Expectations by Cubelic

[aubaseball 2,592]

Hey 64,

Wasnt Auburn on probation in baskekball as late as 2004. You are missing the point, i am not shouting for the removal of Gus, all i am saying is we should want to win as bad as they want to win

[Texan4Auburn 1,626]

Hey 64,

Wasnt Auburn on probation in baskekball as late as 2004. You are missing the point, i am not shouting for the removal of Gus, all i am saying is we should want to win as bad as they want to win

Have you ever looked at the violations of some of our probation's? Few of them are a joke. Fact a majority of them would have resulted in 2 game suspensions in the modern era. Lol Alabama raked in more violations during one of their offenses than we did in 5 or so of ours. Hell their entire athletic program (like every single sport I think) went on probation for the textbook thing.

That basketball thing was a cluster. Was more about Mark Komora and AAU stuff than it was about Auburn.

If we wanted to win that bad then we would be stripped of a NC, a Heisman, and would probably just be coming off of probation. NCAA spent two years trying to make something with Cam stick and they didn't even walk away with a secondary violation and people wanted blood.

[AU64 10,122]

Hey 64,

Wasnt Auburn on probation in baskekball as late as 2004. You are missing the point, i am not shouting for the removal of Gus, all i am saying is we should want to win as bad as they want to win

Check the list....talking football I thought .....1993-94 was the last year....Bowden years following Dye.

http://www.footballg...ncaa-probation/

as for basketball, probably nobody but AU knew about those problems....crazy charges as described above and not that anyone seems to remember , bama was on probation for football for most of a 16 year span just ending a few year ago.

[JBiGGiE 2,488]

While I do agree that I'm glad Auburn doesn't have Ricky Bobby syndrome like them folks up north, but it bothers me to no end that my former Bammer of a boss would say stupid things like "Alabama competes for championships, and Auburn fans are happy with 8-4 seasons". I think it's more about respect. They can hate us as much as their heart desires but we should never allow Bama or their brain dead fanbase to have reason to disrespect us.

[mickeyspano 40]

I agree with much of what you say but your statement that Auburn cannot compete with Alabama seems a little puzzling to me. I looked up the iron bowl records since the Bear left and Auburn seems to be competing pretty well. Auburn leads 18-16 since Bryant left and 9-5 since 1999. Yes Alabama has won 4 of the last 6 and Bama has more national championships but I think we do a decent job of competing.

[bikeriderga 134]

Do a I agree? In one word, NO!

[Auburnfan91 1,407]

While I do agree that I'm glad Auburn doesn't have Ricky Bobby syndrome like them folks up north, but it bothers me to no end that my former Bammer of a boss would say stupid things like "Alabama competes for championships, and Auburn fans are happy with 8-4 seasons". I think it's more about respect. They can hate us as much as their heart desires but we should never allow Bama or their brain dead fanbase to have reason to disrespect us.

Unfortunately what that former Alabama boss of yours said is close to accurate. Many folks here would be satisfied with an 8-4 season, especially now after the season has unfolded like it has. It's always the glass half full with many on here, regardless of the circumstances . The culture at Auburn is one of a partly divided fanbase. There's the sunshine pumpers who will spin almost anything positively until the bitter end. Then there's the realist/pessimistic Auburn fans who are more critical than positive when the team underperforms and whose opinions are accused of being bammerish because they won't accept mediocrity or excuses for why things don't work out when we're not as good as we're hyped up to be.

If a majority of the fanbase doesn't think Auburn should keep up with the Sabans, then I'll be more than happy if we were to cut the salaries and not pay coaches as much to keep up with the Sabans. I'll tolerate 8-4 if we're only paying the head coach $2-2.5 million a year. I won't tolerate it if it's almost $4 million and near the top 10 in pay. I won't tolerate paying top notch money for mediocre results no matter the reason for the underperformance. It's not like the downward trend started this season, it started last season.

Auburn doesn't have to keep up with the Sabans or the current "market pay" for coaches. I mean we've now hired 2 unrproven head coaches in football and have paid a lot of money for a roller coaster of inconsistency.

[NewDay22 0]

Fortune favors the bold. - Pliny the Elder

Fortune favors the prepared mind. - Dr. Louis Pasteur

No team will always be in contention. If we prepare well and endeavor to act boldly, good things will happen when the opportunities arise.

strong post sir.

add to that webster. luck is when preparation meets opportunity.

[NewDay22 0]

While I do agree that I'm glad Auburn doesn't have Ricky Bobby syndrome like them folks up north, but it bothers me to no end that my former Bammer of a boss would say stupid things like "Alabama competes for championships, and Auburn fans are happy with 8-4 seasons". I think it's more about respect. They can hate us as much as their heart desires but we should never allow Bama or their brain dead fanbase to have reason to disrespect us.

