TigerVII

Ten years ago I'd say he was waiting for the REC nudge. Nowadays, it could be the UGA, Texas, FSU or Elsewhere U nudge.

15-20 years ago Rodney Garner would be the perfect hire. Now I think he's yesterday's news, not to insinuate that he cannot recruit or coach. He's probably the most qualified candidate that we could hire. To build for the future, AU needs someone younger (by at least 10-15 years) than Garner. 17 year olds don't respect their elders like they once did. That's one reason Marcus Davis connects well with recruits.

Durkin is qualified for the DC job. I hope he is successful at AU. I am thankful that football coaches are not hired through a democratic election process because AU would have hired Turner Gill in 2008 and missed out on the 2010 BCS championship.

Nice to see some optimism from you, AUwent. You should try it more often. 😀 Don't forget #4--Jerry Kill and Vandy will be visiting Jordan-Hare this fall. If we repeat the dreadful performance we displayed against NMSU two months ago, we can kiss our top 10 recruiting class goodbye for 2025. We will have more talent this year, but we will also have less experienced players in several positions. Coaching will make the difference between 5 wins and 7-8 wins in 2024.

I believe there is merit in your speculation. I don't believe the NIL money has dried up. I believe Coach Freeze has focused it primarily toward high school recruits. However, you are absolutely correct that boosters want to see more. Coach Freeze and his staff have worked their tails off to recruit and upgrade the talent on the roster. There has been little to no coaching in 2023. We almost upset UGA and UAT at home only to blow both games in the 4th quarter. We looked like a Sun Belt team at home against New Mexico State, outcoached in all phases of the game. Ditto for the bowl game against Maryland. We had uninspired performances in a winnable home game against Ole Miss, and we absolutely didn't show against LSU on the road. I would like to see some coaching (in addition to the above-average recruiting) in 2024. If we don't see it, we're still stuck in mediocrity.

No, it appears they're working very hard on the 2025 class - weekend visits and all. They just didn't take the opportunity to upgrade from Thorne (at least before spring practices anyway).

Since when do our coaches announce anything about our recruiting targets (especially portal targets)?

AUwent was right about RW. AU would have been better served by spending the time and NIL money on a portal QB.

We need someone to overpay and then fire in December 🤣

To me the worst-case scenario would be repeating the insanity of the last 4 years - hiring someone like Chad Morris, Mike Bobo, or Montgomery for more than $1 million per year on a multi-year contract and then firing him after one year while still owing him the balance of the contract. I'm sick of paying assistant coaches (and their agents) to coach elsewhere. Hiring someone like Luper. Porter or McGee for RB coach (as your post suggested) with Austin as QB coach is a better scenario than the terrible OC carousel we've been riding. It will be a lot less expensive, meaning more money for recruiting.

This will be an acceptable outcome as long as we don't overpay Austin just to have to buy him out in December.

I agree. I don't care where the head coach or assistant coaches played college ball. I want the best coaches for the team, even if they didn't play college ball.

WRONG. Etheridge is a very good coach. I don't believe he's being pushed out just so Crime Dawg can come back to AU. I also believe we'll see Etheridge on staff at AU again in the future, hopefully as a defensive coordinator.

I haven't seen much coaching this season. I'm hopeful that the committed recruits and rumored recruits prove CHF is a good recruiter. Coach Dye was not a great in-game football coach, but he was a great recruiter and program manager. I'm praying that Coach Freeze will be the same or better.