Recruiting & coaching

[Hank2020 3,226]

9 hours ago, Mikey said:

There never has been a time when AU fans or the administration were fine with one win in November. Until Harsin came along, AU hadn't had a losing season in eight years. While we all wanted better, it's not true that AU football has not been competitive. A winning record for eight consecutive years proves that the team has been competitive..

I agree with this summation. The move away from Malzahn was made to take us to a higher level than that 2nd tier SEC team we mostly wound up in. 

[shabby 1,958]

Every new coach that comes in has a priority problem to fix. Harsin was left with plenty of strengths in the rb qb and most of the defensive position groups. He had garbage on the the offensive line. This whole argument of he was left little to work with is tiresome. He completely failed to fix the most pressing problem. It was obvious he wasn't the right man for this job at the end of last season for this reason. People's need to blame Gus and look backwards allowed the very same people to overlook what was glaringly obvious. He doesn't relate to his players and he can't recruit on a way that will compete in this conference. 

[Mikey 16,777]

16 minutes ago, Hank2020 said:

The move away from Malzahn was made to take us to a higher level

As I've posted several times, complete with names and numbers, the average school in our position goes through four to five coaches before they hit on one they want to keep. Lets hope AU can do better than going through four coaches but it's not realistic to think we will do better. The dreamed for move to a higher level is up a bumpy set of stairs.

[Brad_ATX 13,654]

1 hour ago, AU-24 said:

On a sidenote: Brian Kelly, Jimbo Fisher, Brian Harsin, Burt Billiema (sp) and many others all say: life in the SEC West is really hard! Eight years in the SEC west, Gus was the second best coach in our conference. 

That's a bold statement considering Ed O won a national title with arguably the greatest team of all-time, but go off.

[Hank2020 3,226]

9 minutes ago, Mikey said:

As I've posted several times, complete with names and numbers, the average school in our position goes through four to five coaches before they hit on one they want to keep. Lets hope AU can do better than going through four coaches but it's not realistic to think we will do better. The dreamed for move to a higher level is up a bumpy set of stairs.

True, but staying in mediocrity is the penalty for not moving. Didn’t get it right this time but moving is correct decision IMO. Stats tell us that it averages 4 moves. Stats are historical numbers, not prophesies of the future. May take 1more move, may take 4 more, but gotta move if moving to next tier is a definite goal.

[Brad_ATX 13,654]

10 hours ago, Mikey said:

There never has been a time when AU fans or the administration were fine with one win in November. Until Harsin came along, AU hadn't had a losing season in eight years. While we all wanted better, it's not true that AU football has not been competitive. A winning record for eight consecutive years proves that the team has been competitive..

Not when 3 wins a year are purchased for $1M each.

You put too much stock into a winning record.  Take out the two division title years, which were good to great seasons, and GM was 24-25 in the SEC over the other 6 years.  That is not consistently competitive.

[Mikey 16,777]

3 minutes ago, Brad_ATX said:

You put too much stock into a winning record.

"Too much" is an opinion and I don't agree with yours.

9 minutes ago, Brad_ATX said:

Not when 3 wins a year are purchased for $1M each.

You, yourself, brought up the 6-4 regular season record in 2020. All ten of those games were against SEC opponents.

10 minutes ago, Brad_ATX said:

Take out the two division title years, which were good to great seasons,

One cannot take out a coaches' two best seasons and then say LOOK!

15 minutes ago, Brad_ATX said:

Take out the two division title years, which were good to great seasons, and GM was 24-25 in the SEC over the other 6 years.  That is not consistently competitive.

Something like 4-45 would be not competitive. Even with his two best seasons removed, 24-25 is by its very nature competitive.

[alabastertiger 617]

On 10/8/2022 at 11:01 PM, bigbird said:

It's okay, they can't find the right gap, defeat a block, or make a solo tackle to save their lives either.

Yes but ... no wait ... my bad you covered it all

[Brad_ATX 13,654]

6 minutes ago, Mikey said:

"Too much" is an opinion and I don't agree with yours.

