CFN.com, pete fiutak putting his foot in his

[AUHansel 0]

He says that we opted out of playing Southern Miss to play Western Kentucky. He says that we are scared of playing teams like that. He has no idea what he is talking about. I'm sick of reading crap like this.

Western Kentucky vs. Auburn, Sept. 24 & McNeese State vs. Southern Miss, Sept. 17

Alternative suggestion: Southern Miss vs. Auburn.

Auburn can never, ever whine again about getting knocked for playing The Citadel last year after ditching its scheduled date with Southern Miss and wussing out on a suggested game against Fresno State.

Link

[Texan4Auburn 1,626]

Sheesh, sports journalist will just print anything these days without the facts.

[Scottie4AU 0]

Seems like I am getting more and more practice writing these goobers to vent. I used to be so calm. My wife tells me that I must be preparing for my first film role: a remake of "Grumpy Old Men."

Here's my note to Mr. Fiutak:

Mr. Fiutak,

In a recent article on collegefootballnews.com (a site that I have come to really enjoy), you made a statement that was very troubling. The quote:

"Western Kentucky vs. Auburn, Sept. 24 & McNeese State vs. Southern Miss, Sept. 17

Alternative suggestion: Southern Miss vs. Auburn.

Auburn can never, ever whine again about getting knocked for playing The Citadel last year after ditching its scheduled date with Southern Miss and wussing out on a suggested game against Fresno State."

Auburn, like many other D-I programs, plays these frustrating 'cupcake' games. As a season ticket holder, I do not look forward to games with the Citadel or Western KY. However, my note to you today concerns your lack of attention to detail in the above quote.

First of all, the Citadel ended up on the schedule in 2004 because Bowling Green opted out of a contracted game to go to Oklahoma to play for more money. Now Bowling Green will not be confused with Florida State or Notre Dame anytime soon. But you wouldn't have had such a beef with that game...nor would I. Losing Bowling Green was not all Auburn's fault.

Second of all, your most egregious error comes by stating that AU is "ditching it scheduled date with Southern Miss." This statement could not be more wrong or more unfair. SOUTHERN MISS OPTED OUT OF THE GAME!!! My God, what does it take for a journalist to CHECK THE FACTS???

I know its only sports. I know that part of your job is to entice people to read your article. Maybe part of your job is to piss sports fans off. But is it asking too much to expect journalists...even sports journalists...to be professional?

This statement is on the same level as the reporter from Georgetown University who decided she knew enough about football and Coach Tuberville to critique our deciding to have a championship parade here in Auburn. The first email I ever sent to a reporter was to her. I was appalled at her lack of attention to detail...and she was a college student.

My question to you is: How am I supposed to feel about you?

I don't suppose you will find it necessary to respond to a unknown face in the crowd. However, I would welcome any response you wish to offer.

War Eagle,

Scott Greenwood

_______________________________

Somehow I feel better when I jet these notes...as if it matters for anything. Oh well, back to work!

War Eagle...always!

[tombigbeetiger 223]

i can't reprint my letter to him on this forum.....jenny would get mad again because it was pretty graphic and contained much name calling.....i gave him the ultimate insult, i called him a democrat

[Scottie4AU 0]

Seems like I am getting more and more practice writing these goobers to vent.  I used to be so calm.  My wife tells me that I must be preparing for my first film role:  a remake of "Grumpy Old Men."

Here's my note to Mr. Fiutak:

Mr. Fiutak,

   In a recent article on collegefootballnews.com (a site that I have come to really enjoy), you made a statement that was very troubling.  The quote:

"Western Kentucky vs. Auburn, Sept. 24 & McNeese State vs. Southern Miss, Sept. 17

Alternative suggestion: Southern Miss vs. Auburn.

Auburn can never, ever whine again about getting knocked for playing The Citadel last year after ditching its scheduled date with Southern Miss and wussing out on a suggested game against Fresno State."

Auburn, like many other D-I programs, plays these frustrating 'cupcake' games.  As a season ticket holder, I do not look forward to games with the Citadel or Western KY.  However, my note to you today concerns your lack of attention to detail in the above quote.

    First of all, the Citadel ended up on the schedule in 2004 because Bowling Green opted out of a contracted game to go to Oklahoma to play for more money.  Now Bowling Green will not be confused with Florida State or Notre Dame anytime soon.  But you wouldn't have had such a beef with that game...nor would I.  Losing Bowling Green was not all Auburn's fault.

     Second of all, your most egregious error comes by stating that AU is "ditching it scheduled date with Southern Miss."  This statement could not be more wrong or more unfair.  SOUTHERN MISS OPTED OUT OF THE GAME!!!  My God, what does it take for a journalist to CHECK THE FACTS???

      I know its only sports.  I know that part of your job is to entice people to read your article.  Maybe part of your job is to piss sports fans off.  But is it asking too much to expect journalists...even sports journalists...to be professional?

