How long will it take?
If the axe falls it will take one year to settle, the second year will be competitive week in and week out.
And that's the rub there. Tell me -- other than the last year of Tuberville's tenure -- when you EVER thought we were going to get donkey fucked in a game? Even though you might have expected to lose, when was the last time (and I'm talking all the way back to the 1970s) that you honestly thought we had NO chance.
We lost games. We played better teams. But I never doubted we'd be competitive.
The last time I saw a team this hapless overall, was 1998. Then we knew...it was no talent. Bowden had pissed off everybody across the state, and couldn't get any talent to come to Auburn. I'd sat in my seat on Sept. 19th and watched then #7 ranked LSU thump us. That LSU team, coached by Gerry DiNardo, went 4-7 that year. On Oct. 3, after an off week, I remember being at the UT game in Auburn. UT was ranked #3, and Demontrey Carter broke a long run early in the game, I had hope we could pull it off vs the soon to be National Champion Vols, he was tackled inside their 20 after about a 70 yard gain...and fumbled. I slumped down in my seat, half drunk, and tears welled up in my eyes, and I got a lump in my throat. I was at my tailgate when I learned of the Bowden resignation/firing/whatever just before we went to watch Auburn play La Tech. on Oct. 24th, 1998...[suspicious]I turned 33 that day. [/suspicious]
On August 31, 2000, I watched from those same seats (7 rows above where GH sits) as Rudi Johnson ran all over Wyoming. I was in the Ga. Dome on Dec. 2, 2000 for Auburn vs Florida and the SECC. We finished the season 9-4 and SECW Champs in just the second season after a major, maybe the biggest, collapse of the program in modern times.
It takes about that long. IF, the crootin services are accurate, in rating our talent, then it could take even less time.