You, yourself, brought up the 6-4 regular season record in 2020. All ten of those games were against SEC opponents.

One cannot take out a coaches' two best seasons and then say LOOK!

Something like 4-45 would be not competitive. Even with his two best seasons removed, 24-25 is by its very nature competitive.

If competitive to you is an average of 4-4 in conference 75% of the time, then your standards are low as hell.

And pay attention.  I brought up the 2020 season, which was not good mind you, because someone mentioned the spring of 2020 when discussing Harsin.

Edited October 10, 2022 by Brad_ATX

[aublue88 145]

Let's get back to why our starters on defense and Jarquez are covering punts and kickoffs.  No wonder they give out in the 4th quarter.  Is this normal?  What happened to Joko W.?  If our starters are playing this many minutes then the mounting injuries are starting to make sense.  I know we have a depth issue but surely there are back ups that can cover a punt or kickoff?

[EagleEye67 1,945]

21 hours ago, IronMan70 said:

He's got that coach speak down pat doesn't he. Too bad it doesn't mean anything. 

But he's jacked!   He squats a lot!   Just watch!

/s

 

Looks like Tarzan, coaches like Jane

Edited October 10, 2022 by EagleEye67

[Mikey 16,777]

8 hours ago, Brad_ATX said:

If competitive to you is an average of 4-4 in conference 75% of the time, then your standards are low as hell.

And pay attention.  I brought up the 2020 season, which was not good mind you, because someone mentioned the spring of 2020 when discussing Harsin.

You're the one who needs to pay attention. The reference to 2020 was "spring of 2020" and the #7 recruiting class that cycle. It was not in reference to Harsin. You didn't need to mention that Harsin was still in Boise. We all know that had Harsin been in Auburn then we wouldn't have had any #7 recruiting class.

Finishing 50-50 is by definition competitive. You need to change your idea of what the word competitive means. There are online dictionaries to help you with that.

Edited October 10, 2022 by Mikey

[Brad_ATX 13,654]

19 minutes ago, Mikey said:

You're the one who needs to pay attention. The reference to 2020 was "spring of 2020" and the #7 recruiting class that cycle. It was not in reference to Harsin. You didn't need to mention that Harsin was still in Boise. We all know that had Harsin been in Auburn then we wouldn't have had any #7 recruiting class.

Finishing 50-50 is by definition competitive. You need to change your idea of what the word competitive means. There are online dictionaries to help you with that.

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is the old Auburn mentality.  50/50 is "competitive" and thus fine.

[dyehardfanAU 2,117]

I find it odd that this person is still trying to defend Gus' tenure at AU.  It was bad when Gus was still on staff but it's just weird now.

[AU-24 3,119]

13 hours ago, aubaseball said:

So, should we give Rhett, Chip and whoever was OC in 2019 credit too?   And by the way, I said he was competitive with Alabama at home.   I didn’t mention 2010 because he wasn’t HC.   2013, took three missed field goals and a once in a lifetime play at the end to win.  2017, Auburn actually was the better team on the field and won the game straight up.   I don’t look at wins and loses and determine what kind of team auburn has.   For example,  this years Missouri game.   Scoreboard says win but AU shouldn’t have won.   That’s called being objective in looking at wins and loses.  

LOL! Being objective, as long as people agree with you. Lol

Edited October 11, 2022 by AU-24

[AU-24 3,119]

12 hours ago, aubaseball said:

You’re talking to yourself.  I’ve been watching football for a long time.   I know what the SEC is like.   Gus didn’t take advantage of taking a team to the national championship game and parlaying that into a top 5 program.  He actually took a better team the following year and made them worse.   If he were actually what you say he was, he would have turned success into something along the lines of what Clemson built.   Georgia wasn’t Georgia when Gus got the job.   If he was so good, why didn’t he establish recruiting in Georgia and Alabama?   Gus was an average coach and his 8-4 records bears that out.  If that is was what you wanted on average, then Gus was your guy.  
 

I hope you don’t think that I am fan of Harsin.   Believe me, I’m not.  I believed that auburn could have gotten better coaches in the last four coaching hires.  

