And when the fanbase was brought together in their hatred for the hire, the bammer mouth piece PF kept bashing the hire over and over and over and over and over. At first, the Auburn fanbase was in agreement with the bashing, until the bammers starting chiming in, that's when most of the fanbase decided to turn their attention away from the hire and towards their hatred for anything PF and the mouthbreathers. Then everyone stated, "lets see who he brings in as his assistants." And so far, Coach Chizik hasn't done anything to flip that hatred back onto him and his record. When you have assistants leave their alma maters and/or where they played college football, then they see something in Auburn.
I felt that when Coach Malzahn was hired as the OC, that's when a lot of the fanbase started changing their tune, because they knew how good of a coach he was at Arkansas and at Tulsa. Then when Coach Trooper and Coach Rocker were brought on board, that got the rest to change their tune...from pitchforks, fire & brimstone, kill everyone to lets see what these coaches can do. Also, when we landed QB Tyrik Rollison, WRs Emory Blake, DeAngelo Benton and were in the Top two for RB David Oku, I think that opened some people's eyes even more.
Why is it OK to point out assistants leaving their alma maters and/or where they played college ball because they "see" something in AU, but James Willis was ran into the ground and labeled Benedict Arnold for doing the same? The whole Willis situation was fucked up as a football bat from the word go, and that was thanks to Chizik imo. We want you, wait, we don't want you now, oh wait, we want you again because getting rid of you might fuck our recruiting up. I think Willis saw it for what it was, and decided he didn't want any part of it. You could just as easily say that he knew things were going to be fucked up and that drove him to leave his alma mater for its rival. There is more behind that story than either of us will ever know.
As far as Malzahn at Arkansas, Nutt never gave him full control of anything. You posted a link a while back of a looooong document detailing the whole Malzahn and Company experience there, and it pretty much supports that. Nutt's whole reasoning for not giving him the offensive reigns was because, according to him, his style of play would not work in the SEC. I'm not so sure I would consider Nutt an expert or anything, so consider the source. There is no denying that Tulsa's offense put up some lofty numbers on offense. However, their offense was not bulletproof. When playing better teams, such as Oklahoma (21 pts scored), Arkansas (23 pts scored), East Carolina (24 pts scored), those defenses did OK and beat Tulsa. In 2007, UCF managed to limit Tulsa's offense to 25 points and under in their two meetings that season. I'm sure that Malzahn will have better talent at AU than he did at Tulsa in some positions, but that doesn't automatically equal success when you factor in that he will be facing defenses that are alot better than what he saw at Tulsa as well. Its a sliding scale that goes both ways.
Trooper Taylor has nothing in his history that is incredibly remarkable. On Rivals they do not list coaches who recruited a player in the 05 class or before, so I'm working with what I have. On the recruiting side, in 06 he brought in three 3* players for the Vols, an OL, and two LBs. The OL, Jarrod Shaw, has played in 2 games in 3 years. One of the LBs, LaMarcus Thompson, has played 26 games over 3 years with 20 tackles. The other LB, Gerald Williams, played in 10 games in 08 and had 12 tackles. In 07 he brought in Eric Berry and four other recruits. Other than Berry, the only ones still on the roster are Ahmad Paige and Denarius Moore. Paige has played on third team in two games and has no statistics. Moore played as a backup in 07 and in 08 and has 25 receptions for 483 yards over 26 games. Taylor had nothing to speak of at OSU.
Nothing all that remarkable about Tracy Rocker either, except that you have some sort of mancrush on him. The best that Arky's defense was with him as line coach was second best in the SEC I think. He had some accomplishments when he played for AU and all, but I haven't seen anything to lead me to believe that he is some extraordinary out of this world coach. I'm not saying he's automatically a horrible coach either, fwiw.
As far as Rollison, the kid can flat out ball. I don't think anybody can question that. The problem with that is, alot of schools weren't willing to risk it on a kid who made a 13 on the ACT the first two times he took it. Grades were a real issue for him, and you could tell by his offer list. Plus, Luper had already been recruiting him to OSU before he came to AU, so don't paint it as a picture of this staff came in fresh and went out and recruited this guy blindly. Luper and Taylor were familiar with him, and Luper had been recruiting him to start with. Anyway, his two finalists were Kansas St. and AU. Which one would you pick? He is from Texas, and they didn't even offer him. Regardless of grades, he's a baller and a good pickup for AU.
Emory Blake, same deal. Malzahn had recruited him to Tulsa, and he said Malzahn was his main reason for signing with AU when Malzahn made the move. If the kid was going to go to Tulsa because of Malzahn, he would be stupid to not go to AU. AU > Tulsa. His high school runs a similar system to the one Malzahn runs, so another plus for him. His offer list wasn't all that gaudy either.
DeAngelo Benton? The same one that LSU finally gave up on after waiting for two years for him to make his grades? A Kerry Murphy story if I ever heard one. Regardless, I would mark it as a good pickup for AU. Not sure if he will be able to grasp the playbook, but we shall see.
As far as David Oku goes, I know you get caught up in the whole "Well, we ALMOST got....." thing, but it doesn't count unless they actually commit or sign with your team. I could say that Alabama ALMOST got Tebow, but what difference does that make? He didn't pick Alabama, and he's doing just fine at Florida.
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