I didn't give a fuck if Arky was after him or not. My take was very simple. Write the man a nice bonus check for the two wins and if he still wants to bolt to Fayettenam, take yo' ass on. The problem is very simple. We ALL had more than enough sample size to know what this coach is all about. We KNEW full well that this stretch we're going through is part of the Gus package. Yet, we gave him the code to the gate at Ft. Knox.
I've long since stopped blaming Gus. He is what he is. Like every coach out there, he got his money. The PTB knew what they were getting. They still did the deal. I heard so many say, "Well who would we get?" And now everyone is saying, "Anyone would be better."
Like I said in another thread. We're blaming the wrong people.
I hope you're not insinuating that I should be blamed.
I'm a little baffled, really.
I was critical early. I thought it was a poor choice to bring in a guy who had one year of head coaching experience to take over a program this enormous, in a league this deep and with the devil himself heading up the arch rival program. I honestly believed it was more than he could handle.
And then -- so very much like Terry Bowden -- his first year success made me doubt my assessment. The players bought in, he turned a former UGA defensive back into a legitimate threat at QB. It didn't matter how much time was on the clock, I honestly believed that team could score from anywhere at any time. Score 40 on us? We'll score 55. Fuck you. I thought I saw Gus flinch at the end of the championship game when we squandered a lead and lost a game we should have won. But I was still okay with it. Figured we'd be better in 2014.
Through much of the 2014 season I was on board. We went to MSU ranked second and that was the first time I really saw Gus pucker. Froze in the red zone several times leading to fucking field goals instead of TDs. That and a shitty start cost us the game. Two weeks later, Gus broke. When Marshall fumbled the snap against A&M and the (I honestly believed) inevitable touchdown didn't happen, his mind got fucked up and it hasn't been right since.
I was ready to call it in 2015. That was a stumblefuck of epic proportions. It's honestly very much like this season. Started in the Top Ten. Opened with a narrow win in the Georgia Dome, fell apart against LSU and MSU. Lost to Arkansas, Ole Miss, Georgia and Alabama dropping out of the Top 25 along the way. Managed to beat A&M to salvage a bowl trip. And that's pretty much what I expect to happen this season. That season was hot garbage. No reason for it to have sucked as badly as it did. Along the way his "I'm running the offense, no I'm not, yes I am, no I'm not" equivocation proved clearly to me that he was in over his head.
2016. Dipsy doodle. Whirly bird. Full fucktard. I wanted him fired three games in. Then Kam Pettway came out of nowhere, Sean White balled out and it looked like he'd figured some shit out. Nope. Lost to a pathetic Georgia team, one of the worst I've ever seen in Athens, because the motherfucker has failed to figure out that you have to have more than one fucking player on a roster ready to play key positions. Every single program in the universe seems to have a capable backup who comes in and handles business when the starter can't go. Every program except ours. One injury and we can't muster a single fucking first down against an abysmal Georgia defense. Again, he proved he wasn't up to the job as a whole.
2017. sigh. I honestly thought he'd finally figured things out when we physically dominated Georgia and Alabama. Nope. He's still what we thought he was. One injury and we've got no alternatives. None. We can't fucking line up and execute a single simple play because ONE player is banged up. I've seen junior high coaches manage that better.
2018. Fuck it.
I don't care what happens from this point out. He's proven that he's learning on the job but the problem is that the son of a bitch isn't LEARNING. He makes the same chowderhead mistakes over and over and over. He might be a great OC. He might be a fantastic Xs and Os guy when that's all he has on his plate. But he does not have the requisite experience to successfully manage a large organization -- which is what Auburn is.
It's like taking a guy who makes really awesome pizzas for Dominos, letting him manage a Dominos store in Drizzledump Arkansas for a year and then appointing him CEO of the Dominos brand. He might get lucky for a year or two because he knows some things about pizza cooking, but eventually his franchisees are going to figure out that he doesn't know what he's doing and will lose confidence. Pizza Hut, Papa Johns, Papa Murphys, Marcos, Hunt Bros, Little Caesars and all the rest will also figure out that he's weak and bury his ass.
We should never have put him in this position. We damn sure shouldn't have overpaid him because that contract makes his performance completely untenable.
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