I know I haven't been around much of late, but...

[ShocksMyBrain 9,368]

Isn't this the same thread as the open letter thing that was locked?

They're all kind of the same.

[auburn4ever 1,266]

Pat Dye's first 3 years, he was 25-11 overall, 12-6 in SEC play.

Gus Malzahn's first 2 1/2 years, he's 24-11 overall, 13-9 in SEC play.

[cole256 17,084]

Isn't this the same thread as the open letter thing that was locked?

They're all kind of the same.

Lol. I mean I don't have a problem but the other guy's caught a little grief I thought....oh well none of my business I guess

[Rednilla 5,391]

Isn't this the same thread as the open letter thing that was locked?

They're all kind of the same.

Lol. I mean I don't have a problem but the other guy's caught a little grief I thought....oh well none of my business I guess

I don't know, I didn't see the thread. I had a friend elsewhere ask my opinion about whether Gus Malzahn was in danger of being fired, which was a facepalm moment for me that made me feel as if I needed to remind everyone of his history. No more, no less.

[Rednilla 5,391]

I think the big thing that has some folks going bonkers is we are 1-7 out of our last 8 SEC games. Not sure that ever happened to Dye or Bowden or whoever you wanna compare Gus to. That's why I never like comparing coaches to each other- rarely is it apples to apples.

Bowden's last season on the Plains, Auburn went 3-8, 1-7 in the SEC. He was only the coach for the first half of that season, but it's still worth noting.

Also, you can include the 3 game SEC losing streak that we ended last season on if you like, but please do remember to mention that we were ranked in the top 5 prior to that...in spite of having to blitz virtually any time we wanted to pressure the QB, which is what opened our defense to being gashed the way it was.

Dye may or may not have had a similar stretch (I don't know, because I was 8 when he last coached at AU), but the point I was getting at is that instead of focusing on the negative, and thus perpetuating negativity within the fan base, perhaps we should keep our eyes on the future and see if maybe this season is inverted from last season with a win over TAMU flipping the script and getting us to 8-4 with wins over UGA and UAT to finish out the season.

Will that happen? I don't know. Realistically, probably not.

But I've been around long enough to know better than to EVER give up on my Auburn Tigers.

[homersapien 11,390]

Amen Red and very well-stated.

[Weegle777 78]

You suck Red.

[Rednilla 5,391]

You suck Red.

LOL, don't make me break out the rolodex and start getting your exes to come in here and tell the truth on you, Weegs...

[homersapien 11,390]

Look....

Nick Saban is the only coach at a major program that hasn't gone through a slump. I'm not a fan of his style or personality but he does get results on the field. Urban Meyer is a phenomenal coach as well. After winning two championships in 3 years he went 8-5 and left Florida. Maybe he saw that he couldn't win over the next few years with the talent they had, so he moved on.

The truth is we should have been competing to win the NC last year and we didn't. That is what stands out to me. Right now we have more NFL players on active rosters from the 2015 NFL Draft than any other college program. That tells me that we had a lot of talent last year and we lost them to the NFL. So it makes sense that we might have a down year this year. It also means that we should have done more last year with that talent.

Good post.

Last year was a huge underachievement. But this year is even more disappointing because AU is sitting dead ass last in the cellar of the SEC West with an abysmal 1-8 record vs SEC opponents.

I disagree. Last year was a much bigger disappointment because that team imploded in an almost embarrassing fashion after the aTm loss. We got our pants pulled down in front of the nation and we were wearing the proverbial dirty drawers.

This year, this team hasn't quit. The record is worse, to be sure, and some of the coaching decisions have been mind-boggling, but this team is improving every week (albeit in fits and starts).

It seems worse this year because of the expectations at the beginning. The problem now is that half of the fan base is still working off those obviously flawed (in hindsight) expectations and using that as a measuring stick to grade the team. If nothing else, the near-loss vs Jax St should have shattered that.

This is an ironic situation where sunshine pumping and realism get to come together. It's time to recalibrate the expectations for the year - we are not, and were not, NC contenders, so what we get to do now is compare the team against itself each week to watch the progress as the team gets better and the young players grow into their positions. It's not nearly so fun to watch as an undefeated season, but it also doesn't have to be doom and gloom and skies of fire. Sit back and try to enjoy something. Have a beer and cheer on the Orange and Blue.

Ouch! Man, sometimes the truth really hurts.

