Auburn top 10 job?

[Tigerpro2a 5,650]

I was listening to the locked on AU podcast this morning. Zac Blackerby and his partner made a claim that Auburn isn't really a top tier job in College Football and that it may not be desirable for top coaches. I have always heard this claim over the years, and our coaching hires seem to line up as well, but why would a top tier coach not want to come coach at AU?

They would have access to a recruiting hotbed here in the south. They would be able to coach and recruit against the very best. Some coaches might not find that a good thing and for those guys...I do not want them. I want a coach who wants to beat Saban and Bowl cut. To be the best you have to beat the best. 

 

If you go back to 1998 the start of the BCS, There are only 12 schools that have played for multiple NCs.

Florida ST, Miami, Oklahoma, USC, Texas, Florida, Ohio State, LSU, Bama, Auburn, Oregon and Clemson. Roughly 10% of FBS schools.

There are only 5 more teams that have even played for one NC. Georgia, Tennessee, Virgina Tech, Nebraska, and Notre Dame.

 

I believe Auburn also has more undefeated seasons the last 30 years than any other school. So when I see this, I see there is a clear pathway to success. Auburn has done more than 90 percent of other teams have not. Auburn has also done this while Saban was there. If we count those teams during the Saban/Bama Era...Only AU, Bama, Clemson, Oregon, LSU have played for multiple titles. Ohio State, Notre Dame, and Georgia being the only other teams to make it period. 

AU pays top 5 money for coaches. I feel like we have been limited in our coaching searches because we have limited ourselves. Just like Clemson, I think AU could blow up with the right coach. Now, I don't know if we are making the playoff every year, but we can definitely be a 10+win per season team. 

 

[chizhead 618]

At this moment? No, its not top 10

[wildlife alumni 310]

I would think AU’s reputation with the Money people that control everything would be the main problem for a top coach. They would want control of their program. Also what is killing Texas.

[AUloggerhead 2,356]

5 minutes ago, Tigerpro2a said:

I was listening to the locked on AU podcast this morning. Zac Blackerby and his partner made a claim that Auburn isn't really a top tier job in College Football and that it may not be desirable for top coaches. I have always heard this claim over the years, and our coaching hires seem to line up as well, but why would a top tier coach not want to come coach at AU?

They would have access to a recruiting hotbed here in the south. They would be able to coach and recruit against the very best. Some coaches might not find that a good thing and for those guys...I do not want them. I want a coach who wants to beat Saban and Bowl cut. To be the best you have to beat the best. 

 

If you go back to 1998 the start of the BCS, There are only 12 schools that have played for multiple NCs.

Florida ST, Miami, Oklahoma, USC, Texas, Florida, Ohio State, LSU, Bama, Auburn, Oregon and Clemson. Roughly 10% of FBS schools.

There are only 5 more teams that have even played for one NC. Georgia, Tennessee, Virgina Tech, Nebraska, and Notre Dame.

 

I believe Auburn also has more undefeated seasons the last 30 years than any other school. So when I see this, I see there is a clear pathway to success. Auburn has done more than 90 percent of other teams have not. Auburn has also done this while Saban was there. If we count those teams during the Saban/Bama Era...Only AU, Bama, Clemson, Oregon, LSU have played for multiple titles. Ohio State, Notre Dame, and Georgia being the only other teams to make it period. 

AU pays top 5 money for coaches. I feel like we have been limited in our coaching searches because we have limited ourselves. Just like Clemson, I think AU could blow up with the right coach. Now, I don't know if we are making the playoff every year, but we can definitely be a 10+win per season team. 

 

True statement.  And apparently, AU is in a class by itself when it pays top dollar to those coaches when they're shown the door.  

[Barnacle 9,065]

I'd say we are probably in the top 10 - but if you were to create tiers, I think we are outside the first two, for sure. 

[DAG 34,216]

It won’t be once they finally decide to get rid of Gus, but I also think optics control that too. People consider TU to be top tier but they can’t ever seem to get top candidates. I don’t think it’s because they don’t have the money or resources but more so because the leadership. A lot of people will pass up the opportunity to avoid the headache . And by a lot of people I mean the proven coaches. However, I think the candidates we’ve named would jump at the opportunity. I don’t think the likes of Stoops or Urban would come here at all.

[gravejd 3,282]

Are we a top 10 job?? I dunno about that but we are a top job. We pay very well to coaches and assistants, we are in the premier conference, we are uniquely situated geographically where we are able to recruit well without being the state school, we have a rabid fan base but we have reasonable expectations (i think, some may argue this lol), we have top notch facilities, and we have a winning history and brand. 