Unfortunately what that former Alabama boss of yours said is close to accurate. Many folks here would be satisfied with an 8-4 season, especially now after the season has unfolded like it has. It's always the glass half full with many on here, regardless of the circumstances . The culture at Auburn is one of a partly divided fanbase. There's the sunshine pumpers who will spin almost anything positively until the bitter end. Then there's the realist/pessimistic Auburn fans who are more critical than positive when the team underperforms and whose opinions are accused of being bammerish because they won't accept mediocrity or excuses for why things don't work out when we're not as good as we're hyped up to be.

If a majority of the fanbase doesn't think Auburn should keep up with the Sabans, then I'll be more than happy if we were to cut the salaries and not pay coaches as much to keep up with the Sabans. I'll tolerate 8-4 if we're only paying the head coach $2-2.5 million a year. I won't tolerate it if it's almost $4 million and near the top 10 in pay. I won't tolerate paying top notch money for mediocre results no matter the reason for the underperformance. It's not like the downward trend started this season, it started last season.

Auburn doesn't have to keep up with the Sabans or the current "market pay" for coaches. I mean we've now hired 2 unrproven head coaches in football and have paid a lot of money for a roller coaster of inconsistency.

careful.you may end up on bench

[DAG 33,976]

While I do agree that I'm glad Auburn doesn't have Ricky Bobby syndrome like them folks up north, but it bothers me to no end that my former Bammer of a boss would say stupid things like "Alabama competes for championships, and Auburn fans are happy with 8-4 seasons". I think it's more about respect. They can hate us as much as their heart desires but we should never allow Bama or their brain dead fanbase to have reason to disrespect us.

Unfortunately what that former Alabama boss of yours said is close to accurate. Many folks here would be satisfied with an 8-4 season, especially now after the season has unfolded like it has. It's always the glass half full with many on here, regardless of the circumstances . The culture at Auburn is one of a partly divided fanbase. There's the sunshine pumpers who will spin almost anything positively until the bitter end. Then there's the realist/pessimistic Auburn fans who are more critical than positive when the team underperforms and whose opinions are accused of being bammerish because they won't accept mediocrity or excuses for why things don't work out when we're not as good as we're hyped up to be.

If a majority of the fanbase doesn't think Auburn should keep up with the Sabans, then I'll be more than happy if we were to cut the salaries and not pay coaches as much to keep up with the Sabans. I'll tolerate 8-4 if we're only paying the head coach $2-2.5 million a year. I won't tolerate it if it's almost $4 million and near the top 10 in pay. I won't tolerate paying top notch money for mediocre results no matter the reason for the underperformance. It's not like the downward trend started this season, it started last season.

Auburn doesn't have to keep up with the Sabans or the current "market pay" for coaches. I mean we've now hired 2 unrproven head coaches in football and have paid a lot of money for a roller coaster of inconsistency.

Very accurate.

[auburnatl1 4,892]

While I do agree that I'm glad Auburn doesn't have Ricky Bobby syndrome like them folks up north, but it bothers me to no end that my former Bammer of a boss would say stupid things like "Alabama competes for championships, and Auburn fans are happy with 8-4 seasons". I think it's more about respect. They can hate us as much as their heart desires but we should never allow Bama or their brain dead fanbase to have reason to disrespect us.

Unfortunately what that former Alabama boss of yours said is close to accurate. Many folks here would be satisfied with an 8-4 season, especially now after the season has unfolded like it has. It's always the glass half full with many on here, regardless of the circumstances . The culture at Auburn is one of a partly divided fanbase. There's the sunshine pumpers who will spin almost anything positively until the bitter end. Then there's the realist/pessimistic Auburn fans who are more critical than positive when the team underperforms and whose opinions are accused of being bammerish because they won't accept mediocrity or excuses for why things don't work out when we're not as good as we're hyped up to be.

If a majority of the fanbase doesn't think Auburn should keep up with the Sabans, then I'll be more than happy if we were to cut the salaries and not pay coaches as much to keep up with the Sabans. I'll tolerate 8-4 if we're only paying the head coach $2-2.5 million a year. I won't tolerate it if it's almost $4 million and near the top 10 in pay. I won't tolerate paying top notch money for mediocre results no matter the reason for the underperformance. It's not like the downward trend started this season, it started last season.

Auburn doesn't have to keep up with the Sabans or the current "market pay" for coaches. I mean we've now hired 2 unrproven head coaches in football and have paid a lot of money for a roller coaster of inconsistency.