Great post! I agree with everything. We allowed ourselves to set up by unrealistic expectations. I also like your attitude about the rest of the season. And while we are still a ways from putting the parts together at once, I've seen improvement.

[cole256 17,084]

Isn't this the same thread as the open letter thing that was locked?

They're all kind of the same.

Lol. I mean I don't have a problem but the other guy's caught a little grief I thought....oh well none of my business I guess

I don't know, I didn't see the thread. I had a friend elsewhere ask my opinion about whether Gus Malzahn was in danger of being fired, which was a facepalm moment for me that made me feel as if I needed to remind everyone of his history. No more, no less.

Well that was smart because there are some that's starting to show up here

[Rednilla 5,391]

Look....

Nick Saban is the only coach at a major program that hasn't gone through a slump. I'm not a fan of his style or personality but he does get results on the field. Urban Meyer is a phenomenal coach as well. After winning two championships in 3 years he went 8-5 and left Florida. Maybe he saw that he couldn't win over the next few years with the talent they had, so he moved on.

The truth is we should have been competing to win the NC last year and we didn't. That is what stands out to me. Right now we have more NFL players on active rosters from the 2015 NFL Draft than any other college program. That tells me that we had a lot of talent last year and we lost them to the NFL. So it makes sense that we might have a down year this year. It also means that we should have done more last year with that talent.

Good post.

Last year was a huge underachievement. But this year is even more disappointing because AU is sitting dead ass last in the cellar of the SEC West with an abysmal 1-8 record vs SEC opponents.

I disagree. Last year was a much bigger disappointment because that team imploded in an almost embarrassing fashion after the aTm loss. We got our pants pulled down in front of the nation and we were wearing the proverbial dirty drawers.

This year, this team hasn't quit. The record is worse, to be sure, and some of the coaching decisions have been mind-boggling, but this team is improving every week (albeit in fits and starts).

It seems worse this year because of the expectations at the beginning. The problem now is that half of the fan base is still working off those obviously flawed (in hindsight) expectations and using that as a measuring stick to grade the team. If nothing else, the near-loss vs Jax St should have shattered that.

This is an ironic situation where sunshine pumping and realism get to come together. It's time to recalibrate the expectations for the year - we are not, and were not, NC contenders, so what we get to do now is compare the team against itself each week to watch the progress as the team gets better and the young players grow into their positions. It's not nearly so fun to watch as an undefeated season, but it also doesn't have to be doom and gloom and skies of fire. Sit back and try to enjoy something. Have a beer and cheer on the Orange and Blue.

For the record, I still don't think the preseason ranking was flawed as much as it was a best-case prediction. If things had come together for JJ in Baton Rouge, this would be a VERY different team. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to find much to build off of (which I contend has a great deal to do with his hesitancy in keeping the ball on the read option/inverted veer, provided that he's had the option to keep it a fair amount of the times he's handed it off), which led to White taking over at QB.

Personally, I think this time has been good for Jeremy. He's been able to watch from the sidelines after having been The Man (which he never was in his starts prior to this season, since it was always in a backup capacity), as well as getting in to build his confidence as a runner back up to where it should be.

Time will tell, of course, and since Sean has not taken the job and made it his own to this point, it seems likely that Johnson will get another full shot (if not during this season then during the spring...when I expect there to be a heck of a QB competition unless one of them just plays lights out for the rest of the year), so we'll probably get to find out.

I just hope things go well for whomever is taking the snaps.

Also, I REALLY don't get the comparisons to 2012. If you want to compare it to one season, I'd say 2003 would be closer, considering that we had bloated preseason rankings, a highly talented junior QB who'd never been The Man before (and the guy I've always compared JJ to, though I do wish he would run the ball more...just like I always thought Campbell should have done the same in college), and a very disappointing season that ended much better than it began.

Here's hoping the comparison continues all the way through, both for the rest of this season and for the one that follows...lol.

