Interesting reads....

[JR4AU]

I was not online much during the last half of last month.  I did a search to see if this, or any portion had been posted, and couldn't find that it had.  If it has, then there is a new installment today, so that's fresh.  These pieces are longer than the average movie quote, but IMHO, well worth the read.  They are in order from most recent, to first installment at the bottom of the page.

http://www.profilingsuccess.net/tag/auburn-football-decline/

Edit to Revised link with all 4 stories.

[Townhallsavoy]

Excellent.  I've only read the first installment, but there's so many points in his article that could be their own individual threads. 

[JR4AU]

Excellent.  I've only read the first installment, but there's so many points in his article that could be their own individual threads.

They get better. 

[Townhallsavoy]

It really is a testament to how the old adage "a team reflects its head coach" is true. 

This section is particularly apt:

His most obvious retreat occurred when he demanded offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn slow down the “Gus Bus”—his fast-paced offense—to protect the defense. He made this demand over Malzahn’s extreme objection. It guaranteed Malzahn—the highest-paid coordinator in college football at $1.3 million a year—would leave Auburn. Malzahn was so determined to escape Chizik’s sinking ship, he took a $500,000 pay cut to take the Arkansas State head coaching job.

Chizik’s rationale that his defense needed protection because it was young suggests his real message, his deeper message about himself, “I am young when it comes to success and need protection because it’s so dangerous,”

A confident, successful head coach would expect the players to adapt and succeed in his system.  Instead, he was changing his system to adapt to the players.  You only do that if you don't believe your system is the right fit. 

[Snaggletiger]

On the subject of slowing down the offense, to protect your defense....I still don't understand this logic.  Ideally, we'd all love to have an offense that could grind out 10-12 play drives at will.  You know, like Texas A&M and Georgia and Alabama did to Auburn this year all game long?  Sure, your defense should be plenty rested if your O is constantly doing that.  But with a fast paced offense or whatever offense you run, 3 and out is 3 and out.  Malzahn wants to run 80-90 plays per game, right?  Again, if you're running HUNH or huddling up and running out of the I, your D should have plenty of Twinkie breaks before going back out. 

You want to stop people?  Don't look at your offense.  Go hire great defensive minds and recruit great players and give them a plan to go out there and kick the other team in the ass.  You consistently stop the other team with 3 and outs, then who gives a shit what offense you're running.  Go pay....err, sign Foster and Liner and Lawson and Johnson and fuck shit up.   

[Townhallsavoy]

On the subject of slowing down the offense, to protect your defense....I still don't understand this logic.  Ideally, we'd all love to have an offense that could grind out 10-12 play drives at will.  You know, like Texas A&M and Georgia and Alabama did to Auburn this year all game long?  Sure, your defense should be plenty rested if your O is constantly doing that.  But with a fast paced offense or whatever offense you run, 3 and out is 3 and out.  Malzahn wants to run 80-90 plays per game, right?  Again, if you're running HUNH or huddling up and running out of the I, your D should have plenty of Twinkie breaks before going back out. 

You want to stop people?  Don't look at your offense.  Go hire great defensive minds and recruit great players and give them a plan to go out there and kick the other team in the ass.  You consistently stop the other team with 3 and outs, then who gives a shit what offense you're running.  Go pay....err, sign Foster and Liner and Lawson and Johnson and fuck shit up.

The logic is that you're 100% confident that your defense is going to give up points and big plays, so instead of fixing the defense, you alter the offense to somehow give your defense less time to screw things up. 

I don't know what was going through Chizik's mind.  Maybe he figured Malzahn's offense will score anyway so might as well slow it down to help the defense. 

The point though is that Chizik thought he could micromanage successful aspects of his program when deep down he knew that his micromanaging skills didn't work.  Combine that with a stubbornness from being successful, and voila, 2012 Auburn football. 

[Shug Dye]

I won't be doing shit the rest of the day.

[Townhallsavoy]

I will say this -

This is a very interesting read, but I don't know if I agree with all of it.  I think this guy is reading into Chizik's words a bit too much and may be cherry picking to satisfy a belief he has. 

Because Chizik made a joke about being the best speaker so far but not yet the worst at a QB club meeting means that he was already foretelling how he would go from BCS champs to worst Auburn team of all time?  Come on.  That's a bit too far. 

I may be more inclined to accept everything he's saying if he showed, psychologically, how Chizik built success in order to contrast it with the way Chizik destroyed it all. 

Hopefully he'll cover that in later installments. 

[Buzz Killington]

I won't be doing shit the rest of the day.

^^^This^^^

[dallaswareagle]

I won't be doing shit the rest of the day.

Shug Dye
Little Sister
Senior

Posts: 666

Thats some evil shit.

[JR4AU]

I will say this -

This is a very interesting read, but I don't know if I agree with all of it.  I think this guy is reading into Chizik's words a bit too much and may be cherry picking to satisfy a belief he has. 

Because Chizik made a joke about being the best speaker so far but not yet the worst at a QB club meeting means that he was already foretelling how he would go from BCS champs to worst Auburn team of all time?  Come on.  That's a bit too far. 

I may be more inclined to accept everything he's saying if he showed, psychologically, how Chizik built success in order to contrast it with the way Chizik destroyed it all. 

Hopefully he'll cover that in later installments.

He's a forensic profiler.  It's not an exact science, and some even think it's no science at all.  I believe he hits some things pretty close, others right on the head, and maybe some are a bit contrived like you said.  And, of course, it's all written in hindsight, which we all know is 50/50.  Still, I think he backs up much of it with tangible facts, and results tell the final story.  And, although it's written in hindsight, I don't think he suddenly recalled things Chiz said at a QB Club meeting over a year and a half ago out of the blue...I think he probably made note of them for future reference because he thought they were meaningful, and telling at the time they were said. 

[Buzz Killington]

He's a forensic profiler.  It's not an exact science, and some even think it's no science at all.  I believe he hits some things pretty close, others right on the head, and maybe some are a bit contrived like you said.  And, of course, it's all written in hindsight, which we all know is 50/50.  Still, I think he backs up much of it with tangible facts, and results tell the final story.  And, although it's written in hindsight, I don't think he suddenly recalled things Chiz said at a QB Club meeting over a year and a half ago out of the blue...I think he probably made note of them for future reference because he thought they were meaningful, and telling at the time they were said.

That's what I am reading into this.  Interesting tidbits he caught before, but didn't necessarily make perfect sense until after the fact.