      This statement is on the same level as the reporter from Georgetown University who decided she knew enough about football and Coach Tuberville to critique our deciding to have a championship parade here in Auburn.  The first email I ever sent to a reporter was to her.  I was appalled at her lack of attention to detail...and she was a college student.

       My question to you is:  How am I supposed to feel about you?

I don't suppose you will find it necessary to respond to a unknown face in the crowd.  However, I would welcome any response you wish to offer.

War Eagle,

Scott Greenwood

_______________________________

Somehow I feel better when I jet these notes...as if it matters for anything.  Oh well, back to work!

War Eagle...always!

148779[/snapback]

Wow, that was fast. Mr. Fiutak's response to my encouraging note:

"I changed the wording on it. I didn't mean to make it sound like Auburn backed out on Southern Miss but that's the way it came across. Like I said, it's changed up now.

Thanks!

Fiu

CFN"

Didn't mean to make it sound like Auburn backed out??? What did he mean? Wonder what his English Comp professor thinks about that?

When will these guys learn to treat the TIGERS with a little respect? :huh:

[Proud Tiger 4,261]

Scottie....I wrote him too. When are tryouts for "grumpy old men" ?

[Tiger in Spain 0]

Scott, I got the same response. My letter to him was:

Pete,

Southern Miss opted out of the Auburn game, not the other way around as you innacurately stated in your article on College Football News. C'mon man, do a little research before you go throwing out garbage like that. Even though Auburn's strength of schedule was rated 5th toughest in the nation last season according to the NCAA, you guys can't get off the Citadel game. FSU plays them, yet you journalists give them a pass. LSU plays Appalachian State with nothing being said.

As far as "wussing out" on Fresno State, the issue was the date. Fresno didn't want to fill Southern Miss's spot on Auburn's schedule on the date vacated. They wanted the game to be on October 8th. However, that would have given Auburn their open date after only 3 games and left us playing 8 straight to end the season (4 of these on the road). With no rest during the heart of the SEC schedule in this scenario, Auburn wisely declined. Besides, the last time Auburn played the Bulldogs (1992), we beat them 62-0 (and caught some flak for playing them to boot).

War Eagle,

Glenn Newton

His response:

I changed the wording on it. I didn't mean to say Auburn backed out on Southern Miss but that's the way it came across. Like I said, it's changed up now. Wanting an off-week doesn't justify playing WKU over Fresno.

Thanks!

Fiu

CFN

[WarDlowe 39]

So am I missing something or does "ditching its date with Southern Miss" directly say that we backed out of the game? Unprofessionalism at its finest. I wonder if that Georgetown girl ever apologized in any way after the rash of emails she got from AU fans.

[AUHansel 0]

alright...here's what it says now.

Western Kentucky vs. Auburn, Sept. 24 & McNeese State vs. Southern Miss, Sept. 17

Alternative suggestion: Southern Miss vs. Auburn.

Auburn can never, ever whine again about getting knocked for playing The Citadel last year after wussing out this year on a suggested game against Fresno State when the scheduled date with Southern Miss fell through (wanting an open date doesn't justify scheduling Western Kentucky).

I little better but we still didn't wuss out of a game with Fresno State. At least someone is listening!

[Shug2003 1]

I do think that scheduling Ball State and Western Kentucky COULD hurt us in the national ranking picture without a doubt. If you look at Bammer's schedule, the only "gimmee game" would seem to be Utah State. Hey, whatever the powers that be want because I don't play a down and it doesn't put beans on my table...hehehe

Just don't bitch when it hurts!

[WaReAgLe83 0]

I just sent my first letter to collegefootballnews.com; I don't see how his 'change' to the wording made any difference. All it takes is a knee-jerk reaction to blame US for the game falling through, y'know? Wait a minute...did Scarbinsky help him with his research?

[mcgufcm 3,869]

i've actually been having a little email back and forth with him. i called him out for not really noting the circumstances of fresno state's offer (you change you schedule, and we'll be there). i criticized him for not doing research enough to give an actual suggested game. i pointed out that by leaving southern miss as the suggested game he was still implying that we didn't want to participate in that game when, in fact, southern punked out on us. i told him that by leaving that as his "suggestion" he was like all the little countries in the u.n. that abstain on controversial votes instead of trying to contribute. i think i called him botswana or some other small member nation. he's actually written me back twice. kinda refreshing despite the fact that his article sucked.

[AU Tailgating Rules 0]

HERE'S MINE, I don't normally write to idiot journalists, but this really got to me!!

Subject

Your Slam On Auburn Football

Pete,

As a journalist, it is your responsibility to REPORT THE FACTS!!!!!!! In your spring football 2005 column you have insinuated that Auburn has "backed down" from a game against the vaunted Southern Miss Eagles. There is nothing further from the truth, and you know it. Due to schedule conflicts with their new conference schedule, Southern Miss asked us (Auburn) if they could back out of our previousely scheduled match-up in 2005 (yes that's right, Southern Miss asked out of the game).