[AUBehaviorScientist 0]

What I don't understand is that many of the same people supporting Gus Malzahn were the same people calling for Chizik's head. Here's what I don't understand:

- in his first three years, Chizik's record was 30-10

- in Gus's first three years, his record will likely be 25-14

-Chizik inherited a team that was unbalanced with an oversized junior class and had a hard time recovering from the loss of so many upperclassmen in 2010

- Gus inherited a team of player that were recruited to play in his scheme

-Chizik's bad years were plagued by lack of experience and discipline issues

-Gus's bad years have been plagued by underperformance on the field and lack of team chemistry

Chizik's last three seasons: played for a national championship, went 8-5, had a team fall apart with a losing record and got fired

Gus's: played for a national championship, went 8-5, on the verge of having a team fall apart and having a losing season

Take a step back and look at this situation objectively. How are the situations different? Everything in this business is about program direction. Chizik was released because there was the perception that things were going backward from year to year. We have to ask ourselves whether our team is truly improving at a reasonable rate if at all. So far this season, I'm not convinced that we are taking steps forward. We are last in the SEC west and have not won an SEC game in about a year. If we can't pull off at least one conference win and have not made substantial strides forward by the end of the season, Gus's seat is going to be pretty warm. If we get blown out by uga and or bama, it is going to be hot. That said, they usually say that a coach should have four years. Barring a total collapse of a finish, he'll get another year. However, I think he will really start to lose this fan base and team if they don't look substantially better in the coming weeks.

As a side note, I don't get the 2003 comparisons. We finished with a winning record and were in the middle of the sec west. This year, we will probably either finish 5-7 or 6-6, and are likely to finish with an sec west record that is equivalent to vandy's.

[Rednilla 5,391]

What I don't understand is that many of the same people supporting Gus Malzahn were the same people calling for Chizik's head. Here's what I don't understand:

- in his first three years, Chizik's record was 30-10

- in Gus's first three years, his record will likely be 25-14

-Chizik inherited a team that was unbalanced with an oversized junior class and had a hard time recovering from the loss of so many upperclassmen in 2010

- Gus inherited a team of player that were recruited to play in his scheme

-Chizik's bad years were plagued by lack of experience and discipline issues

-Gus's bad years have been plagued by underperformance on the field and lack of team chemistry

Chizik's last three seasons: played for a national championship, went 8-5, had a team fall apart with a losing record and got fired

Gus's: played for a national championship, went 8-5, on the verge of having a team fall apart and having a losing season

Take a step back and look at this situation objectively. How are the situations different? Everything in this business is about program direction. Chizik was released because there was the perception that things were going backward from year to year. We have to ask ourselves whether our team is truly improving at a reasonable rate if at all. So far this season, I'm not convinced that we are taking steps forward. We are last in the SEC west and have not won an SEC game in about a year. If we can't pull off at least one conference win and have not made substantial strides forward by the end of the season, Gus's seat is going to be pretty warm. If we get blown out by uga and or bama, it is going to be hot. That said, they usually say that a coach should have four years. Barring a total collapse of a finish, he'll get another year. However, I think he will really start to lose this fan base and team if they don't look substantially better in the coming weeks.

As a side note, I don't get the 2003 comparisons. We finished with a winning record and were in the middle of the sec west. This year, we will probably either finish 5-7 or 6-6, and are likely to finish with an sec west record that is equivalent to vandy's.

First off, Chizik is a defensive coach who relied upon an explosive offense to win games. His success came during the three years he had our current head coach as his offensive coordinator; the other three years he spent as a head coach netted him a total of 8 wins.

Taking a step back, I remember reports from the 3-9 year of 2012 about players being lackadasical because they knew full well that Malzahn left the way he did because of a power struggle between him and Chizik. And, either way, we won more games in the first half of this season than Chizik did in the entire 2012 year.

As for the 2003 comparison, we were massively hyped coming into the season (remember the Sports Illustrated prediction?), we fell flat early in the season, and we went into the Bama game at 6-5. Provided that we win one of the two remaining conference games before the Iron Bowl, that will happen again. An upset of Bama (at home, just like in 03) could well propel us to a higher tier bowl than any of us expect at this point (I was in Tampa for the Outback Bowl in January of 2010, when we entered at 7-5 to play Northwestern). We have a junior who is tall, lanky, and a former basketball player at quarterback, as well as four top notch running backs (remember that Brandon Jacobs was on that team as well as Caddy, Ronnie, and Tre Smith).

But hey, you're free to believe what you want.