Very accurate.

I completely disagree. UAT, UGA, UF, and LSU categorically require less coaching talent to achieve high results (making the saban+uat combo formidable). Geography, state school, history and other factors just make it simpler to recruit at superior level. Put the same coaching talent and salaries at lsu and arky and you will get very different results.

Imo auburn requires more coaching talent to achieve the same results as UGA (which is a real indictment of Uga's coaching history). That doesn't excuse or explain this season, but to say "the degree of difficulty of the dive" at auburn isn't higher than bama just isn't accurate. We have to be better than uat to break even (that isn't to say a bad coach such as Shula can't screw up an easier assignment). Bottom line: I don't think auburn "settles" for 8-4 seasons, we are a very, very demanding bunch - it's just damn harder to achieve consistent championship results. Ie. LSU practically has a monopoly on talent-rich state - kinda easier to be consistent at a higher level there.

Btw I've always enjoyed pessimists wrapping themselves up as being realistics and then inevitably positioning glass half fulls as cheer leaders/happy-land/sushine pumpers. Obviously we all see ourselves as the realistics, but the issue with pessimism is that it often turns to panic and ready-fire-aim reactions, and a coaching carosole culture and program instability results....

[keesler 5,924]

You know, if we didn't have a roster of 4-5* players, if AU's recruiting hadn't been in the top 10 for years, if we didn't have seniors with years of experience, and a QB with 3 yrs in the system riding the pine.....I could understand folks blaming the "built-in" advantages of UGA/LSU/UA/UF. But AU has the talent, and the facilities, AU's forking top money for salaries.

I want to feel like AU belongs in the tier of LSU/UF/UAT, not in the MSU/OleMiss/Arky tier. In the last 12 months, AU has found a way to fall below ALL of those teams?

[AURealist 2,185]

Fortune favors the bold. - Pliny the Elder

Fortune favors the prepared mind. - Dr. Louis Pasteur

No team will always be in contention. If we prepare well and endeavor to act boldly, good things will happen when the opportunities arise.

strong post sir.

add to that webster. luck is when preparation meets opportunity.

Very good. I recognized that quote when I read it, though couldn't place it (many many years since my last Latin class). It's actually a paraphrase of Roman Philosopher Seneca's “Luck is where the crossroads of opportunity and preparation meet.”

Very nice find.

Thanks.

[Sully to Beasley 643]

This article is trash. It reeks of Auburn's so called "inferiority complex" when compared to bammer. It sounds like it was written by harvey updyke, not a former AU player. bammer's success under sabear is because of dirty recruiting orchestrated by the rec, sabear and his minions. Auburn is just as capable of winning championships as bammer, especially on a level playing field which has not been present since 2008. As for the so called miracles he mentioned, I would like to remind him that in the '13 Georgia game, Auburn dominated the entire game. The "miracle catch" at the end of the game would have meant nothing had Auburn not been the dominant team that night. Also, Auburn was TIED with bammer when the kick-six play occurred. I am confident Auburn would have won the game in overtime had the play not happened to win the game.

I for one will not accept a little brother mentality when compared to updykeU. No sir, Auburn is fully capable of competing with the bammers in all sports.

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,662]

So Auburn should just be complacent just like the other period of time when Alabama was god-tier? We wouldn't be expecting championships if we didn't have the talent to do so

[Weegle777 78]

Fan expectations are really meaningless. Unless only half the stadium shows up. When 87,000 keep showing up every Saturday, the message to the administration is that 8-4 is acceptable. That is harsh to say, but it is true. The only thing that really makes a difference is money.

[lca408 366]

Agree with pretty much everyone here. Auburn fans are not going to be "happy" with an 8-4 finish even if it means we beat A&M, Georgia, and Alabama. As fun as that would be, it still would not make up for the fact that Auburn fell flat on it's face this year and it took this long to correct it.

The problem is not that Auburn wasn't undefeated this year. The problem isn't that Auburn failed to win the SEC West. Plenty of well coached and very talented programs fail to meet those expectations every year, especially in a tough league like the SEC. To expect to be in Atlanta every single year and playing in the national championship every single year is absurd and any case like that - Alabama in 2011 and 2012 for instance - is more the outlier than the norm. The problem is consistency. Yes you will have down seasons every now and then and yeah you may lose to your rival occasionally, but you don't expect a program that recruits as well as we do and has the facilities we do, and the supposedly awesome staff that we do to fall flat on their face so hard and fast that it's the embarrassment of the league. Auburn has been so wildly inconsistent in the last 7 years its difficult to accept. Even if you admit or accept that 2013 was more luck or providence that evidence of a great or complete team, you still have to admit that Auburn was at least good enough to will itself to the point where immaculate deflections and kick-sixes could still occur for Auburn to win. The Tigers didn't score all 34 points against Alabama on Chris Davis' return. Ricardo Louis didn't put 40+ on the board when he bounded into the endzone against Georgia after catching the tipped pass. Auburn was good enough to be in the position to win in the first place, meaning the team was more than capable of being there on it's own merit and not just due to luck.