Yes there are some disadvantages....maybe we care a little too much and our main rivals are top notch in talent right now. But no job is perfect out there and if a coach is scared to come here and compete with bama and uga then that is a great reason to not hire them as a coach. 

[nixtosanders94 2,180]

9 minutes ago, wildlife alumni said:

I would think AU’s reputation with the Money people that control everything would be the main problem for a top coach. They would want control of their program. Also what is killing Texas.

I agree with this plus some other factors such as maybe a little unfair outside perception created by some media over the years.  Those outside the immediate area still look at bama as far superior to Auburn as an overall program even before saban.  bama has had boosters interfere in their program and wandered through a wilderness from about '95-07 as a second tier program but for some reason the media still looked for reasons to hate on Auburn. The really frustrating thing is if Gus hadn't been so damn stubborn about his offense over these years he could very well have made this a top 10 type job/program even with bama's success.  But we know how that has gone. 

[1auburn1 1,120]

It's hard to be a top 10 job when you have 3 of the top 10 jobs on your schedule every year.    That's the only thing that works against AU and why I've heard many coaches shy away from the AU job - too much year competition year in and year out.      There's a lot kushier jobs out there that pay just as well.    You have to get someone who's willing to work at it 365 days a year and not take a backseat to the other programs.   A real BA.

[Auburn02 130]

33 minutes ago, wildlife alumni said:

I would think AU’s reputation with the Money people that control everything would be the main problem for a top coach. They would want control of their program. Also what is killing Texas.

100% this - looking at the division/recruiting opportunities then yes, it should be a top 10 job. But any potential coach worth their salt is well-informed enough to know what they'd have to deal with, and what they (won't) have control over and it would be an understandable deal breaker for many of the best.

[BurtonJ20 61]

I don’t know about top 10 currently but Auburn would be on any top 15 job list in the country. 

[AUght2win 6,932]

May want to reconsider listening to that podcast. And no, he isn't trolling.

 

[ellitor 33,284]

It's not a top 10 job & rarely has been except for the 80s, 2010, & 2013. Most of our time it is & has been a top 12 to 15 job.

[AUwent 3,794]

9 minutes ago, ellitor said:

It's not a top 10 job & rarely has been except for the 80s, 2010, & 2013. Most of our time it is & has been a top 12 to 15 job.

Yep.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/247sports.com/LongFormArticle/Ranking-Top-25-jobs-in-college-football-Alabama-Crimson-Tide-LSU-Florida-Texas-Oklahoma-Georgia-USC-148917540/Amp/

Doesn’t mean we should just be grateful for someone like Rhett Lashlee just because of who our rivals are.

[DAG 34,216]

1 minute ago, AUwent said:

Yep.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/247sports.com/LongFormArticle/Ranking-Top-25-jobs-in-college-football-Alabama-Crimson-Tide-LSU-Florida-Texas-Oklahoma-Georgia-USC-148917540/Amp/

Doesn’t mean we should just be grateful for someone like Rhett Lashlee.

Rhett lashlee next Auburn coach . Total Auburn move 

[AURealist 2,185]

Heh.  No.  

[homersapien 11,812]

Clemson is a excellent example.

History and tradition are important, but "top tier" reflects more recent performance.

[AUght2win 6,932]

12 minutes ago, ellitor said:

It's not a top 10 job & rarely has been except for the 80s, 2010, & 2013. Most of our time it is & has been a top 12 to 15 job.

Eh to me there isn't much difference between a top 10 and top 15 job. Those positions will shuffle a lot year to year anyway. In a 15 year span Clemson went from like a top 30 job to arguably #1 (in terms of facilities, money, support, recruiting, and lack of competition).

I don't think our candidate pool is any different being #13 than being #9. 

[ellitor 33,284]

8 minutes ago, homersapien said:

Clemson is a excellent example.

History and tradition are important, but "top tier" reflect more recent performance.

Clemson has undoubtedly made itself into a top tier job & likely stay there while Dabo is there because their recruiting has improved tremendously.

[AUFriction 1,179]

Complicated question. I'd say we qualify as a top 10 program. But a top 10 job? Probably not. We have the prestige to be there, but the following hold the program back:

- Boosters that won't keep their hands out of the program. Any coach that comes here has to keep the boosters happy, and has to manage them. 

- Perceptions of a rabid fanbase. You can challenge whether we've become rabid, but the perception outside the program and especially outside the southeast is that our fans are too quick to flip on a coach and that we have excessively lofty expectations. 

- Our schedule. We have to play LSU, UGA, and Bama every year, and they are rivalry games. Set LSU's year aside for a second. All three of these teams are powerhouse programs on or above our level. One of them has just completely dominated this decade of football. Most coaches wouldn't come here because it is too hard to run the table here. 