[JBiGGiE 2,488]

What I don't understand is that many of the same people supporting Gus Malzahn were the same people calling for Chizik's head. Here's what I don't understand:

- in his first three years, Chizik's record was 30-10

- in Gus's first three years, his record will likely be 25-14

-Chizik inherited a team that was unbalanced with an oversized junior class and had a hard time recovering from the loss of so many upperclassmen in 2010

- Gus inherited a team of player that were recruited to play in his scheme

-Chizik's bad years were plagued by lack of experience and discipline issues

-Gus's bad years have been plagued by underperformance on the field and lack of team chemistry

Chizik's last three seasons: played for a national championship, went 8-5, had a team fall apart with a losing record and got fired

Gus's: played for a national championship, went 8-5, on the verge of having a team fall apart and having a losing season

Take a step back and look at this situation objectively. How are the situations different? Everything in this business is about program direction. Chizik was released because there was the perception that things were going backward from year to year. We have to ask ourselves whether our team is truly improving at a reasonable rate if at all. So far this season, I'm not convinced that we are taking steps forward. We are last in the SEC west and have not won an SEC game in about a year. If we can't pull off at least one conference win and have not made substantial strides forward by the end of the season, Gus's seat is going to be pretty warm. If we get blown out by uga and or bama, it is going to be hot. That said, they usually say that a coach should have four years. Barring a total collapse of a finish, he'll get another year. However, I think he will really start to lose this fan base and team if they don't look substantially better in the coming weeks.

As a side note, I don't get the 2003 comparisons. We finished with a winning record and were in the middle of the sec west. This year, we will probably either finish 5-7 or 6-6, and are likely to finish with an sec west record that is equivalent to vandy's.

I hate to nit-pick but, we did beat Kentucky a few weeks ago. There is a difference between struggling and collapsing. 2012 was a total collapse that was evident in progress from about mid-season onward. 2014 was a Defensive collapse that started about the time Jermaine Whitehead was suspended. But there does not appear to be any evidence of collapse from this team, and if anything the addition of Sean White and re-addition of Carl Lawson might be the glue that keeps both sides from falling apart.

Lastly, Georgia is very likely on the verge of falling apart. We have a very winnable game against the mutts.

*And what Red said ^^^*

[Rednilla 5,391]

Also, just for the record, I don't believe I was in the crowd calling for Chizik's head. In fact, I didn't have too much problem with Chizik at all until I started reading his book and saw little to no credit given to the other coaches, which (accurately or not) gave me the impression that he was specifically trying to trump up his own role in things and downplay how much Malzahn's offense did to win games for him as a head coach...

[AUBehaviorScientist 0]

What I don't understand is that many of the same people supporting Gus Malzahn were the same people calling for Chizik's head. Here's what I don't understand:

- in his first three years, Chizik's record was 30-10

- in Gus's first three years, his record will likely be 25-14

-Chizik inherited a team that was unbalanced with an oversized junior class and had a hard time recovering from the loss of so many upperclassmen in 2010

- Gus inherited a team of player that were recruited to play in his scheme

-Chizik's bad years were plagued by lack of experience and discipline issues

-Gus's bad years have been plagued by underperformance on the field and lack of team chemistry

Chizik's last three seasons: played for a national championship, went 8-5, had a team fall apart with a losing record and got fired

Gus's: played for a national championship, went 8-5, on the verge of having a team fall apart and having a losing season

Take a step back and look at this situation objectively. How are the situations different? Everything in this business is about program direction. Chizik was released because there was the perception that things were going backward from year to year. We have to ask ourselves whether our team is truly improving at a reasonable rate if at all. So far this season, I'm not convinced that we are taking steps forward. We are last in the SEC west and have not won an SEC game in about a year. If we can't pull off at least one conference win and have not made substantial strides forward by the end of the season, Gus's seat is going to be pretty warm. If we get blown out by uga and or bama, it is going to be hot. That said, they usually say that a coach should have four years. Barring a total collapse of a finish, he'll get another year. However, I think he will really start to lose this fan base and team if they don't look substantially better in the coming weeks.

As a side note, I don't get the 2003 comparisons. We finished with a winning record and were in the middle of the sec west. This year, we will probably either finish 5-7 or 6-6, and are likely to finish with an sec west record that is equivalent to vandy's.

I hate to nit-pick but, we did beat Kentucky a few weeks ago. There is a difference between struggling and collapsing. 2012 was a total collapse that was evident in progress from about mid-season onward. 2014 was a Defensive collapse that started about the time Jermaine Whitehead was suspended. But there does not appear to be any evidence of collapse from this team, and if anything the addition of Sean White and re-addition of Carl Lawson might be the glue that keeps both sides from falling apart.

