Who do you want as head coach?

[auburn4ever 1,266]

We need a fresh start for 2021. Bring in Mario Cristobal or Hugh Freeze.

[Beaker 2,457]

19 hours ago, bigbird said:

And with all of the angst, apathy, and animosity ($1 to alliteration) that Gus has created the last few years, I honestly don't see a path back for him.

I hope he, Chad, and Bicknell quickly turn things around and we go on a multi-year tear against our rivals and the rest of the SEC that erases any bad blood, but...

 

 

I dare say and I believe this to be true - this is the best staff Gus has ever had.  And I also, hope Gus can lead us for several more years and win over half of our rivalries, proving me wrong.   

 

 

[AUFriction 1,179]

So, I’m frustrated with Gus as many of you are. We always drop at least one game we shouldn’t, and he’s continued Tubbs’s record of playing poorly against UGA. I even started a “fire Gus” thread after UGA because of how we lost that game. But here’s the thing I keep coming back to. Who do we replace him with? I’ve seen Crystobal’s (sp?) name thrown around, but what has he done? He had a future first round pick at QB last year, and he lost to Gus and wasn’t able to make the playoff. I’m not saying he wouldn’t be an improvement, but I haven’t seen anything to guarantee he is. The names I saw thrown around last year about this time were James Franklin, and PJ Fleck. We’re in year 7 of Franklin’s career with Penn State, and he has 1 conference title. This year, they’ve started off 0-3. In year 4 of Fleck’s tenure (which is the year they always say is key as you’ve recruited almost the whole football team), they’ve started out 1-2 with losses to Michigan and Maryland. At the time of this post, they are losing to Iowa 14-0. Last year, there were multiple somebodies on this board that were completely sure both of these coaches would be upgrades from Gus. If we are going to part ways with Malzahn, it has to be an airtight hire that won’t clash with the Auburn fan culture. Right now, I don’t know if there is that kind of a person out there. And, statistically given our record historically, there’s a better chance we’d hire someone worse than someone better.

[Carnell 592]

24 minutes ago, AUFriction said:

So, I’m frustrated with Gus as many of you are. We always drop at least one game we shouldn’t, and he’s continued Tubbs’s record of playing poorly against UGA. I even started a “fire Gus” thread after UGA because of how we lost that game. But here’s the thing I keep coming back to. Who do we replace him with? I’ve seen Crystobal’s (sp?) name thrown around, but what has he done? He had a future first round pick at QB last year, and he lost to Gus and wasn’t able to make the playoff. I’m not saying he wouldn’t be an improvement, but I haven’t seen anything to guarantee he is. The names I saw thrown around last year about this time were James Franklin, and PJ Fleck. We’re in year 7 of Franklin’s career with Penn State, and he has 1 conference title. This year, they’ve started off 0-3. In year 4 of Fleck’s tenure (which is the year they always say is key as you’ve recruited almost the whole football team), they’ve started out 1-2 with losses to Michigan and Maryland. At the time of this post, they are losing to Iowa 14-0. Last year, there were multiple somebodies on this board that were completely sure both of these coaches would be upgrades from Gus. If we are going to part ways with Malzahn, it has to be an airtight hire that won’t clash with the Auburn fan culture. Right now, I don’t know if there is that kind of a person out there. And, statistically given our record historically, there’s a better chance we’d hire someone worse than someone better.

The criteria for hiring a coach can be different depending on hiring criteria and using either methods can yield hiring a good coach.  The first criteria is how much is the budget.  A university may allocate a lower budget for a coach.  This would probably entail a coach that is an OC or a DC at a power 5 school and probably without any HC experience.  This guy would not have any name recognition and would take time to draw in recruits so competing for championships would be longer.  In this category I would put a coach like Yurich (sp).  If the University is willing to allocate a larger budget for a coach then hiring a coach with instant name recognition and be an instant draw with recruits should be the priority and competing for championships should be immediate or happen quickly.  Two canadiates that meet this criteria is DC of the Saints Dennis Allen or OC of the Patriots Josh Mcdaniel.  Neither one is wrong, it will be based on the budget Auburn wii have.

 

[woodford 3,655]

“Gus beat Mario!” As we’ve said before, this really isn’t the best evidence as to why he shouldn’t be hired. 
 

We like the fact he can recruit, part of the Saban coaching tree, heavy OL emphasis, and has strong ties in the Deep South for recruiting.

[bigbird 60,368]

14 hours ago, AUFriction said:

But here’s the thing I keep coming back to. Who do we replace him with?

A 50% chance of hiring worse is much better than 100% mediocrity. The risk is better than the known.

[fredst 9,064]

18 minutes ago, bigbird said:

A 50% chance of hiring worse is much better than 100% mediocrity. The risk is better than the known.

The mentality of “we might end up worse than the mediocrity we are certain of” is such a loser mindset. You need look no further than our own men’s basketball program to see the incredible difference the right hire can make in a program. Could we do worse than Gus? Of course. Will Gus ever be the guy to lead us to the”next level”? Of course NOT. 

