Where do you stand with Gus?

[auburn4ever 1,266]

Can we please hire a REAL football coach.

[AUsince72 11,084]

40 minutes ago, aubiefifty said:

i would bet my last dollar that gus wants to be everything we want him to be and more. i hope he succeeds. i hate having to wade through the bash gus threads because he is not going anywhere and the remarks are not productive. they get old and repetitive. and i understand the frustration as well as anyone. i think part of the problem is saban wins every year and makes it seem easy which it really is not.

Yes, I get it.  Unfortunately, it's hard to not criticize what it critically lacking.  But most of us want him to succeed, trust me.

And I think it goes beyond saban and bammer's run as much as I mentioned in another thread, I'm sure that for y'all who live in leg-humper territory and bammer territory, dealing with their fans on a daily basis is relentless.  It only adds to the negative feelings that get vented here.

I'm lucky in that where I currently reside, all you hear is NFL talk.....  the SW Fla Gulf Coast is yankee-land so it's all pro sports.  ....and where I'm moving too soon, the beautiful hills of TN, you have Vols people who currently REALLY have a reason to bitch and moan over the last decade or so...haha!  They don't have time to worry about Auburn.

[ellitor 33,093]

3 hours ago, passthebiscuits said:

Who else would we get that would be any better?

Could have had Kirby Smart in 2013. Yes he may have gone to UGA later but that is not a given. Give him a chance to fall in love with AU & the community & who knows. He may not have gone to UGA when they were ready to let Richt go.

3 hours ago, passthebiscuits said:

Gus is the most successful coach Auburn has ever had. 

Not going to break down all the numbers but Pat Dye says hello.

[ellitor 33,093]

@auburnphan You forgot 2 more answer options.

Gus is doing a good job but Herb Hand left a crap show on the OL when he left basically screwing up the entire offense so far this season.

Gus is ok but I'd like to try to find better. Too bad we are stuck with him for 3 more seasons before his buyout gets low enough to let him go & look for a new coach.

[kevon67 2,368]

3 hours ago, Strychnine said:

 

I have a feeling that there was a lot more that led to the timing and execution of Lane Kiffin's airport firing than simply an embarrassing loss at Arizona State, and I doubt any of us will ever get the full story.  Kiffin was still a multi-millionaire, it is not like they drove him out into the desert and forced him to walk back to civilization.

Ole Miss was certainly not built for success when Orgeron arrived, and he really did little to change that in his brief time there.  We have no way of knowing if someone else could have done better at the time.  That said, when you just fired a guy with a 28-15 record at the airport, hiring a guy with a 16-27 record to replace him would be difficult to rationalize under the best of circumstances.  Being a guy that so obviously is more at home at LSU than USC did not help his case either.  It worked out well for him, I would say.

Agree.........and no doubt he is at home at LSU.......provided he wins........I guess seeing how he got USC to rebound from that loss........though if memory serves he did have a nasty loss in the end........just feel he earned more than walking papers.........but true really hard to see the future of program at USC with someone that out of place.

[TigerFanAU 586]

13 minutes ago, ellitor said:

Gus is ok but I'd like to try to find better. Too bad we are stuck with him for 3 more seasons before his buyout gets low enough to let him go & look for a new coach.

75% of his contract is guaranteed, so I'd say somewhere around 2022 is the most realistic time AU would make a HC change. I don't think he'll every lose more than 6 games simply because he's done an above average job recruiting, so we have the talent to complete.

[Tiger 8,826]

I don't think we are as bad as we showed against Arky. I think Gus utilized one of his signature "mail it in" gameplans where he just tries to force things and not show anything on film.

I don't like that style considering we have gaping holes in our offense that need to be worked out and rolling out gameplans like this is a direct detriment to the development of our team.

 

Don't get me wrong. All the complaints are valid as heck IMO. But with Gus things will never be as good as they seem, nor will they be as bad as they seem. He has an uncanny ability to look terrible at times (and to his credit, he has yet to lose his team because of this -- they keep fighting for him) but he also tends to fall back to Earth quickly when things look insanely good.

[ellitor 33,093]

22 minutes ago, TigerFanAU said:

75% of his contract is guaranteed, so I'd say somewhere around 2022 is the most realistic time AU would make a HC change.