So that makes it all the more difficult to reconcile that Auburn could fall so far from 2013/2014 to this year without something else going on. Even late last year when the defense lost its' ability to be even remotely competent on the field, Auburn was a solid football team with a good offense and at least decent leadership. Yes Auburn is younger this year and losing 3 games by 8 points is usually indicative of a talented team that just doesn't have the experience or quality leadership yet. But the thing is, Auburn shouldn't be in that position. Even with the youth, Auburn returned many experienced players on both sides of the ball who should have been leaders. Instead, they've been replaced by true and redshirt freshmen who show more spirit and guile than they ever have this year. And the coaching staff doesn't seem to have a clue on how to respond. Call it whatever you like, but this is not normal for a program like Auburn. It's never been normal before now, even when the Tigers had the occasional down year. There's no reason that any Auburn fan should accept the 2015 season and be content with it, whether we finish strong or not. With these kinds of ticket prices, with this kind of commitment to success in football, there's no reason Auburn should look this hapless and be at rock bottom of the division.

[lionheartkc 6,150]

I don't know how many times people are going to need this explained to them, but there are very few if any teams that could perform at a high level when they lose their main defensive star, their top wide receiver threat and their star QB in the same season. Look at Georgia over the past few seasons. They lost key players and went from top contender to middle of the road or worse until they got those players back, and in their case, it's always been on one side of the ball.

We all knew the defense was a dumpster fire that Muschamp had to fix, but we could have gotten through that except Auburn was the victim of a perfect storm of unforeseeable issues, possibly combined with a coach having a bit too much compassion. No one could have foreseen Carl going down in the first half of the first game. No one, and we're not just talking coaches, we're talking players, media who watched practices, no one could see that Jeremy was going to freeze up under the lights. And while A LOT of people saw that Duke was an issue, I can't fault Gus for giving him one last chance when he had at least one, some say two separate position coaches lobbying for the kid.

So, can we PLEASE get past the "how can we be this bad?" syndrome. We play in the freaking SEC and the top players we were counting on are out for one reason or another. That's how. Barring a rash of injuries, it will be fixed next year and we will be back to winning instead of just coming close.

[DAG 33,976]

While I do agree that I'm glad Auburn doesn't have Ricky Bobby syndrome like them folks up north, but it bothers me to no end that my former Bammer of a boss would say stupid things like "Alabama competes for championships, and Auburn fans are happy with 8-4 seasons". I think it's more about respect. They can hate us as much as their heart desires but we should never allow Bama or their brain dead fanbase to have reason to disrespect us.

Unfortunately what that former Alabama boss of yours said is close to accurate. Many folks here would be satisfied with an 8-4 season, especially now after the season has unfolded like it has. It's always the glass half full with many on here, regardless of the circumstances . The culture at Auburn is one of a partly divided fanbase. There's the sunshine pumpers who will spin almost anything positively until the bitter end. Then there's the realist/pessimistic Auburn fans who are more critical than positive when the team underperforms and whose opinions are accused of being bammerish because they won't accept mediocrity or excuses for why things don't work out when we're not as good as we're hyped up to be.

If a majority of the fanbase doesn't think Auburn should keep up with the Sabans, then I'll be more than happy if we were to cut the salaries and not pay coaches as much to keep up with the Sabans. I'll tolerate 8-4 if we're only paying the head coach $2-2.5 million a year. I won't tolerate it if it's almost $4 million and near the top 10 in pay. I won't tolerate paying top notch money for mediocre results no matter the reason for the underperformance. It's not like the downward trend started this season, it started last season.

Auburn doesn't have to keep up with the Sabans or the current "market pay" for coaches. I mean we've now hired 2 unrproven head coaches in football and have paid a lot of money for a roller coaster of inconsistency.

Very accurate.

I completely disagree. UAT, UGA, UF, and LSU categorically require less coaching talent to achieve high results (making the saban+uat combo formidable). Geography, state school, history and other factors just make it simpler to recruit at superior level. Put the same coaching talent and salaries at lsu and arky and you will get very different results.

