ago, DAG said:

I am not on the Gus Bus anymore but @abw0004 does have a point. Some of these divides are much deeper. Posters have personal issues with each other to the point of taking pot shots. There are times posters can say the most accurate thing but since there was a past disagreement , this will get ignored. I actually enjoy disagreements and discussion, but I do think each side as their own ride or dies. That’s just fact. The football differences are being marred within personal vendettas. I am not going to sit here and say I like every single posters, obviously from my posting experiences you guys know the obvious. But I do try to at least salute someone if they make a good point or they were right about something, regardless of the personal issues. It’s like at work, you don’t have to like everyone you work with but you should do your best to respect them in the context of it all. 

Outta Likes so....

 

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