- Recruiting. We have an uphill battle recruiting in this state. Most of our players come from Georgia and Alabama. A large percentage of football players in those two states didn't grow up Auburn fans. They grew up UGA and Bama fans. Auburn doesn't tend to pull as large of a sidewalk fanbase as these other schools, so, unless the player's parent went here, they probably grew up rooting for one of our rivals. Therefore, most of the players we sign, we have to convince them to NOT go to the school they always wanted to play for. That's a hard sell. Making it worse, Saban and Smart are exceptional recruiters. Put simply, it is hard to recruit here right now, and I'm honestly shocked we've been able to recruit as well as we have. Since recruiting is so important to college football success, a lot of coaches will go where they have a better chance of landing top prospects. 

- Money. We pull in a lot of it, but not as much as some of our rivals do. It doesn't help that we keep buying out coaches. If we choose to move away from Gus, the boosters are going to have to put up some money for the buyout. Otherwise, there's an even worse chance of us hiring worse.

 

Of course, there's people on this board that don't want to hear any of this that just assume we can land any coach we want. 

[ellitor 33,284]

8 minutes ago, AUght2win said:

Eh to me there isn't much difference between a top 10 and top 15 job. Those positions will shuffle a lot year to year anyway. In a 15 year span Clemson went from like a top 30 job to arguably #1 (in terms of facilities, money, support, recruiting, and lack of competition).

I don't think our candidate pool is any different being #13 than being #9. 

Off the top of the my head here are the jobs I would take before AU without even thinking about it. (No particular order)

Texas
Florida
USC
UGA
Bama
Ohio St.
Clemson
OU
LSU
Texas A&M
ND
Michigan
Penn St.

There is a substantial difference between most of those program & AU right now in terms of facilities, money, support, recruiting & lack of competition ()Non SEC Schools)

[auburnphan 6,050]

It was when we gave Gus an extension, we were still running off the Championship window.   Gus has now broken that window, boarded it up and pissed all over it.

[AUFriction 1,179]

18 minutes ago, AUwent said:

Yep.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/247sports.com/LongFormArticle/Ranking-Top-25-jobs-in-college-football-Alabama-Crimson-Tide-LSU-Florida-Texas-Oklahoma-Georgia-USC-148917540/Amp/

Doesn’t mean we should just be grateful for someone like Rhett Lashlee just because of who our rivals are.

I just read this, and it just looks like someone's badly formed opinion, and probably partially influenced by last year's team (notice they have LSU as #1). They describe the current state of the program, but say nothing about why that job is desirable. In fact,  they list bama as #2 (pun intended), but say that Saban's replacement will have their work cut out for them. They also put Clemson up high, which I don't really see. They were a mid-tier program before Dabo, who was an internal promotion and a largely unknown name prior to getting the HC job. That was largely because that area isn't much of a recruiting hot bed, and, before Dabo, the best prospects in state that stayed in state went to USCe. We'll see what happens after Dabo, but I don't see them being that desirable of a program when they look for their next coach. 

[AUFriction 1,179]

1 minute ago, ellitor said:

Off the top of the my head here are the jobs I would take before AU without even thinking about it. (No particular order)

Texas
Florida
USC
UGA
Bama
Ohio St.
Clemson
OU
LSU
Texas A&M
ND
Michigan
Penn St.

There is a substantial difference between most of those program & AU right now in terms of facilities, money, support, recruiting & lack of competition ()Non SEC Schools)

Texas has some of the same problems we do right now, particularly with boosters. Long term, if someone can get them over the hump, I'd say it is above us, but not that above us. 

A&M has been a little up since Texas fell off. Who knows how long or if Texas will turn it around. But, if they do, I don't see A&M being that great of an option. Sure, you have the pull of being an SEC team, but you also have the struggle of playing Bama, LSU, and us every year. They do have a huge student body though, which equates to probably more money. I think I would put them in a place similar to Texas... More appealing than Auburn, but not a ton more appealing. 

The farther we get out from Paterno, the more I'm thinking Penn State just isn't the elite program I thought they were. I'd actually put them behind us. 

Other than that, I agree with the list. These schools have advantages that we just don't have, especially with the angry elf down the road. 

[AUwent 3,794]

According to r/CFB, an article that ESPN posted put CFB P5 jobs into five tiers (no ranking otherwise, just alphabetical order) put us in the same tier as:

FSU, Michigan, ND, Oregon, PSU, TAMU, and Washington.

 

 

~14 seems like a good spot for us. We’re certainly no lower than 17. But some of y’all act like we’re in Tier 4.