It's actually roughly a bit over 60% at $30 mil. I've seen from people connected a move could come as early as after 2020.

22 minutes ago, TigerFanAU said:

I don't think he'll every lose more than 6 games

Won't take that much if we continue 8-5ish average seasons.

22 minutes ago, TigerFanAU said:

he's done an above average job recruiting,

For all his fault's recruiting isn't one of them. To have a top 10 class every year in his tenure before the last class, given AU is not the primary state school, is damn impressive. The biggest problems roster management wise have been retention & development.

[TigerFanAU 586]

Just now, ellitor said:

It's actually roughly a bit over 60% at $30 mil.

Don't tease me with this.

Every article I've read said 75%. However, I realize the small, fine print of the legal contract could be different than what the newspapers are reporting.

[triangletiger 1,599]

1 hour ago, auburn4ever said:

Can we please hire a REAL football coach.

Okay, I'll bite.  Who would you like to hire?  Be realistic with your answer; we're not getting Saban or Urban Meyer or Kirby Smart. 

[DAG 33,983]

11 minutes ago, triangletiger said:

Okay, I'll bite.  Who would you like to hire?  Be realistic with your answer; we're not getting Saban or Urban Meyer or Kirby Smart. 

You aren’t going to get a proven coach. They are legitimately only 3 proven coaches. I get why Auburn signed Gus to the extension but don’t be fooled. Gus needed Auburn too. I don’t think he ever wanted to go to Arkansas. He truly used them to get a better contact . But I will say this, he is going to have to win more than 8-9 games a year with his contract . Your expectation should be relative to your contract IMO.

[keesler 5,924]

16 hours ago, auburnphan said:

A college/NFL capable one.  In all honesty I trust Gus to choose a good OC to install one.  Personally I want a Lane Kiffin type who can adjust his offense at all times and not be locked into a system.

Gus will not break away from his offensive philosophy, he doesn't know how.   And he no longer has the leverage/notoriety of being an offensive guru/genius/innovator, he can't pull an OC of an elite caliber that would agree to come into a situation where he'd have little control or authority break away from Gus' pre-determined system.  If OC's across the country that have paid any attention to Gus' team in the last 5 yrs they know he is stubborn as a mule, rigid, and set in his ways.

 

[eulessau 115]

5 hours ago, AUsince72 said:

I think that I speak for most (at least a few haha) of us that loves Gus and want him to succeed.  We just keep hoping against hope that he'll find a dynamic OC and fully step back and let him run the O like he clearly let's CKS run the D.

Unfortunately, I guess that would be like a loving father having to watch a step dad raise his child their way.  Pretty melodramatic, I know, but it seems that strong in Gus to me.

Gus is an not only an offensive minded head coach, but he is one that basically invented an offense.  He is never going to totally turn over his offense to his coordinator (frankly, I wouldn’t want him to).  What he needs is to do is find a coordinator that understands and agrees with his philosophy but can blend some new twists and refinements into it.  I’m not sure Chip is that guy.

Those that say Gus should step away from the offense completely don’t seem to understand how this works.  That won’t, and shouldn’t happen as long as he is our head coach.  I realize that him being gone is what some ultimately want,   but I don’t feel that way.  Hopefully, this team will continue to grow and improve.  Hopefully, Gus will continue to grow and improve.  I believe both will happen.

[McLoofus 35,182]

18 minutes ago, eulessau said:

What he needs is to do is find a coordinator that understands and agrees with his philosophy but can blend some new twists and refinements into it.

If there is one person in the country who fits this description better than Chip Lindsey, it's... Rhett Lashlee.

 

 

[Strychnine 1,802]

1 hour ago, kevon67 said:

Agree.........and no doubt he is at home at LSU.......provided he wins........I guess seeing how he got USC to rebound from that loss........though if memory serves he did have a nasty loss in the end........just feel he earned more than walking papers.........but true really hard to see the future of program at USC with someone that out of place.