In 2005 Auburn plays the following opponents:

Georgia Tech

Mississippi State (bad sec team but no pushover) I'll lay money they would beat Stanford

South Carolina (remember Spurrier is GOD) they would beat stanford too

Arkansas (should have beat the media darling Texas last year) they would beat Stanford too

LSU (need I say More) might not beat Stanford (hey we hate LSU)

Ole Miss Stanford??????

Georgia (probably loses to Stanford, WE REALLY HATE GEORGIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Alabama (now these guys can't hold Stanfords Jock strap)

I challenge you to compare Oklahoma's, USC's, FSU's, Miami's, or any other schools schedule to ours. We may have added a Division 1AA school to the schedule to replace Southern Miss, but that does not take away the fact that we have to navigate our way through the SEC, where anyone can beat you on any given day. (hell, the back ups in the SEC could win the PAC 10 going away)

Just for good measure I am giving you USC's 2004 schedule ( I figured you might need it, given that you don't know how to do your own research). I challenge you to name any top 10 teams that USC's opponents beat last year. By the way Auburn beat 4, 10 win teams last year (USC beat 1), and one more 9 win team. If thats not strength of schedule than you my friend are an idiot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

USC 2004 FOOTBALL SCHEDULE

Virginia Tech 10-3 ( we beat them too)

COLORADO STATE 4-7

Brigham Young 5-6

Stanford 4-7

CALIFORNIA 10-2

ARIZONA STATE 9-3

WASHINGTON 1-10 ( I'm betting the Citadel gives them a hell of a game)

Washington State 5-6

Oregon State 7-6

ARIZONA 3-8

NOTRE DAME 6-6 UCLA 6-6

USC's opponents went a combined 66-69 in 2004 (Auburn's opponents were a combined 83-69). My high school team could win the pac 10 conference!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! From now on, when you make fun of Auburn's schedule, you have no credibility with real fans.

In conclusion, lay off Auburn, pick on FSU (by the way they play the citadel this year, and I'm sure if they go undefeated you will casually forget all the crap you gave Auburn last year) I wish all you media folks would quit trying to make news and stick to just reporting it!!!!!!!!!!!!! REMEMBER, IF IT CAN HAPPEN TO DAN RATHER IT CAN HAPPEN TO YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

STICK TO THE FACTS AND DO A LITTLE BETTER RESEARCH BEFORE YOU GO SLAMMING MY TIGERS.

WAR EAGLE

[Tiger in Spain 0]

I added:

Pete,

  Your correction still didn't get the story straight. The Southern Miss deal didn't "fall through", Southern Miss BACKED OUT of the contract. Big difference. Your rewording still implies Auburn being the bad guy here. Auburn didn't "wuss out" on anyone, especially Fresno State. The schedule wouldn't allow the game to be played on a date favorable for both teams.

  Somewhere hidden amongst the hatred espoused in your article about Auburn is a valid point; teams earn no respect by beating inferior opponents. Valid point indeed, but where you and most others err is when you insinuate (as you did in your piece on CFN) Auburn is the only team in the country that schedules weaker opponents. Nebraska and Kansas State wrote the book on this tactic yet they were not vilified by the media like Auburn has. Florida State regularly schedules patsies, but you journalists can't seem to utter one bad word against Saint Bobby. Get the point? The point of contention Auburn fans have with your piece is the drama queen manner in which you presented it. No sane sports fan can honestly say that SoS is the issue here. The pollsters last year would've voted their BCS ballots the way big media influences them to vote whether Auburn played The Citadel or the New England Patriots. The bottom line is they got the matchup they wanted all season, USC and Oklahoma. USC got the gift of being picked preseason #1 because of the result of the 2003 season. Oklahoma.....well, it's hard to explain their lofty preseason ranking based on the result of the 2003 Sugar Bowl. It is going to be interesting to see where the latest media darling, Bob Stoops, finds his team after the Sooners annual showing in the Orange Bowl. By the way, I hear Ashlee Simpson sent the Sooners thank you cards for letting her come out of the Orange Bowl as the second suckiest performance of the night.

  I'm not saying the Trojans didn't deserve the MNC this past season; the point I'm making is that Auburn had no chance what-so-ever of making the Orange Bowl, regardless of who they played. The schedule excuse is just a cop out by the media to justify keeping a team that defeated more ranked opponents and had the tougher schedule out of the top 3 teams in the final BCS ranking this past season out of the big game.

  Given your fumble here, one can only assume that you got your journalism degree (provided you have one) from either LSU or the University of Alabama.

Regards,

Glenn

[Proud Tiger 4,261]

I added:

Given your fumble here, one can only assume that you got your journalism degree (provided you have one) from either LSU or the University of Alabama.

149013[/snapback]

That could be but if so he is really throwing rocks in a glass house since:

bama plays Middle Tenn. this year and Hawaii, La. Monroe, and Fla. International in 2006

LSU plays Appalachian St. this year and UL-Layfayette and Northern Ill. in 2005