Lastly, Georgia is very likely on the verge of falling apart. We have a very winnable game against the mutts.

*And what Red said ^^^*

I don't disagree with your points. I'm not completely giving up yet. I'm just saying that I don't get the sunshine pumpers who are saying that nothing is wrong, nor do I buy the "we were overhyped" explanation. Auburn never gets respect, and, on the one year that we do, we struggle. I'd understand a couple of close losses to good teams, but the "we were overhyped" explanation does not explain how we looked bad against two bad out of conference opponents or how we haven't won an sec game (aside from against a pretty average Kentucky team) in a year. Something was clearly off early in this season.

I guess my point is that it is too early to get excited. We have 4 games left. Those four games are essential. If those go well (even if we don't win), Gus has something to build on. With a losing record, Gus's seat will start to warm up (I.e. We better look much much better next year or he's gone). If we get blown out in any of them, the outward perception will change from "we are improving steadily" to "we are falling apart." If that happens in 2 or 3 of the four, Jacobs will be under extraordinary pressure to get rid of him

[aubfaninga 16]

Isn't this the same thread as the open letter thing that was locked?

They're all kind of the same.

Lol. I mean I don't have a problem but the other guy's caught a little grief I thought....oh well none of my business I guess

The thread I started was deemed divisive (and it was) so the mods pulled the plug on it.

Some of the mods know when I have wrote something to be abrasive. The mods have a direction they like these forums to go and I respect them for it. Titan usually has a good read on me when I post things to purposely take jabs and/or fish for "bit dogs" (aka trolling).

Rednilla is giving the same message in a much better way. WAR EAGLE RED

[Raven_tiger 5]

Look....

Nick Saban is the only coach at a major program that hasn't gone through a slump. I'm not a fan of his style or personality but he does get results on the field. Urban Meyer is a phenomenal coach as well. After winning two championships in 3 years he went 8-5 and left Florida. Maybe he saw that he couldn't win over the next few years with the talent they had, so he moved on.

The truth is we should have been competing to win the NC last year and we didn't. That is what stands out to me. Right now we have more NFL players on active rosters from the 2015 NFL Draft than any other college program. That tells me that we had a lot of talent last year and we lost them to the NFL. So it makes sense that we might have a down year this year. It also means that we should have done more last year with that talent.

Good post.

Last year was a huge underachievement. But this year is even more disappointing because AU is sitting dead ass last in the cellar of the SEC West with an abysmal 1-8 record vs SEC opponents.

I disagree. Last year was a much bigger disappointment because that team imploded in an almost embarrassing fashion after the aTm loss. We got our pants pulled down in front of the nation and we were wearing the proverbial dirty drawers.

This year, this team hasn't quit. The record is worse, to be sure, and some of the coaching decisions have been mind-boggling, but this team is improving every week (albeit in fits and starts).

It seems worse this year because of the expectations at the beginning. The problem now is that half of the fan base is still working off those obviously flawed (in hindsight) expectations and using that as a measuring stick to grade the team. If nothing else, the near-loss vs Jax St should have shattered that.

This is an ironic situation where sunshine pumping and realism get to come together. It's time to recalibrate the expectations for the year - we are not, and were not, NC contenders, so what we get to do now is compare the team against itself each week to watch the progress as the team gets better and the young players grow into their positions. It's not nearly so fun to watch as an undefeated season, but it also doesn't have to be doom and gloom and skies of fire. Sit back and try to enjoy something. Have a beer and cheer on the Orange and Blue.

For the record, I still don't think the preseason ranking was flawed as much as it was a best-case prediction. If things had come together for JJ in Baton Rouge, this would be a VERY different team. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to find much to build off of (which I contend has a great deal to do with his hesitancy in keeping the ball on the read option/inverted veer, provided that he's had the option to keep it a fair amount of the times he's handed it off), which led to White taking over at QB.

Personally, I think this time has been good for Jeremy. He's been able to watch from the sidelines after having been The Man (which he never was in his starts prior to this season, since it was always in a backup capacity), as well as getting in to build his confidence as a runner back up to where it should be.

Time will tell, of course, and since Sean has not taken the job and made it his own to this point, it seems likely that Johnson will get another full shot (if not during this season then during the spring...when I expect there to be a heck of a QB competition unless one of them just plays lights out for the rest of the year), so we'll probably get to find out.

