Trying to do things the right way???????

[Saniflush]

maybe/maybe not.  You make the call.
http://www.al.com/sports/birminghamnews/rmelick.ssf?/base/sports/122959179896670.xml&coll=2

Auburn has tough sell on effort to clean up coaching search procedures
Thursday, December 18, 2008

If it's a crusade Auburn is on, a crusade to clean up the way high-profile coaching searches are done, it is an admirable one.

I have a feeling Auburn President Jay Gogue and his athletics director, Jay Jacobs, are going to have a hard time getting anyone else to join in.

In his search for a new coach, Jacobs was not allowed by Gogue to deal with agents who represent coaches. Jacobs could not contact coaches he was interested in without going through their athletics director first. As a result, Jacobs became so transparent in the process that it shocked his contemporaries from other schools.

"They were surprised," Jacobs said. "They would say things like, `Thanks for calling first.' And I'd say, `What would you expect me to do?' They'd say, `Normally, people don't do this.' I'd tell them, `If we all change and start doing this the right way, it will make the process better for all of us."

Maybe. But the question also has to be asked if going through the "front door" - as Jacobs called his process - scared off better-known and higher-profile coaches who might have been interested in the Auburn job but did not want that interest to be known by their athletics director, potentially jeopardizing existing relationships.

Jacobs was asked if representatives of coaches other than those we know were interviewed contacted either him or Auburn's search firm, Carr Sports Associates of Gainesville, Fla.. Jacobs said he did not know because he did not deal with agents. He said any such contact would have been handled by Bill Carr, the former Florida and Houston athletics director who heads the Carr search firm.

Carr, when asked the same question, would only say, "It's always hard to know exactly, but the most pertinent comment I could make is, I don't think (the method) affected the quality of the field of candidates.

"It is unusual that I'd comment on any search, but the Auburn search was deliberate, well-structured and well-executed. The difficult part was the information that flowed to all the surrounding spectators ... an unfortunate amount of disclosure and discussion. The visibility was extraordinary and unfortunate. But it did not interfere."

However, Carr added there was no established protocol for contacting prospective coaches.

"The industry needs to address it," Carr said. "It is different in every situation, and difficult."

Jacobs' intentions are admirable. But it is hard to believe a top coach at a top school would have been willing to get involved in discussions with Auburn, knowing the first call that Jacobs was going to make was to his current boss to get permission.

Athletics directors are funny about that. Once a coach says he wants to talk to another employer about another job, a certain level of trust is broken.

Even Gene Chizik apparently did his best to assure his boss at the time, Iowa State AD Jamie Pollard, that there was no cause for worry about contact from Auburn. He did that right up to the point he called Pollard to say he'd accepted Auburn's offer after all.

As for Gogue's feelings on athletics, he apparently has this pat answer when asked about the ideal football season.

Borrowing a line from former Auburn President Harry Philpott (1965-1980), Gogue believes the ideal football season is going 8-3, because it's just enough wins to keep fans happy but not so much that the football program becomes bigger than the university.

Such an answer, no doubt, plays well among academia.

But I wouldn't want to try to sell it in the skyboxes and club levels or even the end zone seats of Jordan-Hare Stadium on a Saturday afternoon in the fall. Join the conversation with Ray by reading his column and commenting in his X's and Uh-oh's blog at blog.al.com/ray-melick/

[AuburnChopper 3.0]

I think it's a good start, but would you expect Ray Melick to give it a positive spin even if it WAS a positive result?  Probably not.   A big "consider the source" read in my opinion.

Notice he's still focusing on the negative when he could be following what good Chizik is doing on the recruiting side right now, right out of the gate.   

I'm just focusing on results at this point, not another bammer's opinion.

JMO...

[Thrilla]

You know, I'm split on this.  Half of me says keep the class and integrity of the program intact, and build a reputation as such so that coach's will know we deal straight up when searching for top candidates.  There's potential to be a new-age sort of trendsetter here.

