AL.COM McCarter: Patience has run out for Chizik...

[The Six]

http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2012/10/mccarter_patience_has_run_out.html#incart_river

NASHVILLE, Tennessee -- There was a poster that hung on some of the most sophisticated and chic dorm rooms and bedrooms for a generation.

It was two buzzards, sitting on a branch overlooking a desolate landscape. Said the caption:

"Patience my a--! I'm gonna kill something!"

Such is the state of Auburn football that hungry buzzards are aloft, not war eagles.

Patience is now spread so gauze-thin you can see through it after Auburn's 17-13 loss to Vanderbilt.

Gene Chizik and his coaching staff have exhausted the patience of the fan base.

It's time to do something. It's time for a change.

That's not said lightly. A seat in the press box isn't a buzzard's perch. It should be above the emotion of angry Tweets and clamor of angry nicknames calling into sports talk shows.

Chizik is a good man. He works hard. He designed a team around the greatest college football player in decades and won a national title.

He also signed up for a lucrative job that, fair or not, is all about "what have you done for me lately."

The Auburn program is on a downhill spiral this coaching staff can't end.

Auburn is 1-6, the worst start in 60 years. With Texas A&M and Georgia in two of the next three, it's going to get worse before it gets better.

How can it get better after that?

Even if Chizik and his staff are given a mulligan this year, they can't recruit effectively -- or dodge the negative recruiting -- under the inevitable speculation and the "hot seat" talk.

There's a buyout if Auburn's powerbrokers choose to fire Chizik and no question a replacement will cost a whole pile of money.

There's also a bigger price to pay for not making a move. The cost of no bowl game this year, maybe the next. The cost in donations and ticket sales. The emotional cost of watching the cross-state rival soar like a comet while Auburn backs further toward an abyss.

A mid-season change isn't feasible. Hand the keys to whom? The coordinators?

This whole collapse, this whole baffling day, has been a team effort.

To blame it merely on quarterback play is to blame Henry Ford for a 16-car Interstate pileup. It was poor rushing. A defense that proved it could give up scores in a long ooze (an 8:35 Vandy drive at the start) or a burst (a 1:15 march for a field goal before halfltime). A special teams unit that committed two punt interference penalties.

Chizik summed it up with his very first words in the jam-packed interview room:

"Well ... again."

That's really the trouble.

Maybe a half-dozen times he used a variation of a theme. "Kind of the same scenario." "We've seen that before." "It's a little reminiscent."

Deja vu will kill this coaching staff as much as impatience.

Fans everywhere fool themselves into a sense of entitlement. They're wrong to believe their teams must win 10 games a year -- or else. A season ticket and a collection of logo apparel don't guarantee that.

By the same token, fans can deservedly be impatient when they see their teams consistently repeat the same mistakes. They can be concerned when -- no slight intended to Vanderbilt -- you're playing a 2-4 team and the avowed goal is "keeping the score close in the fourth quarter where we had a chance to win the game."

Someone asked Chizik where the accountability for the mistakes stopped.

With steely stare, Chizik looked back and flatly said, "Me."

And with that comes the answer for the buzzards' first target.

Contact Mark McCarter at mmccarter@al.com and follow him on Twitter @markmccarter

[RWS]

From top to bottom, this shit just doesn't make sense.  None of it.  Not being a dickhead, but I really do feel bad for you guys.  Alabama fans have had to deal with year after year of inept coaching staffs, up until 2007.  Switching coordinators, etc will only account for a few more losses than you would think.  Maybe you lose a few close ones to a really big opponent.  1 win?  Against ULM?  That's way more than switching coordinators or a few young guys. 

Today's game is a good example.  While AU is struggling, so is Vandy.  They are pretty bad.  I expected AU to struggle, and I expected them to pull away in the 4th and win by 7-10.  I expected AU to eek this one out, and figured they would do so solely on the talent gap, and in spite of the coaches.  There is no reason, or combination of reasons, that makes any of it excusable if I were an AU fan.  Not this bad.  Not even close.     

[Jumbo]

I agree with 100% of this article