I just hope things go well for whomever is taking the snaps.

Also, I REALLY don't get the comparisons to 2012. If you want to compare it to one season, I'd say 2003 would be closer, considering that we had bloated preseason rankings, a highly talented junior QB who'd never been The Man before (and the guy I've always compared JJ to, though I do wish he would run the ball more...just like I always thought Campbell should have done the same in college), and a very disappointing season that ended much better than it began.

Here's hoping the comparison continues all the way through, both for the rest of this season and for the one that follows...lol.

2003 is not similar. If we had kept Petrino as OC we win the NC, no question. Team was loaded with NFL talent. But inserting Nall as OC (thanks CTT) killed that season. 2014 is not 2003.

Also foe those who say that we were *close* (8pts or less) in our loses. Use the same rationale on our wins: 3 of our 4 wins were by 7pts or less (with SJSU was not decided until late) some we could easlily be looking at a 1-7 season w a loss to Jacksonville State. If we had lost to Jax State would there be the same level of support for CGM? It almost happened.

[JFDTiger80 790]

I fully support CGM and thanks Red for the post. I also believe that CWM will turn the defense around. Everyone wants things to change immediately, but this rarely happens. Expectations were so high coming into this year and we all quickly saw that we were overrated. 2 things led to the expectations. People thought JJ was going to be a terrific QB and he has not been, and CWM was going to give AU back the defenses we were used to in the 1980's.

With the high powered offenses out these days, I am not sure we will ever see defenses like we had in the 80's again, but wouldn't it be great to have a defense like Florida's right now. Anyway, War Eagle!

[NoALtiger 3,866]

I think the big thing that has some folks going bonkers is we are 1-7 out of our last 8 SEC games. Not sure that ever happened to Dye or Bowden or whoever you wanna compare Gus to. That's why I never like comparing coaches to each other- rarely is it apples to apples.

Bowden's last season on the Plains, Auburn went 3-8, 1-7 in the SEC. He was only the coach for the first half of that season, but it's still worth noting.

Also, you can include the 3 game SEC losing streak that we ended last season on if you like, but please do remember to mention that we were ranked in the top 5 prior to that...in spite of having to blitz virtually any time we wanted to pressure the QB, which is what opened our defense to being gashed the way it was.

Dye may or may not have had a similar stretch (I don't know, because I was 8 when he last coached at AU), but the point I was getting at is that instead of focusing on the negative, and thus perpetuating negativity within the fan base, perhaps we should keep our eyes on the future and see if maybe this season is inverted from last season with a win over TAMU flipping the script and getting us to 8-4 with wins over UGA and UAT to finish out the season.

Will that happen? I don't know. Realistically, probably not.

But I've been around long enough to know better than to EVER give up on my Auburn Tigers.

Oh I agree, it's ludicrous to suggest Gus should be replaced. Just stating some possibilities why some folks have gone looney on us. As to including the league record from last season, I think you have to since it plays a role in why some folks are where they are at in their thoughts. I notice you included Terry's last season which of course got him shown the door and is remarkably similar to Gus, hopefully that outcome doesn't happen again. Different circumstances which is why I said I don't like comparing coaches records to each other- rarely apples to apples.

[kickemintheB3 5]

I also agree with Red's post, we need to give CGM some time. For anyone who is wanting to get rid of Malzhan, there is another issue here that needs to be thought about. If we fire CGM after this season, who the heck would possibly want to take the job? What are we saying to any possible candidate? "We aren't going to give you any time to build a program, you come in and win right away (especially against Saban, who is now intrenched and has had his process rolling for a few years now)...and consistantly...or you're fired!"

So we keep CGM for a year or two more...what happens? Well, one of two things, he figures things out and we start winning games (this is the outcome I believe will happen) OR, worst case, he can't seem to pull things together and we have to let him go.

Now, let's say the second scenario takes place. Any potiential hire will see that we are willing to give someone enough time to put something in place and get things rolling and NOT have a kneejerk reaction and fire them.

IMHO, of course.

[AUBehaviorScientist 0]

I also agree with Red's post, we need to give CGM some time. For anyone who is wanting to get rid of Malzhan, there is another issue here that needs to be thought about. If we fire CGM after this season, who the heck would possibly want to take the job? What are we saying to any possible candidate? "We aren't going to give you any time to build a program, you come in and win right away (especially against Saban, who is now intrenched and has had his process rolling for a few years now)...and consistantly...or you're fired!"

