Worst 5-year stretch of football since 49-53

[AUCE05 370]

We are looking at 3 wins this year.  The last 5 year span without an 8 win season was 49-53.  We are currently at a historical low for our program.  I have a 12 year old that only knows AU football as bad, terrible, etc.  We are doing some deep damage to the next crop of AU fans.  The good news is we typically bounce back to historical highs after such stretches.  WDE and beat UGA.    

Edited Tuesday at 06:55 PM by AUCE05
Spelling

[AuCivilEng1 12,489]

17 minutes ago, AUCE05 said:

We are looking at 3 wins this year.  The last 5 year span without an 8 win season was 49-53.  We are currently at a historical low for our program.  I have a 12 year old that only knows AU football as bad, terrible, etc.  We are doing some deep damage to the next crop of AU fans.  The good news is we typically bounce back to historical highs after such stretches.  WDE and beat UGA.    

This is a case study on what poor top down leadership can do to a successful program. Poor hires from the University president all the way down to position coaches. AU has continued to piss their resources and advantages away. They’re  lucky Auburn fans love Auburn so much. A lot of fan bases would have completely checked out by now and left an empty stadium on game days. 

Edited Tuesday at 07:11 PM by AuCivilEng1

[AUINSY 2,295]

Good thing the university agreed to, funded, and built the performance center before all this went down 

[woodford 3,754]

Wonder what happened after this stretch?

[aucanucktiger 1,905]

Another Ior thread. Oh no, the next CROP of fans will be harmed? Maybe they'll be less spoiled, more reasonably patient, and have fewer sunshine fans than the current crop. Pat Dye history lesson: "Bama fans love Bama football, Auburn fans love Auburn." Learn it. Love it. Live it.

[aubiefifty 18,395]

11 minutes ago, aucanucktiger said:

Another Ior thread. Oh no, the next CROP of fans will be harmed? Maybe they'll be less spoiled, more reasonably patient, and have fewer sunshine fans than the current crop. Pat Dye history lesson: "Bama fans love Bama football, Auburn fans love Auburn." Learn it. Love it. Live it.

personally i think the nine  straight years of losses to the turds was worse.

[Viper 3,560]

17 minutes ago, aubiefifty said:

personally i think the nine  straight years of losses to the turds was worse.

Agreed. Only @augolf1716 would recall 49-53.

[aubiefifty 18,395]

Just now, Viper said:

Agreed. Only @augolf1716 would recall 49-53.

i heard golf taught moses how to play golf.did they not use tree limbs and animal nuts for balls? maybe golf can shed some light on the subject. one has not lived until you are called a numnut by golf.

[SLAG-91 1,618]

Not that it detracts from the OP's larger point, but we had a stretch from '64 to '68 where we didn't have an 8-win season. To be fair, those were 10 game regular seasons for the most part.

To potentially go five straight without an 8-win season in this era of 12 game regular seasons is an embarrassment.

[gabo4au 246]

Nah, it's called "shedding the riff raff!"

[keesler 5,974]

9 hours ago, AUCE05 said:

We are looking at 3 wins this year.  The last 5 year span without an 8 win season was 49-53.  We are currently at a historical low for our program.  I have a 12 year old that only knows AU football as bad, terrible, etc.  We are doing some deep damage to the next crop of AU fans.  The good news is we typically bounce back to historical highs after such stretches.  WDE and beat UGA.    

Auburn football is irrelevant, UGA chose AU for their homecoming opponent for crying out loud. 

[Shoney'sPonyBoy 424]

On 10/1/2024 at 1:53 PM, AUCE05 said:

We are looking at 3 wins this year.  The last 5 year span without an 8 win season was 49-53.  We are currently at a historical low for our program.  I have a 12 year old that only knows AU football as bad, terrible, etc.  We are doing some deep damage to the next crop of AU fans.  The good news is we typically bounce back to historical highs after such stretches.  WDE and beat UGA.    

How many games was the regular season in 1949.  Nine?  Ten?  Going that far back in time you couldn't count on a set number of games b/c it would literally change from year to year back then.

In any case it was fewer games than we play now, so not winning 8 games in a season is surely worse now than it was then just based on simple math.  Right?

Edited 21 hours ago by Shoney'sPonyBoy

[Shoney'sPonyBoy 424]

On 10/1/2024 at 2:49 PM, aubiefifty said:

personally i think the nine  straight years of losses to the turds was worse.

Well, yeah, because you're talking about nine years of suck compared to five.

But yeah, we did only have one decent season in that whole stretch.  1979 we went 8-3.  (That year was my first Iron Bowl, btw).

What's interesting to me is that in 1977 we went 6-5 but were still 5-1 in the conference with the only SEC loss to uat.

