I hope you good people took a look at that YouTube video -- that was Auburn Athletic Director Jay Jacobs being heckled by Auburn fans.
Why was Jacobs being given such a hard time? Because the school went and hired Gene Chizik as the head football coach. Frankly, I'm not sure why they got rid of Tommy Tuberville -- a coach who went 85-40 (52-30 in the SEC) -- and replaced him with a coach who went 5-19 (2-12 in the Big 12) at Iowa State.
As I've mentioned time and time again, I'm an Arkansas Razorbacks fan. Because of that, I can't throw any stones at Auburn because we've made our share of idiotic coaching moves here in the Natural State.
The one that still makes me mad, of course, has to do with that idiot Houston Nutt, a head coach who managed to achieve a sparkling 4-7 record at Boise State before he wound up as the coach of the Arkansas Razorbacks. It's fascinating to note that Tuberville was in the running for the job, but that sleazy Nutt wound up with the job somehow.
It's also worth mentioning that Boise State improved substantially after Nutt packed up his trailer, his insane wife and headed to Arkansas.
So, I feel your pain, Auburn. I just hope Chizik works out better than Nutt did here. If not, you're looking at several years of fans wearing black shirts to ball games and a coach who makes the state look bad every time he opens his mouth. Hopefully, Chizik won't be an embarrassment to Auburn.
A lot of us hated Nutt for the majority of his tenure here. Yes, he had a great first season and the program simply went to hell after that. In addition to his lack of coaching skill, his off-field shenanigans and delightfully odd behavior at press conferences during games and press conferences made fans simply loathe him. Here's hoping Chizik fares better at Auburn.
If he does turn out horribly, however, there's still hope -- Ole Miss will get sick of having Nutt around as head coach before too many more seasons and that school will apparently hire anyone.
By the way, some irate Auburn fan has already had some fun with Jacobs' entry at Wikipedia. I'll quote that here before it gets changed:
"Jay Jacobs is the current director of athletics for the Auburn Tigers athletic department.
He was named Auburn's 14th Director of Athletics on December 22, 2004, after working in almost every area of the Auburn Athletic Department for the previous 20 years. He has recently come under controversy for his hiring of Auburn's new football coach, Gene Chizik. Though Chizik had a 5-19 record as a head coach prior to the hiring, he is white and likes to drink whiskey with Pat Dye, making him the ideal candidate for continuing Auburn's historical approach of putting out marginally successful, probation-riddled football teams."
It's a nice of pace to see some SEC fans other than the ones here in Arkansas upset about a coaching hire. Still, good luck to Auburn.
Thanks, by the way, to fellow blogger Paul Eilers over at Paul's Health Blog for sending the YouTube video my way.
5 comments:
I've been trying to make sense out of this hire, and it just doesn't seem ot make any. I mean, he could turn out to be an awesome fit for Auburn, but based on his record at Iowa St., one has to wonder what they are thinking. Especially since they forced out Tubberville and hired this guy.
Speaking of Nutt...apparently he interviewed for the job...lol
Mystery Man:
Well, at least Auburn didn't hire Nutt. That's something in their favor.
I don't get the hire, either. If he can't compete in the Big 12, what makes anyone think he can hack it in the SEC?
And I'm not knocking the Big 12 as that's one hell of a conference. However, where's the logic in saying, "Well, he can't compete in that tough conference, so he'll be able to compete in this tough one?"
It makes no sense.
Oh well. At least Chizik isn't heading to Arkansas.
lol this is true. I give him 2 yrs top. A couple of trouncings by Saban and Les Miles, and I would imagine a couple of losses to the SEC doormats (Kentucky passes for that for now) and they'll be calling for his head.
There's no question that Chizik is a good coach. He was the defensive coordinator at Auburn in 2004 when the Tigers went 13-0 and won the SEC title. In 2005 he was the assistant head coach and co-defensive coordinator at Texas when the Longhorns went 13-0 and won the national championship.
However, Turner Gill, who interviewed for the Auburn job but was turned down, did more with less at Buffalo University. Gill took over a Buffalo program that was probably the worst in college football history. It had the nation's longest losing streak just three years before he took the job. Now they are MAC champions.
Race probably played a role in Gill not getting hired at Auburn, but if I was Turner Gill, I'm not so sure I would want to coach at that pressure cooker in the first place.
Mystery Man -- I think you're probably right. It takes us 10 years to run off rotten coaches here in Arkansas (we get rid of good ones sooner, oddly), but I understand that some programs are actually serious about winning.
Paul -- Well, he's proven himself to be a great assistant coach, but hasn't achieved a thing as a head coach.
I won't touch on the racial aspects of all that -- probably because I've heard those accusations thrown around too much as of late (i.e., we're all racists in Arkansas because we didn't vote for the wonderful, wonderful Obama).
However, I will say that Turner Gill would have been a better choice based on his accomplishments alone. Something kept him from landing that job at Auburn...
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