Please Point And Laugh In The Direction Of Auburn University

Saturday, December 13, 2008

"EPIC FAIL" does not begin to describe a coaching search that should never have existed, yet ends in the hiring of your school's former defensive coordinator, who has been an absolute joke of a head coach in the red-headed stepchild of a division that is the Big XII North.

This is what you parted ways with Tommy Tuberville for, Auburn? Gene Effing Chizik? Seriously?

Turner Gill was there for the taking after leading Buffalo to a MAC championship and an 8-5 record, beating the previously undefeated Ball State in the process. Mike Leach could have been money-whipped away from Texas Tech after his 11-1 season. Charlie Strong has been running the defense at Florida for YEARS, dying for a crumb and a shot at a respectable head coaching gig.

But no, ESPN reports AD Jay Jacobs will hire a man who is 5-19 in his head coaching career to run an SEC program -- please put the necessary emphasis here, because the piece is based on "sources", not any official word, and I'll happily revoke and apologize for this post if the article it's based on turns out to be complete bunk. But even the mere rumor of hiring Chizik for anything more than D-coordinator is utterly laughable, and will provide nothing but unwanted guffawing from the fans of all other SEC teams -- especially considering that he's a defensive guy! Defense is not the problem with Auburn.

Auburn fans don't get to laugh at Tennessee for hiring Lane Kiffin after this is made official. At least there is a semblance of upside for Kiffykins. I don't know how Auburn can spin this, and let's set the O/U on Jacobs and booster Bobby Lowder trying to secretly lure another coach a la the Petrino jet scandal at 2 years.

Update: Read Auburn Undercover's Philip Marshall for more on this. If I were Gill, I'd be furious -- and I'd be thinking I got passed over because I was black and I didn't coach at Auburn previously, not because of actual credentials or record.

Auburn Tigers hire Gene Chizik [ESPN]

Posted by Signal to Noise at 5:20 PM

10 Comments:

Gill or Ball State coach Brady Hoke would have been much better than Chizik. Iowa St. didn't even play Texas, Oklahoma, and Texas Tech this season in the Big 12 and still went winless in conference play. They will always be the little brother to Alabama. What a joke of a school.

49er16 said...
Dec 13, 2008, 5:43:00 PM  

This seems like a panic move when Auburn couldn't pry away Will Muschamp from Texas. They were supposed to have talked to Todd Graham (Tulsa) & Gary Patterson (TCU), besides the talks they already had with Gill & Hoke. I guess they wanted someone with ties to the the program (or the South) they could get on the cheap because they still have to pay Tuberville's $5 million dollar buyout. Well, they got both in Chizik. Congratulations.

Dec 13, 2008, 6:06:00 PM  

The Birmingham News confirms the Chizik hiring. Auburn fans naturally are not pleased.

@49er16: Auburn beat Bama every year from '02-'07.

Anonymous said...
Dec 13, 2008, 6:09:00 PM  

(points in the direction of Auburn University)

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!

Well, you can already eliminate one team from contention of the SEC championship next year.

Justin F. said...
Dec 13, 2008, 7:03:00 PM  

great finish looming in I-AA playoffs. Richmond trailing Northern Iowa 20-7 at start of 4th qtr, Richmond now leads 21-20 with :14 left.

Anonymous said...
Dec 13, 2008, 7:12:00 PM  

Great finish to the Richmond-N. Iowa game.

49er16 said...
Dec 13, 2008, 7:15:00 PM  

Nice to see UR advance. Too bad JMU lost last night preventing an all Virginia championship game.

Anonymous said...
Dec 13, 2008, 7:18:00 PM  

Yeah its safe to say that Alabama is going to get all the recruits in Alabama now with this great hire.(hahahahaha)

Anonymous said...
Dec 13, 2008, 8:46:00 PM  

How long you think this guy's going to be in Auburn? I say three years.

Anonymous said...
Dec 13, 2008, 9:44:00 PM  

Don't know what happened in the interim, but the Auburn Undercover story, linked above, by Phillip Marshall "no longer exists." Wonder what happened there...

Anonymous said...
Dec 14, 2008, 12:06:00 AM  

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