[AUFriction 1,179]

1 hour ago, fredst said:

The mentality of “we might end up worse than the mediocrity we are certain of” is such a loser mindset. You need look no further than our own men’s basketball program to see the incredible difference the right hire can make in a program. Could we do worse than Gus? Of course. Will Gus ever be the guy to lead us to the”next level”? Of course NOT. 

But we didn’t take a chance on the basketball hire this time. We had the perfect candidate fall in our lap. And, at the time, our program wasn’t mediocre. It was one of the worst power 5 programs. We had an almost perfect candidate and nothing to lose. Firing Gus isn’t comparable.

Plus, I’d still argue “mediocrity” is the wrong term anyway. Teams in the SEC doing better than us over Gus’s tenure are Bama, UGA, ... that’s it. A&M consistently underachieves. LSU was good last year, but has been basically o par with us otherwise. You could make an argument for UF maybe, but it’s too soon to tell if they will sustain under hunchback. Plus, both UF and UGA play a much easier schedule than we do most years. So, that puts us between 3 and 5 in the hardest conference in college football, which translates to “good but not elite.” Good but not elite is the history of the program in part because we have so many historically great teams in our back yard. Is there a chance that we hire better than we ever have? Is there a chance we hire someone that exceeds the w/l records of all of our coaches in the last 40 years? Maybe. But it is NOT 50-50. There are a lot more coaches out there worse than Malzahn than their are coaches that are better. Add in the existing added disadvantages we have and it’s probably more like70-30 that the coach will be worse. And probably about 85-15 that he will be not statistically significantly better.

[AUApostle 7,648]

 

[DAG 33,955]

People do mental gymnastics to rationalize the simplest things lol. It’s hilarious sometimes . I don’t know how anything happening with Minnesota has to do with Auburn at the moment. The bottom line is standards have not been met as of yet. And if standards aren’t being met then we shouldn’t just keep someone because of the fear of not getting someone better. Again, practical thinking here, would you stay with someone who isn’t meeting your needs just because you fear you won’t be able to get someone better? I never understand that rationale. Sadly, there are a lot of people out there who are willing to settle

[DAG 33,955]

1 hour ago, AUFriction said:

But we didn’t take a chance on the basketball hire this time. We had the perfect candidate fall in our lap. And, at the time, our program wasn’t mediocre. It was one of the worst power 5 programs. We had an almost perfect candidate and nothing to lose. Firing Gus isn’t comparable.

Plus, I’d still argue “mediocrity” is the wrong term anyway. Teams in the SEC doing better than us over Gus’s tenure are Bama, UGA, ... that’s it. A&M consistently underachieves. LSU was good last year, but has been basically o par with us otherwise. You could make an argument for UF maybe, but it’s too soon to tell if they will sustain under hunchback. Plus, both UF and UGA play a much easier schedule than we do most years. So, that puts us between 3 and 5 in the hardest conference in college football, which translates to “good but not elite.” Good but not elite is the history of the program in part because we have so many historically great teams in our back yard. Is there a chance that we hire better than we ever have? Is there a chance we hire someone that exceeds the w/l records of all of our coaches in the last 40 years? Maybe. But it is NOT 50-50. There are a lot more coaches out there worse than Malzahn than their are coaches that are better. Add in the existing added disadvantages we have and it’s probably more like70-30 that the coach will be worse. And probably about 85-15 that he will be not statistically significantly better.

Bruce pearl was a huge risk man. To deny that is denying reality.I mean the guy still was going though his show clause with the NCAA when we hired him. It would be like us hiring Freeze at the moment (which like Pearl is more about fit , then the perfect hire). In fact we were ridiculed for taking him. However, when you win, people seem to forget. 

[gr82be 14,401]

diminishing returns

 

phrase of diminish

 

1. proportionally smaller profits or benefits derived from something as more money or energy is invested in it.

    

    

[DAG 33,955]

Also side note why coaching hires can be a crap shoot and you need to hire on fit and not just look for the perfect hire. My guy Tom Allen who is the IU coach right now wanted to Auburn DC job but Steele got hired. He got a chance at IU and doing great with it. There is no science to this, but keeping someone who is not meeting standards is not the answer.

[MadtownTiger 363]

What about Kevin Wilson?

He's been the OC at Ohio State since 2017.

Before OSU he was the HC at Indiana, where he did relatively well, but was fired for being too much of a hardass.  Tom Allen was his DC before being promoted.

Before Indiana he was the OC under Stoops at Oklahoma for nearly a decade.

WDE!

[GwillMac6 20,607]

6 minutes ago, MadtownTiger said:

What about Kevin Wilson?

He's been the OC at Ohio State since 2017.

Before OSU he was the HC at Indiana, where he did relatively well, but was fired for being too much of a hardass.  Tom Allen was his DC before being promoted.

Before Indiana he was the OC under Stoops at Oklahoma for nearly a decade.