The conference must have been really bad (except for uat) back then.

EDIT:  Upon further investigation we actually went 4-2 in 1977 in SEC play but one of those losses was overturned when Mississippi State went on probation and had to vacate it.

Still.  That would have made our (real) record 5-6 with 4-2 in SEC play. That includes wins over Florida (who was ranked), Georgia, and Tennessee.

Edited 21 hours ago by Shoney'sPonyBoy

[Dual-Threat Rigby 9,149]

I’d probably say it’s the worst ever. Ignoring UGA and UAT being the two best programs in the sport, ignoring LSU and Clemson getting 3 combined since your last appearance, ignoring losing your last natty to a former rival, it’s just the fact that this stretch is just over 10 years removed from a 4 year stretch that may have been your absolute peak in terms of national success in this era. 2 natty appearances, 2 SEC CGs, 2 Heisman contenders, arguably the best college QB ever and arguably the two best college plays ever. To go from 2010-2013 to 2020-, is as one of the quickest steep drop offs you’ll probably see. 

[Old fan 47 824]

36 minutes ago, TeamZero77 said:

If we don't get past 6 wins this year, this will be 5 years in a row with no more than a 6 win season.

2020) 6-5

2021) 6-7

2022) 5-7

2023) 6-7

2024) 2-3 so far

Harsin was fired after 21 games. He had went 9-12. His first year was 6-7 with a close collapse in the Iron Bowl. Hugh also went 6-7 in year 1 with a close collapse in the Iron Bowl. Harsin's team was able to pull out the Georgia State game in 2021 and we won on a comeback. Hugh's team lost by 3 TD's to New Mexico State. Harsin beat #17 Arkansas and #10 Ole Miss in back to back weeks and had us ranked #12 in the nation. Hugh hasn't beaten a team with a winning record. Harsin's 5 straight losses to end the 2021 season were with a backup QB (Bo broke his ankle) and every loss was by 7 points or less to end that year. 

Here we are now and Hugh is 8-10 in 18 games. He will have to win at Georgia, at Missouri or at Kentucky, one of those games, to even tie Harsin's record through 21 games. 

After year 1, Harsin replaced both coordinators and brought his Boise guys. After year 1, Hugh replaced both coordinators and brought in his Ole Miss guys. Both coaches surrounded themselves with their old coaches from years past. People hated Harsin for doing that but look past Hugh doing it. Derrick Nix was made OC. In 16 years at Ole Miss under Houston Nutt, Freeze, Matt Luke and Kiffin, Derrick Nix never got higher than a WR or RB coach. He never game planned for the entire offense, never was OC and never called plays. But Hugh hired him to do all of those here and from rumors, Kent Austin is in the booth with Nix to hold his hand. Why learn on the job at Auburn? 

Hugh has only done one thing better than Harsin. Recruiting. That's all. One is called the worst coach in SEC history by our fanbase and the other coach has the fanbase riding his jock for the same piss poor game managing, clock managing mishaps and overall losing culture this program has. Harsin was hated by donors and fans and the money dried up until he was fired. Hugh has the SAME game results but has donors and fans behind him more than any coach since Pat Dye but still the same results. I wasn't a Harsin fan at all but to see how blindly people will follow Freeze's lead with the same results is just crazy to me. I always give props to Hugh and staff when they do well. My Deuce Knight comment was doing just that yesterday. I love his recruiting but I've never, ever seen the X's and O's side of Hugh. He is truly Gus without the trophies and Coach of the Year awards. Fans keep saying he needs players and then time to develop. He says our true freshmen QB's aren't ready for SEC play yet he just lost to a true freshman backup QB in his first start. And Hugh will lose a home game like it's nothing. Jordan Hare isn't intimidating under Freeze. And Deuce is RAW and needs alot of work. Has our QB development in 2 years showed any of you that we will develop Deuce to be a top level QB? 

If our head coach needs the freaking Kansas Ciry Chiefs roster to beat Arkansas, Oklahoma's backups and Cal (who lost to a 1 win Florida State), is he really a good GAMEDAY coach at all? Again, like I've said from the start, he is Ron Zook and hopefully we find our Urban Meyer.

Thank you. Best realistic post I’ve read in quite sometime. 👍. It’s not piling on or hating Auburn, but rather concern for a program we love. I see no choice, but to ride with HF through next year, hoping we keep most of the current class and the incoming class signed and that for once, we get some decent assistant coaches in here to as HF swears by, develop these young men from high school players to SEC caliber players. That’s what he’s being paid to do. Recruiting is step one, but a top 5 class still needs a lot of coaching to succeed in this conference. 

