Good article about the Coaching Staff

[woods1110 0]

http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/NEWSV5...V5aufoot30o.htm

Auburn coaching staff builds 'family' bond

By Jay G. Tate

Montgomery Advertiser

AUBURN -- Ten years ago in a dim office at Ole Miss, Hugh Nall met Don Dunn for the first time.

They had just been hired to coach on Tommy Tuberville's first staff. There was no familiarity. Not much in the way of common ground. Not much to say.

But somewhere along the way, something changed.

What once was a working relationship became a family bond.

"When you get into this business, friendship means everything," said Nall, who coaches Auburn's offensive line. "We're in a situation where we all have to lean on each other so much that the guys become something a lot more important than the guy down the hall. They're brothers."

Five members of Auburn's staff have spent every working day together since that first meeting at Ole Miss in 1994. That kind of stability is rare in these what-have-you-done-for-me-lately days of college football.

Ten-win seasons don't guarantee a job.

Beating Alabama like a drum doesn't firm future plans, either.

Yet the core of that Ole Miss staff has remained in tact through dreadful NCAA sanctions in Oxford, talent problems at Auburn in the late 1990s and one anxious week after the 2003 season.

Auburn is 11-0 now. It's high times on the Plains these days.

Still, those five coaches haven't forgotten their roots.

"(At Ole Miss), we fought through it, won some games and got that program back on track," defensive ends coach Terry Price said. "Then we come here, again inherit a program that didn't have as much talent as we needed to be successful in this league. You build it up and recruit and play with your own kids, finally, after five or six years. We've all worked hard to build something special here."

Tuberville's first staff at Ole Miss included nine coaches. Only one, defensive coordinator Art Kaufman, remained with the Rebels when Tuberville jumped to Auburn after the 1998 season.

That left eight coaches.

Joe Pannunzio left to become head coach at Murray State in 2000.

That left seven coaches.

John Lovett and Noel Mazzone were fired after the 2001 season, becoming the scapegoats for Auburn's 7-5 record.

That cut the number to five.

Auburn assistant coach Don Dunn says the pain from last year's failed attempt to fire the coaching staff still lingers.

Dunn, Nall, Price, running backs coach Eddie Gran and wideouts coach Greg Knox remain on staff. Though turnover is part of the game, Price said this staff, because of its close-knit structure, takes personnel changes harder than most.

"As an assistant coach, you've just got to keep on doing your job the best you can and just kind of go from there, but change is tough," Price said. "You just have to stay steady during the course of the year and just try to do your job to the best of your ability."

The coaching staff and their families are more galvanized than ever.

An awkward, failed coup d'etat last winter threatened to tear the staff apart. Former president William Walker and other university officials covertly interviewed Louisville coach Bobby Petrino -- a former Auburn assistant -- about taking over for Tuberville and his staff.

The plan backfired, though, when the scheme was brought to light by reporters.

Auburn's coaches immediately earned apologies from everyone involved with Petrino's courtship, and were given promises of security.

Still, the pain lingered.

"Unless you went through it, you just can't imagine," said Dunn, who coaches defensive tackles. "It's probably tougher on the families, the wives and children, because they spend a lot more time together than even we do during the season. It's just unfortunate that it happened, because Auburn is a lot better place than that, and that should never happen. If you want to get rid of me, be a man about it and come and say: 'Hey, Don Dunn, you're not doing the job.'"

Dunn hasn't heard that in more than a decade.

There's a reason.

When Tuberville hired assistants back in 1994, he was very clear about his expectations. The Rebels were in the midst of serious NCAA sanctions.

Recruiting, Tuberville told his coaches, was all that mattered.

"If you can't recruit," he said, "I'm going to fire you."

Gran got the message.

"That always stuck with me. It was 10 years ago and he's so right," Gran said. "Our staff is (full of) phenomenal recruiters. You have to recruit and you better work hard and you better cross your t's and dot your i's. Everyone is so competitive on our staff. But they are good at what they do."

Tuberville's emphasis on recruiting has paid off handsomely. Armed with one of the most talent-laden teams in Auburn history, the Tigers are 13-point favorites heading into this weekend's SEC championship game against Tennessee.

The program's luster has been restored. Auburn again is a national power.

Finally, those five assistants get their payoff for all those years of loyalty and resolve. Yet they're not looking at it like that.

"(Tuberville) was kind of the rock we all looked up to as coaches. He never wavered. He never faltered," Price said. "He never showed any signs of the things that were getting to him, and that was great for us as assistant coaches to look up to a guy like that. He deserves this season, because he's worked hard to get this program where it is today."

No remorse: Kevin Weiberg, commissioner of the Big 12 Conference and chairman of the Bowl Championship Series this season, said Monday that the possibility of an undefeated Auburn team being left out of the national-championship picture won't undermine the process.

"There really are only two positions in the BCS and the Orange Bowl. So we're going to have two of these teams playing in that game," he said. "We still need to see results of the games. But that's the system we have. Until we go down the path of a system that plays extra games, you're not going to resolve that."

Auburn remained No. 3 in the latest revision of the BCS rankings Monday, gaining no ground on Oklahoma and Southern Cal. At this stage, the Tigers' chances for a trip to Miami seem almost nil.

Badge of honor: Auburn's two starters from Montgomery, center Jeremy Ingle and defensive end Bret Eddins, have more in common than just the Capital City these days.

Both players are wearing bandages over the crowns of their noses from hits taken in Auburn's 21-13 win over Alabama.

"It's that Montgomery-area-private-school-guys-with-soft-noses thing," said Ingle, who graduated from St. James. "I guess we're soft. I didn't even know he had it until after game. We were back in Montgomery hanging out. The first time I saw him, I realized: He's got his, I have mine on."

Eddins played prep ball at Trinity Presbyterian.

I guess it would seem like a family if you have been together this long. All I can say is "War Damn Eagle CTT!"