Scarbinsky: Roll, Tigers: If kids think that limo's cool, it's cool
Posted by Kevin Scarbinsky -- Birmingham News April 29, 2009 7:04 AM
Categories: Auburn Football
Bernard Troncale/Birmingham News
Auburn head coach Gene Chizik and his staff are working to find ways to impress recruits.Did Curtis Luper fly the Auburn recruiting limo into the catch-fence at Talladega?
Has an Opelika lawyer offered to lease that white stretch Hummer to an Auburn recruit for little down and less a month?
No?
So what's the problem with seven Auburn football coaches piling into a prom wagon and wheeling into high schools around the state during the spring evaluation period?
What's wrong with finding a new way for a new staff to make its presence known on the recruiting trail?
I know.
You think it's cheesy. You think it's undignified. You think it's un-Auburn-like, whatever that means.
OK, tell the truth. You're a middle-aged man, aren't you?
See, that's the real problem here. It's the people who have a real problem with this harmless little publicity stunt.
Showing up in force and in style is about recruiting, and recruiting is about making an impression on teen-age boys.
It's not about middle-aged men.
The real question isn't why Auburn is doing what it's doing this week.
The real question is this:
Why didn't Nick Saban think of that? And wouldn't Alabama fans think it was brilliant if he had?
At a Crimson Caravan stop Tuesday in Memphis, the Alabama coach was asked about the Auburn recruiting limo. He gave a very un-Saban-like answer.
''You know, I'm responsible for what we do," he said. ''How we do it. I don't know a lot about it, and I don't have any knowledge of it. I know how we go about what we do and try to do it the best way we can."
What he meant, in short: ''Why didn't I think of that?"
Think about it.
For more than two years, the Alabama coach has dominated the recruiting conversation in this state, from his cutting-edge use of video conferencing to his alleged abuse of the bump rule, which led to the passage of the Saban Rule, which keeps head coaches off the road this time of year.
By the way, that's why Gene Chizik isn't riding in that limo on this week's Tiger Prowl -- Auburn's name, not mine -- along with his assistants.
He's not trying to avoid embarrassment.
He's trying to avoid a rules violation.
It's no coincidence that, while Saban has dominated the recruiting conversation, Alabama has dominated in-state recruiting.
The new Auburn coaches have been forced to find new and innovative ways to break into that conversation. Given the level of chatter about the limo, they've succeeded.
And adapted.
After they showed up Monday at Mobile-area high schools in a low-slung, old-school white limo, they toured Wiregrass and other south Alabama high schools Tuesday in a white stretch Hummer.
Can't wait to see the sled they rock Thursday around Birmingham.
How about a monster truck? Or would an Army tank be more in keeping with old-fashioned American and Auburn values?
Look, meeting high school coaches, teachers and principals in person to evaluate high school prospects in the spring is an important but routine task. Auburn has put a new twist on it by letting everyone on those high school campuses know that the Tigers are in town.
As recruiting tactics go, better stretching out in a limo than stretching the truth. And better the coaches show up in a sweet ride than the recruits.
23 Replies
4047 Views