[aubaseball 2,875]

Sorry 77, but the logic is flawed on so many levels.   
1st off, I’m pretty sure that I have no inside information and by your post I can bet that you don’t either.   It looks to me like Hugh is calling the plays.  He has a play sheet and appears to be calling the plays in.   
2nd , if we go just by using common sense…you say the guy previous to Freeze did not recruit.   That would mean that Hugh inherited a program that hadn’t recruited for two years.   Throw in transfers and it spells disaster for the incoming coach.   
3rd, I don’t think anyone  anticipated so many turnovers during the first 5 games of the season.  It’s the only reason that Auburn is not currently undefeated.  No one would be talking about the record if the turnovers had not happened.   
4th, It’s obvious that there were a lot of people in the fan base and on this forum that didn’t want Freeze.  It’s obvious from the backhanded compliments and the continuous criticism.   It is what it is at this point, so why not ride this thing out and see what happens without the constant negativity.   

[Mims44 2,030]

4 hours ago, TeamZero77 said:

If we don't get past 6 wins this year, this will be 5 years in a row with no more than a 6 win season.

2020) 6-5

2021) 6-7

2022) 5-7

2023) 6-7

2024) 2-3 so far

Harsin was fired after 21 games. He had went 9-12. His first year was 6-7 with a close collapse in the Iron Bowl. Hugh also went 6-7 in year 1 with a close collapse in the Iron Bowl. Harsin's team was able to pull out the Georgia State game in 2021 and we won on a comeback. Hugh's team lost by 3 TD's to New Mexico State. Harsin beat #17 Arkansas and #10 Ole Miss in back to back weeks and had us ranked #12 in the nation. Hugh hasn't beaten a team with a winning record. Harsin's 5 straight losses to end the 2021 season were with a backup QB (Bo broke his ankle) and every loss was by 7 points or less to end that year. 

Here we are now and Hugh is 8-10 in 18 games. He will have to win at Georgia, at Missouri or at Kentucky, one of those games, to even tie Harsin's record through 21 games. 

After year 1, Harsin replaced both coordinators and brought his Boise guys. After year 1, Hugh replaced both coordinators and brought in his Ole Miss guys. Both coaches surrounded themselves with their old coaches from years past. People hated Harsin for doing that but look past Hugh doing it. Derrick Nix was made OC. In 16 years at Ole Miss under Houston Nutt, Freeze, Matt Luke and Kiffin, Derrick Nix never got higher than a WR or RB coach. He never game planned for the entire offense, never was OC and never called plays. But Hugh hired him to do all of those here and from rumors, Kent Austin is in the booth with Nix to hold his hand. Why learn on the job at Auburn? 

Hugh has only done one thing better than Harsin. Recruiting. That's all. One is called the worst coach in SEC history by our fanbase and the other coach has the fanbase riding his jock for the same piss poor game managing, clock managing mishaps and overall losing culture this program has. Harsin was hated by donors and fans and the money dried up until he was fired. Hugh has the SAME game results but has donors and fans behind him more than any coach since Pat Dye but still the same results. I wasn't a Harsin fan at all but to see how blindly people will follow Freeze's lead with the same results is just crazy to me. I always give props to Hugh and staff when they do well. My Deuce Knight comment was doing just that yesterday. I love his recruiting but I've never, ever seen the X's and O's side of Hugh. He is truly Gus without the trophies and Coach of the Year awards. Fans keep saying he needs players and then time to develop. He says our true freshmen QB's aren't ready for SEC play yet he just lost to a true freshman backup QB in his first start. And Hugh will lose a home game like it's nothing. Jordan Hare isn't intimidating under Freeze. And Deuce is RAW and needs alot of work. Has our QB development in 2 years showed any of you that we will develop Deuce to be a top level QB? 

If our head coach needs the freaking Kansas Ciry Chiefs roster to beat Arkansas, Oklahoma's backups and Cal (who lost to a 1 win Florida State), is he really a good GAMEDAY coach at all? Again, like I've said from the start, he is Ron Zook and hopefully we find our Urban Meyer.

It's rough man, that's for sure. I think we all had hoped for better. But despite all the talk you'll hear about how trash the roster was post Gus.... Harsin inherited a much more talented team than Freeze did.

2 hours ago, aubaseball said:

Sorry 77, but the logic is flawed on so many levels.   
1st off, I’m pretty sure that I have no inside information and by your post I can bet that you don’t either.   It looks to me like Hugh is calling the plays.  He has a play sheet and appears to be calling the plays in.   
2nd , if we go just by using common sense…you say the guy previous to Freeze did not recruit.   That would mean that Hugh inherited a program that hadn’t recruited for two years.   Throw in transfers and it spells disaster for the incoming coach.   
3rd, I don’t think anyone  anticipated so many turnovers during the first 5 games of the season.  It’s the only reason that Auburn is not currently undefeated.  No one would be talking about the record if the turnovers had not happened.   
4th, It’s obvious that there were a lot of people in the fan base and on this forum that didn’t want Freeze.  It’s obvious from the backhanded compliments and the continuous criticism.   It is what it is at this point, so why not ride this thing out and see what happens without the constant negativity.   

