and coaches trip over their dicks to coach at "established", "traditional" schools like that. Unfortunately, we ain't one of those. Oh and by the way, on a related note, if we fire Malzahn this year, we stand in line for sure behind USC, and possibly some of those other "power" schools for table scraps.
I keep seeing this concession from Auburn fans.
We ARE one of those traditional, established programs.
No, we aren't USC. But we're right up there.
We're higher than Texas. We're higher than South Carolina, Missouri, and Miami (FL).
We're one of the top programs in the best conference in the country. We sit in the middle of the most fertile recruiting ground in the country. We have the money to spend on whatever we want. We have the most undefeated seasons of any SEC school in the last 25 years. We have a history of winning SEC championships. We've won one and played for two national championships in the past five years. We have three Heisman winners. We have multiple #1 overall draft picks. We as recently as 2009 had one of the highest number of players in the NFL out of the whole country. Two of the top ten overall players in college football history have put on the orange and blue. We're consistently in the top ten of recruiting rankings. We have one of if not the best mascot in the country. We have a passionate fanbase that shows up even when the season is lost. We have one of the loudest stadiums in the country.
The mindset that Auburn cannot compete for the best coaches is completely wrong. We have everything to sell. You want it? You can have it. Don't want to compete with Nick Saban? Then we shouldn't want you anyway.
We hired Chizik for all the wrong reasons. We changed our entire philosophy and atmosphere for all the wrong reasons. We keep acting like Little Brothers when we have no reason to.
I think that's Jay Jacobs biggest issue. The guy has a loser mentality. The lone voice at the airport could not have been more correct when he shouted, "We want a winner not a loser!"
I could go on. I could go on about how a few schools can play muscle ball and NFL-style and win. I could go on about how we were and are one of those schools. About how jet sweeps, bubble screens, and read-options aren't our only options. About how Auburn has never needed to have a dick contest with jumbotrons and recruiting weekends to have success. About how Auburn under Tuberville was a hell of a lot better than we've been the last seven years.
About how I stole this from elsewhere:
So this is Auburn vs our 6 consistent SEC opponents: Bama, Arkansas, UGA, LSU, MSST and Ole Miss.
1996-2007 with 2.5 years Bowden and 9 years Tubbs
Auburn 44-28 against these teams. Won 61% of the time.
2008-2015. 1 year Tubbs, 4 Chizik, 3 Gus (figuring Bama loss)
Auburn 19-29. Won only 40% of the time.
2008-2015 (excluding 2010 and 2013)
Auburn 8-28. Won a mere 22% of the time.
We said the same thing in 2008. That firing Tuberville would be a risk because we weren't sure if we could haul in a top coach and the PTB believed it too. They hired Chizik and dumped us into a landfill.
I think Ole Miss used us as a stepping stool to get out of it.