So we keep CGM for a year or two more...what happens? Well, one of two things, he figures things out and we start winning games (this is the outcome I believe will happen) OR, worst case, he can't seem to pull things together and we have to let him go.

Now, let's say the second scenario takes place. Any potiential hire will see that we are willing to give someone enough time to put something in place and get things rolling and NOT have a kneejerk reaction and fire them.

IMHO, of course.

The opposite could also happen. We could continue to digress, players could transfer out, and commitments could jump ship leaving a team of underdeveloped upperclassmen and untalented lowerclassmen. Perception of program direction is everything.

[aubfaninga 16]

I also agree with Red's post, we need to give CGM some time. For anyone who is wanting to get rid of Malzhan, there is another issue here that needs to be thought about. If we fire CGM after this season, who the heck would possibly want to take the job? What are we saying to any possible candidate? "We aren't going to give you any time to build a program, you come in and win right away (especially against Saban, who is now intrenched and has had his process rolling for a few years now)...and consistantly...or you're fired!"

So we keep CGM for a year or two more...what happens? Well, one of two things, he figures things out and we start winning games (this is the outcome I believe will happen) OR, worst case, he can't seem to pull things together and we have to let him go.

Now, let's say the second scenario takes place. Any potiential hire will see that we are willing to give someone enough time to put something in place and get things rolling and NOT have a kneejerk reaction and fire them.

IMHO, of course.

The opposite could also happen. We could continue to digress, players could transfer out, and commitments could jump ship leaving a team of underdeveloped upperclassmen and untalented lowerclassmen. Perception of program direction is everything.

Very true that these things could happen but just by judging the players I don't see this being a problem this year.

Not a mass exodus at least. Could fail to land some recruits but the ones attached to Auburn, coaching staff, and/or current players I feel will trust this slump will not last.

But that is only my "perception" based on how the team still fights and the player interviews.

[Rednilla 5,391]

I don't disagree with your points. I'm not completely giving up yet. I'm just saying that I don't get the sunshine pumpers who are saying that nothing is wrong, nor do I buy the "we were overhyped" explanation. Auburn never gets respect, and, on the one year that we do, we struggle. I'd understand a couple of close losses to good teams, but the "we were overhyped" explanation does not explain how we looked bad against two bad out of conference opponents or how we haven't won an sec game (aside from against a pretty average Kentucky team) in a year. Something was clearly off early in this season.

I guess my point is that it is too early to get excited. We have 4 games left. Those four games are essential. If those go well (even if we don't win), Gus has something to build on. With a losing record, Gus's seat will start to warm up (I.e. We better look much much better next year or he's gone). If we get blown out in any of them, the outward perception will change from "we are improving steadily" to "we are falling apart." If that happens in 2 or 3 of the four, Jacobs will be under extraordinary pressure to get rid of him

You know, by your logic, something was "clearly off" early in the 2010 season, too. We beat Mississippi State by 3 points. Then Clemson took us to overtime (I was at that game, and I remember a couple of friendly Clemson fans offering the parting encouragement to just beat South Carolina the next week, and we'd call it even...lol). Then we beat Kentucky by just a field goal (wasn't that the game where Cam and the offense had the ball for the entire third quarter because of a perfectly executed onsides kick?).

Perception of program direction is everything.

So why are you trying to ensure that the perception from WITHIN the fan base remains as negative as possible, when you yourself mentioned in your previous post that the "outside perception" will be that we are falling apart if we get blown out? If you are truly in the field of psychology, shouldn't you know better than to perpetuate the most negative perception you can muster from right here at ground zero of the AU fan base?

And my words like silent raindrops fell,

and Echoed in the wells

of Silence...

[keesler 5,924]

This is ground zero of the AU fan base - and the fan base is irritated, disgruntled, and quite frankly confused with this program the last 12 months. We can nit-pick the excuses and causes for the lack of success to death. But the reality is that the dang Mississippi teams have jumped ahead of us and it's sickening.

Due to the most recent contract extension Gus obtained, coupled with an increased buyout of +$14mm, Gus is safe for a while. The man is training on the job and it will take at least 3 additional years of experience, and exposure to the SEC to get his feet under him.