 

If you are still talking about Orgeron with the bit about walking papers, he did not get fired.  He resigned after he was passed over for the head coach job, when USC hired Steve Sarkisian from Washington.  What really sucks for Orgeron is that the same thing nearly happened to him again at his very next job, just a few years later.  When LSU fired Les Miles for losing to us, he found himself as interim head coach again.  I do not think he was LSU's first choice to replace Miles.

One thing is certain:  If I were a head coach, I would never consider hiring Ed Orgeron as an assistant in any capacity.  Having him on staff means I am getting fired midseason after any embarrassing loss.

[keesler 5,924]

21 hours ago, weagl1 said:

I just don’t think what Freeze did should place him off limits as a coordinator.  As a head coach yes but not as a coordinator.   I can understand Briles because he covered up abuse by his players.  

Freeze whether he was complicit or not, in the eyes of Sankey is poison to the SEC.  Now Freeze swears he had no idea what his own staffers were doing.....But when you have the Asst Athletic Director actively recruiting football players and he devises a network/communication system coordinating recruits to program Boosters which lands your program on multi-year probation, extensive sanctions and a 2 yr bowl ban, then the SEC Commissioner thinks your ass should be off limits in any capacity in this conference.  

For how long, who knows?  But when the King of the conference (Saban) asks permission to hire Hugh Freeze in an analyst position on his staff and Sankey says forget about it - odds are Freeze is thought of as toxic right now.  And it had very little to do with Hugh ordering prostitutes in his after hours escapades on his company phone. 

Now, why hasn't any other team outside the SEC sought Freeze's services?  He's a great offensive guy, he proved that at OM - so why is he still stomping the grounds on his "Redemption - Revival" tour and not roaming the sidelines somewhere, anywhere in college football?

 

[AUsince72 11,084]

29 minutes ago, eulessau said:

Gus is an not only an offensive minded head coach, but he is one that basically invented an offense.  He is never going to totally turn over his offense to his coordinator (frankly, I wouldn’t want him to).  What he needs is to do is find a coordinator that understands and agrees with his philosophy but can blend some new twists and refinements into it.  I’m not sure Chip is that guy.

Those that say Gus should step away from the offense completely don’t seem to understand how this works.  That won’t, and shouldn’t happen as long as he is our head coach.  I realize that him being gone is what some ultimately want,   but I don’t feel that way.  Hopefully, this team will continue to grow and improve.  Hopefully, Gus will continue to grow and improve.  I believe both will happen.

I can't argue at all.  Matter of fact a am hypocritical in my "Gus wishes" in that I sometimes want him to step away from the O completely and other times I want him to take it back over completely.

I guess the biggest gripe, which I see is picking up steam amongst us lovingly known as "Gus Bashers" is simply, why the Hades doesn't he recruit the TYPES of players that fits the offense he so desperately wants to run??

"Mobile" pocket passers, scat-backs, and top tier wide receivers (not to mention the odd legit TE) don't fit his offensive philosophy AT ALL yet that's what they recruit.  He's running a Ground and Pound offense with Air Raid personnel.  It makes no sense to me.

[McLoofus 35,182]

2 minutes ago, Strychnine said:

What really sucks for Orgeron is that the same thing nearly happened to him again at his very next job, just a few years later.  When LSU fired Les Miles for losing to us, he found himself as interim head coach again.  I do not think he was LSU's first choice to replace Miles.

I believe you're correct. IIRC, he screwed up and won some games he wasn't supposed to post-Miles and the LSU PTB were painted into a corner. 

But it honestly wouldn't surprise me if he was Miles 2.0. Load the roster with your pick of the bayou's best, say some barely intelligible stuff (with Orgeron it's the accent, with Miles it was the words themselves), pass the gumbo and the bourbon around the locker room, and then get the hell out of the way. 

[kevon67 2,368]

3 minutes ago, Strychnine said:

 

If you are still talking about Orgeron with the bit about walking papers, he did not get fired.  He resigned after he was passed over for the head coach job, when USC hired Steve Sarkisian from Washington.  What really sucks for Orgeron is that the same thing nearly happened to him again at his very next job, just a few years later.  When LSU fired Les Miles for losing to us, he found himself as interim head coach again.  I do not think he was LSU's first choice to replace Miles.