Like this baseball fan said...

I'll also throw in Harsin was just not likeable, he was behind the 8 ball to start, where Freeze started with a bunch of goodwill. He COULD squander it, but it won't be till end of next year at the earliest.

I also agree with you Zero on the fresh QB comment, with WW enrolling SOOOO early, I thought he'd be viewed more like a 'tweener. But he's talked about as though he's still completely clueless. 'tis sad.

[AU120289 557]

Not sure if I agree about the worst stretch. John Heisman left 6 wins on the table during his tenure. Instead of 12-4-2, he should have gone 16-0. So much for being a legend. 😃

[EastTNTiger 14]

8 hours ago, TeamZero77 said:

If we don't get past 6 wins this year, this will be 5 years in a row with no more than a 6 win season.

2020) 6-5

2021) 6-7

2022) 5-7

2023) 6-7

2024) 2-3 so far

Harsin was fired after 21 games. He had went 9-12. His first year was 6-7 with a close collapse in the Iron Bowl. Hugh also went 6-7 in year 1 with a close collapse in the Iron Bowl. Harsin's team was able to pull out the Georgia State game in 2021 and we won on a comeback. Hugh's team lost by 3 TD's to New Mexico State. Harsin beat #17 Arkansas and #10 Ole Miss in back to back weeks and had us ranked #12 in the nation. Hugh hasn't beaten a team with a winning record. Harsin's 5 straight losses to end the 2021 season were with a backup QB (Bo broke his ankle) and every loss was by 7 points or less to end that year. 

Here we are now and Hugh is 8-10 in 18 games. He will have to win at Georgia, at Missouri or at Kentucky, one of those games, to even tie Harsin's record through 21 games. 

After year 1, Harsin replaced both coordinators and brought his Boise guys. After year 1, Hugh replaced both coordinators and brought in his Ole Miss guys. Both coaches surrounded themselves with their old coaches from years past. People hated Harsin for doing that but look past Hugh doing it. Derrick Nix was made OC. In 16 years at Ole Miss under Houston Nutt, Freeze, Matt Luke and Kiffin, Derrick Nix never got higher than a WR or RB coach. He never game planned for the entire offense, never was OC and never called plays. But Hugh hired him to do all of those here and from rumors, Kent Austin is in the booth with Nix to hold his hand. Why learn on the job at Auburn? 

Hugh has only done one thing better than Harsin. Recruiting. That's all. One is called the worst coach in SEC history by our fanbase and the other coach has the fanbase riding his jock for the same piss poor game managing, clock managing mishaps and overall losing culture this program has. Harsin was hated by donors and fans and the money dried up until he was fired. Hugh has the SAME game results but has donors and fans behind him more than any coach since Pat Dye but still the same results. I wasn't a Harsin fan at all but to see how blindly people will follow Freeze's lead with the same results is just crazy to me. I always give props to Hugh and staff when they do well. My Deuce Knight comment was doing just that yesterday. I love his recruiting but I've never, ever seen the X's and O's side of Hugh. He is truly Gus without the trophies and Coach of the Year awards. Fans keep saying he needs players and then time to develop. He says our true freshmen QB's aren't ready for SEC play yet he just lost to a true freshman backup QB in his first start. And Hugh will lose a home game like it's nothing. Jordan Hare isn't intimidating under Freeze. And Deuce is RAW and needs alot of work. Has our QB development in 2 years showed any of you that we will develop Deuce to be a top level QB? 

If our head coach needs the freaking Kansas Ciry Chiefs roster to beat Arkansas, Oklahoma's backups and Cal (who lost to a 1 win Florida State), is he really a good GAMEDAY coach at all? Again, like I've said from the start, he is Ron Zook and hopefully we find our Urban Meyer.

Agree with this post 100%. Harsin was not a "Jimmy Sexton" approved selection. He was undermined from the time he stepped off the plane. He had no money to recruit. So folks got what they wanted with Burner. Gus 2.0. The bottom is near, very near. 

[Dual-Threat Rigby 9,149]

With respect to the turnovers, those probably should've been expected from anyone who's followed Payton Thorne enough to look at his stat page (he's averaged 10 picks every time he's been a full time starter, and many of those seasons have been in a role as nothing more than a game manager). If he wasn't forced to sit out one and a half games, he'd roughly be on pace for highest passing attempts in a season.

A QB that is really good at throwing to the other team + more passing attempts = more picks