But then we have Jetgate, which is perhaps a permanent mar on our program and how we hire coaches, and because of this, I may be convinced to say "fuck it" and lets do whatever it takes to get the best coaches possible.  Honestly, how many Universities will be on board with the "front door" approach?  We know that shithole west of us NEVER will be.  This half of me becomes more prominent if this:

But the question also has to be asked if going through the "front door" - as Jacobs called his process - scared off better-known and higher-profile coaches who might have been interested in the Auburn job but did not want that interest to be known by their athletics director, potentially jeopardizing existing relationships.

is true and fucked us in getting a better qualified coach than Chizzim.

[AuburnChopper 3.0]

You know, I'm split on this.  Half of me says keep the class and integrity of the program intact, and build a reputation as such so that coach's will know we deal straight up when searching for top candidates.  There's potential to be a new-age sort of trendsetter here.

But then we have Jetgate, which is perhaps a permanent mar on our program and how we hire coaches, and because of this, I may be convinced to say "fuck it" and lets do whatever it takes to get the best coaches possible.  Honestly, how many Universities will be on board with the "front door" approach?  We know that shithole west of us NEVER will be.  This half of me becomes more prominent if this:

is true and fucked us in getting a better qualified coach than Chizzim.

I gotta say... I'm pretty pleased with the progress he's making, and he's doing it with pretty harsh media surrounding him...  I'm reserving judgement before I STILLLLL continue to moan about Chizik. 

The Jacobs and Gogue thing are a seperate issue to me at this point.

[ssgaufan]

I gotta say... I'm pretty pleased with the progress he's making, and he's doing it with pretty harsh media surrounding him... I'm reserving judgement before I STILLLLL continue to moan about Chizik. 

The Jacobs and Gogue thing are a seperate issue to me at this point.

What are you trying to say?    

I haven't said a whole lot either way with Chiz.  He wasn't the canidate that had my support, but neither was teh pres elect.  I will say that I am starting to like the guy.  He is really out there busting his ass on the recruiting trail.  So, as long as he doesn't fuck up the OC hire (Nix, Calloway) I will be feeling pretty good about our program going into the WVU game.  WAR DAMN EAGLE!

[Godfather]

Gogue believes the ideal football season is going 8-3

We probably got our guy then...mediocrity here we stand.

[Saniflush]

Gogue believes the ideal football season is going 8-3

Apparently we are gonna suck so bad they are only gonna let us play 11 games.

[Godfather]

Apparently we are gonna suck so bad they are only gonna let us play 11 games.

Shows you how much he knows about football, Academic nerd.

[Jumbo]

Apparently we are gonna suck so bad they are only gonna let us play 11 games.

The 12th game will be a scholar's bowl.

[Kaos]

I'm calling bullshit on the whole deal. 

Auburn got stuck with their pants around their ankles and titty-boy Jay Jacobs on his knees. Then he went out and butchered one of the most important hires in Auburn football history and now everybody and their cousin is coming up with lame ass reasons why. 

Jacobs is inept. He has no concept of how to deal with real-life situations.  He's an incompetent FOOL. 

Go through the fucking front door my dimpled ASS. Fuck that ridiculous shit. It's fucking SPIN, dammit.

I run a business. A small one, but still. If I need a good programmer and I know a guy who works for one of my vendors or a competitor and I know the guy might want to work for me, do you think I'm going to call his boss and fuck him out of the job he has?  No, that would be MOTHERFUCKING IGNORANT.

What I'm going to do is meet him on his off day.  At a restaurant away from where he works and lives, a place he is extremely unlikely to run into anybody he knows.  Then we're going to talk about it.  I'll see what he needs, figure out if he's worth what it will take and then if the numbers line up, I'll make him an offer.

If he declines, no hard feelings. He stays where he is and I move on to the next guy on the list.

I'm NOT going to call his boss and say "hey, I want to see if maybe I want to hire your guy."  That would be absolutely shitty.

Otherwise, I'm resigned to sifting through shit resumes that pile up from Monster.com or something like that, or interviewing the turd-burgling fucks who've been turned down everywhere else, running down the list of guys who've been fired for searching Sailor Moon porn or nabbing some green fuck who's never had a job.

This "Auburn did things the honorable way" MULESHIT is nothing more than a smokescreen for Jacobs' complete and total buffoonery.

Fuck him.