Sir Charles knows

[Saniflush]

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=3770769

OR

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/columns/story?columnist=schlabach_mark&id=3769005

[Ogre]

For once, I'm glad that Sir Charles opened his fat yapper.  I'm not sold on this being a race issue, but there really isn't much logic behind hiring Chizik over Turner Gill.  Hell, there isn't much logic hiring Chizik above anyone. 

[AUChizad]

It's a race issue. I hate that it is, but it clearly is.

I'm always the one that says "It's not about race, they just picked the better candidate", but there is NO way you can say that's what they did this time.

[Snaggletiger]

I think race definitely played into the decision concerning hiring or not hiring Gill.  The others...I have no idea what the problem was.  They could have hired Patterson over Gill and most people would have said they were okay with it because of the more established record of success.  They could have hired Brian Kelley (If available) and said look, the guy has his team in the BCS.  But Chizik???  Right now, Auburn comes off looking like shit on all fronts.  They had a chance to make that "Splash" and blew it.  Not only did they pass over a successful black coach, they hired the wrong white guy.

[Kaos]

[ssgaufan]

I very much agree that it could be a race issue with this hire.  BUT Barkley made a statement that black coaches were not getting good first jobs, where they could succeed.  Bull Shit.  Also, first jobs usually aren't very good, for any coach of any color, but lets take a look at first jobs for the five black coaches.

Karl Dorrell, UCLA, not exactly bottom of the barrell.
Ty Willingham, Notre Dame, pretty much says it all, but then on to Washington, a once proud program.
Randy Shannon, Miami, I think the Hurricanes have won a NC or two.
Sly Croom, Miss St, ok, not much chance of success there, but it is in a BCS conference.
Turner Gill, Buffalo, ok, the shoe fits on this one.

One out of five ain't bad.

[Ranger12]

Charles has some valid points and it is hard to ignore them given the insanity of this hire. Of those interviewed, I don't think Gill was the best man for the job, but he was definitely better on paper then Chizik.

If we would have hired Patterson, then Charles' argument would not have much validity.