One thing is certain:  If I were a head coach, I would never consider hiring Ed Orgeron as an assistant in any capacity.  Having him on staff means I am getting fired midseason after any embarrassing loss.

You are right........brother my memory has not served me well........not sure why I was thinking he was fired.......probably should have googled.......until 5 mins ago I would have bet and lost?

[eulessau 115]

10 minutes ago, McLoofus said:

If there is one person in the country who fits this description better than Chip Lindsey, it's... Rhett Lashlee.

 

 

There are actually quite a few people in college football who have liked, studied and somewhat adapted Gus’s offense (Chad Morris is an example).  I am sure he is aware of who most of these people are.  Some might still be coaching high school.

Just saying that there are probably a number of possible choices, but Gus would be the one who be the best judge of who.

[McLoofus 35,182]

2 minutes ago, AUsince72 said:

why the Hades doesn't he recruit the TYPES of players that fits the offense he so desperately wants to run??

"Mobile" pocket passers, scat-backs, and top tier wide receivers (not to mention the odd legit TE) don't fit his offensive philosophy AT ALL yet that's what they recruit.  He's running a Ground and Pound offense with Air Raid personnel.  It makes no sense to me.

Well, he does recruit normal-sized backs. KJ was one, AMart is one, Malik Miller is one, Alaric Williams was one, and he's recruiting a few of them in this cycle. And, of course, Tre Mason was his most productive back, and most folks here called Tre a scat-back even as late as a few games into the 2013 season.

As for top-tier WRs, I think that NCM showed that being a good WR and being a good blocker aren't mutually exclusive. If these poor kids are going to buy what Kodi's selling, then why not get the best? Other than, you know, being honest with recruits and ourselves about what this offense really is and is really capable of. But I don't think that makes Gus that different from most big time coaches.

You might be right about QBs, but I think that the whole problem is Gus not acknowledging his limitations. He probably thinks that he's giving the QBs all the tools they need, and they're just failing him. 

 

 

[McLoofus 35,182]

4 minutes ago, eulessau said:

Just saying that there are probably a number of possible choices, but Gus would be the one who be the best judge of who.

He picked the last two.

And last year, he had Lindsey on the sideline while his buddy Herb was in the box. So he had even more control over the offense and Lindsey had less. The offense dramatically improved immediately after Lindsey moved up to the box and gained more control of the offense.

 

[Tiger 8,826]

Gus will never give an OC the freedom he, himself, was so desperately was seeking when he was an OC. When everyone was in his corner pleading for Chizik to let Gus loose, or when Arky fans were begging for Nutt to let Gus do his thing he said "screw this" and bolted when he wasn't given free reign.

This aspect of it makes all of this even more maddening to me. The hypocrisy is a joke. He knows first hand what it's like to have the shackles on you as an OC. 

[kevon67 2,368]

17 minutes ago, McLoofus said:

I believe you're correct. IIRC, he screwed up and won some games he wasn't supposed to post-Miles and the LSU PTB were painted into a corner. 

But it honestly wouldn't surprise me if he was Miles 2.0. Load the roster with your pick of the bayou's best, say some barely intelligible stuff (with Orgeron it's the accent, with Miles it was the words themselves), pass the gumbo and the bourbon around the locker room, and then get the hell out of the way. 

LMAO.......I live hour and a half from Baton Rouge..........sad thing I understand him perfectly........Heck our Parish Priest ditched Irish accent to speak Coach O.?

[TigerFanAU 586]

3 minutes ago, Tiger said:

Gus will never give an OC the freedom he, himself, so desperately was seeking when he was an OC. When everyone was in his corner pleading for Chizik to let Gus loose, or when Arky fans were begging for Nutt to let Gus do his thing he said "screw this" and bolted when he wasn't given free reign.

This aspect of it makes all of this even more maddening to me. The hypocrisy is a joke. He knows first hand what it's like to have the shackles on you as an OC.

Even more maddening is that he wants to retain control, yet he won't recruit the dual-threat QB's he's had past success with, and furthermore keeps running the same style of offense despite not having a dual-threat QB. 

There's no reason AU shouldn't be landing one of the Top 3 dual-Qb's in country every couple of years based on the huge success of Nick Marshall and Cam Newton.