auburnatl1

As a university, I like TAMU. Similar in some ways to AU. But their football program has become a poster child for …. everything unlikable. Go hawgs.

Everyone else from Boise is here. Might as well keep going.

My concern is that much of our fan base doesn’t have patience to grind it out over time with a solid hire. More years of toxic posts. Great. Plus, first Saban and now Kirby has firewalled off much of natural recruiting base - so it’s gotten even harder to build gradually/traditionally. Freeze would be a solid hire. But I don’t think a splash (feels a little like Gus 2.0, looking backwards) and his baggage and going nutty risks could be a circus. Kiffin’s a mercenary, another Saban fixer upper, and …. just not likable. I know it sounds crazy, but my instincts are Deion would be a hard reset. A potential game changer. In a way…. safer. We need it. He could fail, leave, or both. But he could also radically change our recruiting trajectory. I think his brand (with the right staff) would terrify our rivals. My 2 cents. No yawners or retreads. Go big risk/reward. It’s time. Hell, if nothing else it’d be fun. Deion - if he’d do ut. ps imagine a world with him and pearl at AU. That by itself would be a spectator sport

At this point in the season he’s probably right. The roaster and schemes are set. And hot seat distractions I’m sure do impact the teams mindset. Unfortunately all that may be left is frustration and finger pointing. It’s about talent. Anyone who’s managed a group that’s just not very gifted knows that overachieving only works so long. He’s an alpha personality that made some early mistakes that at this point and with this roster, is probably unrecoverable. It’s a momentum business. But we hired him and then did a mishandled inquisition. Enough blame to go around. What happens from here is inevitable - UGA is coming. No need to villianize.

I’ll ….. take it

UGA may be the physically dominant team I’ve ever seen. At this poin in the season, they might “curb stomp” Bama. Regardless of the prior games, if Kirby unleashes on us and we get totally embarrassed (underscoring the recruiting failure) - I’m not sure the egos-that-be will let the situation continue any further.

The other variable will be the adding of Texas (more so than Oklahoma). With the NIL both them and A&M will be loaded with Texas booster wealth (no other state is building $ as fast as Texas). It’s why Saban went off on Jimbo. If recruiting becomes oriented about school wealth, this could get even more …. challenging.

I do worry with the Deion option (if he even is one) in that he’s so fresh into coaching that he hasn’t had an opportunity to screw up yet. No real “character”track record. Regarding character. Freeze is deeply flawed, Kiffen is a mercenary and could leave in 2 years (if he even succeeds), and Meyer is both. As said before, Deion is the biggest risk/reward option, placing somewhere between splashy provocative and reckless. It’s a tough one. Those quoting the Bible - good, because any pick we do is going to require a lot of prayer.

Auburn is viewed as damaged goods with excessive politics, and unrealistic fans. We’re not going to get a perfect candidate that our diverse fan base (the win at all costs vs character-first groups) all love. IMO BP should be our model. A big personality, proven coach and recruiter, who was on the outs, and was eager for atonement Not a sociopath, someone who screwed up. We’ll be compared to Louisville and mocked for awhile. But if done properly, like Pearl, it can work out.

IMO the primary issue is talent and the primary reason is UGA and Kirby. AU basketball has thrived dominating Ga recruiting. It isn’t a coincidence that as uga rose, au fell. It wasn’t just Gus - our fall was systematically done to us by recruiting starvation. We’d break even in Ga with mark richt but Kirby has fire walled off the state. Bama is bama. We can and have lived with that. But the recruiting dominance of uga is new. Any new coach will have to either radically change our geographic recruiting approach, or take on Kirby with blunt force.

The last 3 years have been a mess and imo mostly self-inflicted. It’s a broader issue than boosters and AD. There’s alway a diabolical “them” who’s caused this vs reading the posts on this board (which reflect our fan culture) and looking in the mirror. The win-now/fire/pay out/pray/repeat cycle has turned me off. The last straw for me was the probe fiasco. We’ve gone UT. I’m focusing on basketball now.

Problem with the #1 pick is you’re normally guaranteed going to a train wreck team. Ie Zion. Would love hawks to get him but realistically … no chance without a monster trade. Lakers have imploded this year and they may be in play - though statistically doubtful.

When I think of auburn football and basketball in the last 10 or so years. Speed was always a characteristic of ours. Almost a culture. When we lost it was usually due to being out physical’d, scheme’d, or skilled. But never speed. This is the first team that almost seemed…… slow. Big 10’ish. Especially given how much bench rotation we did. I watched a little YouTube of the 2019 tournament team last night Ridiculously faster, more spacing and passing (and damn they could hit shots).

Watching Miami game tonight - if we played them again, same result. They play at a higher gear (playing only 7 players). Next year we must have more pace and spacing.

Miami may be small, but Dear Lord they could jump and blocked a ton of shots. Kessler and Jabari were just getting blown by. The 2019 team did the same thing to Kansas. Speed kills.

This team was fun but different than other pearl teams. Talented yes. But wasn’t nearly as fast, slashing, and dynamic. And we really haven’t had great perimeter shooting since 2019.

I heard several commentators in Dec question if we were built right (average talent guards) for the variety of styles we’d see in tournament.

Stop fouling or they’ll hit 100

Barkley will be a basket case

Miami was a nightmare matchup given our known weaknesses

No one in sec plays this style. Got bushwhacked.

Too much speed

Jabari and Kessler have been non factors. Hard to believe.

We’re not used to playing against this kind of speed