Imo auburn requires more coaching talent to achieve the same results as UGA (which is a real indictment of Uga's coaching history). That doesn't excuse or explain this season, but to say "the degree of difficulty of the dive" at auburn isn't higher than bama just isn't accurate. We have to be better than uat to break even (that isn't to say a bad coach such as Shula can't screw up an easier assignment). Bottom line: I don't think auburn "settles" for 8-4 seasons, we are a very, very demanding bunch - it's just damn harder to achieve consistent championship results. Ie. LSU practically has a monopoly on talent-rich state - kinda easier to be consistent at a higher level there.

Btw I've always enjoyed pessimists wrapping themselves up as being realistics and then inevitably positioning glass half fulls as cheer leaders/happy-land/sushine pumpers. Obviously we all see ourselves as the realistics, but the issue with pessimism is that it often turns to panic and ready-fire-aim reactions, and a coaching carosole culture and program instability results....

I couldn't even get pass the first sentence. Alabama had mediocre after mediocre coach and it ended up with mediocre seasons, until they went out and got the best. UF had spurrier and Urban Meyer, but when they weren't there they were just decent or average. UGA, despite their shortcomings, have been consistently contending in the east. BTW, I don't know if you read up on this, but BB has one of the most lucrative salaries in the SEC at Arkansas. They are pretty average to say the least. Are you saying that for AU to achieve the status of a UF, LSU, UGA that we need a top tier coach? TT auburn teams were able to upset UF twice with Urban Meyer there and he has to be 1a and 1b in coaching with Nick Saban. No, we just need to maximize our talent like other schools have been doing and stay consistent with coaching. AU is considered to be one of the SUPER 6 schools in the SEC. That same history, geography and superior recruiting lines benefit AU as much as the other schools you just named.

[lca408 366]

One could say the same thing about 2012 too. No one could have foreseen the defense continuing to be so bad, no one could have predicted that Kiehl Frazier would freeze up under the lights, etc.

And yes, Carl was injured and that was unexpected but it doesn't help that there was literally no one else behind him that could step up to the plate and give anything close to the same effort or ability. That's a failure of recruiting, foresight, and development. You don't go into a season banking on your star defensive end/linebacker being and playing at 100% all year. You prepare for contingencies. Unfortunately no one was there for the contingency plan. Again, that's a failure of this staff to get someone who was even serviceable. Granted, guys like Devonte Lambert and Kennion haven't really panned out but you have a lot more opporunities to recruit and bring in better players AND develop them. That didn't happen and Carl was our only ace in the hole.

But you see similar problems all over. Maybe it's a problem with development that old coaches didnt know how to fix. That's something you should know when you hire the guy to begin with. Mismanagement of personnel and development led to a lot of the problems we have now, and that's on both Chizik and Malzahn.

But I'm not all doom and gloom either. I believe Malzahn is a good coach but I also agree with what WdeWde has said before and Golf has hinted at - Malzahn is a new head coach and still learning on the job and therefore, kind of in over his head. Just because we may get 1 or 2 star players back doesn't mean we're gonna be 2010 good immediately. To expect perfection is crazy but I refuse to apologize for requesting some consistency and competence at least and not have something as embarrassing as the LSU game happen again, regardless of whether we have injuries or not.

[Win4AU 4,052]

Saban inherited a good team from Shula and after the first year proceeds to mow down the competition. 9-3 I believe is the worst record trey have had since 2007.

Gus inherited a talented but bad team and turns them into a championship contender year 1. 3 top 10 recruiting classes later on top of great classes under Chizik and things are ok and not great. I think this is the thing that bothers most fans. I personally think this is a bump in the road and Auburn will return to 9-3 or better the next couple seasons but there shouldn't be any more surprises like this season.

[Tiger 8,818]

^ Shula was fired for a reason. They were not a good team.

[AUBehaviorScientist 0]

With friends like this Cubelic, who needs enemies. Sounds like he worships at the feet of Saban.

You realize he played for Auburn, right?

He's just a guy that's willing to take off his o&b glasses and give his honest opinion. I don't always agree with him, but he is one of the few truly unbiased analysts out there.

[Tiger 8,818]

I said and maintain that 8-5 needs to be AU's absolute floor, but it might be unrealistic to expect 10,11 win seasons to be the norm because we have only had one coach EVER have back to back 10+ win seasons. That is a pretty sad statistic considering that AU is a top 15 destination for coaches. We have never had a coach leave for another college job so the lack of b2b 10 win seasons is baffling to me.

[Win4AU 4,052]

^ Shula was fired for a reason. They were not a good team.

They had talent. Shula wasn't a terrible recruiter. Classes were 24, 18, 11.