WDE!

Guys who are not at the bare minimum good recruiters need not to apply. KWill is more coach than recruiter. We need to get the absolute best head coach recruiter that is realistic and that is Cristobal. 

 

[EastAl_Tiger 225]

2 hours ago, DAG said:

Bruce pearl was a huge risk man. To deny that is denying reality.I mean the guy still was going though his show clause with the NCAA when we hired him. It would be like us hiring Freeze at the moment (which like Pearl is more about fit , then the perfect hire). In fact we were ridiculed for taking him. However, when you win, people seem to forget. 

and are STILL being ridiculed for hiring him <cough cough> Pat Forde < cough cough >

[rophle 256]

How in the world had this thread made it to 25 pages? 
This entire discussion is a moot point because Gus isn’t going anywhere! The athletic department is operating with a big deficit, so they’re not giving out $20+ million to get rid of him. 

[fredst 9,064]

6 hours ago, AUFriction said:

But we didn’t take a chance on the basketball hire this time. We had the perfect candidate fall in our lap. And, at the time, our program wasn’t mediocre. It was one of the worst power 5 programs. We had an almost perfect candidate and nothing to lose. Firing Gus isn’t comparable.

Plus, I’d still argue “mediocrity” is the wrong term anyway. Teams in the SEC doing better than us over Gus’s tenure are Bama, UGA, ... that’s it. A&M consistently underachieves. LSU was good last year, but has been basically o par with us otherwise. You could make an argument for UF maybe, but it’s too soon to tell if they will sustain under hunchback. Plus, both UF and UGA play a much easier schedule than we do most years. So, that puts us between 3 and 5 in the hardest conference in college football, which translates to “good but not elite.” Good but not elite is the history of the program in part because we have so many historically great teams in our back yard. Is there a chance that we hire better than we ever have? Is there a chance we hire someone that exceeds the w/l records of all of our coaches in the last 40 years? Maybe. But it is NOT 50-50. There are a lot more coaches out there worse than Malzahn than their are coaches that are better. Add in the existing added disadvantages we have and it’s probably more like70-30 that the coach will be worse. And probably about 85-15 that he will be not statistically significantly better.

On reflection, you’re right. There’s an 85% chance we’ll never do better than Malzahn. Let’s give him a lifetime contract, name the stadium after him, and call it a day. Man, I feel better already. WWWWOOOO!!!!!!!! LFG!!!!!!!!!!

[aubaseball 2,583]

1 hour ago, rophle said:

How in the world had this thread made it to 25 pages? 
This entire discussion is a moot point because Gus isn’t going anywhere! The athletic department is operating with a big deficit, so they’re not giving out $20+ million to get rid of him. 

You do know that the money won’t actually come from the athletic department, right? It’s the money people that will pony up 

[casatiger 513]

Amazing how a couple of years changes things.  I give you 3 names that would be considered rock solid safe in their jobs a couple of years ago and are now racing to be the worst in the Big 10:  Jim Harbaugh, James Franklin, and PJ Fleck.  Their teams are just awful.  

[rophle 256]

41 minutes ago, aubaseball said:

You do know that the money won’t actually come from the athletic department, right? It’s the money people that will pony up 

I do know that others will foot the bill, but with the school and athletic department struggling financially, they’re not gonna pay any amount for him to leave when the team is 4-2. 

[aubaseball 2,583]

1 minute ago, rophle said:

I do know that others will foot the bill, but with the school and athletic department struggling financially, they’re not gonna pay any amount for him to leave when the team is 4-2. 

Of course not at 4-2, but what about 5-5? Or 6-4?

[CleCoTiger 1,957]

13 minutes ago, casatiger said:

Amazing how a couple of years changes things.  I give you 3 names that would be considered rock solid safe in their jobs a couple of years ago and are now racing to be the worst in the Big 10:  Jim Harbaugh, James Franklin, and PJ Fleck.  Their teams are just awful.  

Ya know, I was just thinking back over the names that in recent years have been a favorite on the AU boards for head coach at AU. In addition to Fleck and Franklin, there's Justin Fuentes, Scott Frost and Tom Herman just to name a few. I wonder where AU would be right now had fans gotten their wish? This may be a case of "Be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it."

[casatiger 513]

Having been around a few years i have heard some doozies about the "next" Auburn coach.  Remember when we were gonna hire Dan Reaves cause his son was at Auburn?  

[AUwent 3,747]

5 minutes ago, CleCoTiger said:

Ya know, I was just thinking back over the names that in recent years have been a favorite on the AU boards for head coach at AU. In addition to Fleck and Franklin, there's Justin Fuentes, Scott Frost and Tom Herman just to name a few. I wonder where AU would be right now had fans gotten their wish? This may be a case of "Be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it."

I'll grudgingly admit that you have a point, but I think A ) it's very possible Herman can win 10 games overall, which was typical in the Mack Brown era anyways; and B ) Frost is still a really good coach, at a school that just made a big mistake in moving conferences.