So back to my point which is: if Harsin is the best we can do, we should’ve kept Gus until we can get someone better.

On a sidenote: what did LSU do after they won a Natty? One could also make the argument, they got worse! My point, the SEC West is hard and Gus was second best in our league.

 

Edited October 11, 2022 by AU-24

[aubaseball 2,676]

45 minutes ago, AU-24 said:

So back to my point which is: if Harsin is the best we can do, we should’ve kept Gus until we can get someone better.

On a sidenote: what did LSU do after they won a Natty? One could also make the argument, they got worse! My point, the SEC West is hard and Gus was second best in our league.

 

Side note #2: Ed O is not a good Head Coach.   He is better suited for an assistant position.   LSU won because of a sh$t load of talent on offense that season along with a new play caller from the pros.    If Gus was 2nd best, it was by default, and I don’t believe he was 2nd best during portions of his time.  Dan Mullen and Hugh Freeze are better coaches than Gus.    The Eye test tells me they do more with less.   Jimbo is better than Gus.   

[ertrader 206]

Around 2017 to 2018, when Kevin Sumlin, Joe Moorhead, Chad Morris, Matt Luke, and Ed Ogeron we’re all kicking around in the West, you could maybe argue he’d be 2nd. The West coaching lineup looks very different today

[AU-24 3,119]

1 minute ago, aubaseball said:

Side note #2: Ed O is not a good Head Coach.   He is better suited for an assistant position.   LSU won because of a sh$t load of talent on offense that season along with a new play caller from the pros.    If Gus was 2nd best, it was by default, and I don’t believe he was 2nd best during portions of his time.  Dan Mullen and Hugh Freeze are better coaches than Gus.    The Eye test tells me they do more with less.   Jimbo is better than Gus.   

We can agree to disagree. Do you agree if Harsin was our choice, (I probably should say Allen Greene’s choice, cause I think he was the only one) we should’ve kept Gus until we had someone better?

[Mikey 16,777]

1 hour ago, aubaseball said:

 Dan Mullen and Hugh Freeze are better coaches than Gus.

Head to head coaching records show this to be false.

[Mikey 16,777]

4 hours ago, Brad_ATX said:

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is the old Auburn mentality.  50/50 is "competitive" and thus fine.

50-50 is competitive. Nobody said it was fine. Again, reference some dictionary and try to post without misquoting someone.

Edited October 11, 2022 by Mikey

[NoALtiger 3,873]

4 hours ago, dyehardfanAU said:

I find it odd that this person is still trying to defend Gus' tenure at AU.  It was bad when Gus was still on staff but it's just weird now.

I find it odd that folks reference him so much period, good or bad. It’s really weird to me how much people either love to defend or love to bash the man. Maybe if everyone could move on we could solve our current crapfest. 

[Mikey 16,777]

9 minutes ago, NoALtiger said:

I find it odd that folks reference him so much period, good or bad. It’s really weird to me how much people either love to defend or love to bash the man. Maybe if everyone could move on we could solve our current crapfest. 

I. for one, don't mention Gus until or unless I see someone posting false information about him or making otherwise disparaging remarks.

[Brad_ATX 13,654]

44 minutes ago, Mikey said:

50-50 is competitive. Nobody said it was fine. Again, reference some dictionary and try to post without misquoting someone.

 

[auburnatl1 5,253]

The issue with Gus, whether youre a fire ‘em all yesterday type or a let’s be patient type, is that if you looked at trends and his ability to evolve his offense to a SEC that had caught up to 2013 - most peoples instincts were (not just the fire em all’s) that we had settled in the middle with no OL - and the only thing that would change in 3 yrs is that we’d be 3 yrs older.

I like Gus and try to watch UCF games today, but given fan expectations (I won’t go there) and the weaponized geography we now recruit in. It wasn’t going to work. Same thing with most of the coaching names I’m seeing pop up now - proven, known, and reputable OR needing “redemption” coaches (not game changers)->UGA/Bama recruiting ->Gus 2.0

Edited October 11, 2022 by auburnatl1