Chizik to Auburn!

[adoniijahsooner]

Did he do anything at Iowa State to merit this?


http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=3767115

[JLEW1818]

really

[SOONERxWife73]

he has roots at auburn

[yermom]

probably more of what he did at Texas and Allbarn

i think given time he'd improve ISU but there wasn't a lot there when he got there

[TheHumanAlphabet]

chizik = gibbs

[JLEW1818]

Auburn is gonna be called racist now

[goingoneight]

So 2-10 is all it takes to land a top job in the SEC?

[Fiatil]

Wow, they pass up on Muschamp and Turner Gill for Chizik?

[JLEW1818]

this is going to turn into a huge race issue, just watch.

[adoniijahsooner]

Auburn is gonna be called racist now

Maybe; But Turner Gill has done an impressive job at Buffalo, and in my opinion is a better coach than Gene. I think is foolish for passing on Turner.

[JLEW1818]

Maybe; But Turner Gill has done an impressive job at Buffalo, and in my opinion is a better coach than Gene. I think is foolish for passing on Turner.

yep, that's what I'm talking about.... Should be interesting to hear what Charles Barkley has to say, lol . . .

[Partial Qualifier]

How the hell do you explain that to your players & fans?

"Hey everyone, listen up!

We railroaded coach Tuberville -- who was highly successful by any measure -- so we could get this guy with 2 years head coaching experience! Yes, seriously! His record is 5-and-19! Yeah!"



:confused:

[JLEW1818]

whats the Auburn message board site? I wanna read what they are saying? ......... link?

[adoniijahsooner]

How the hell do you explain that to your players & fans?

"Hey everyone, listen up!

We railroaded coach Tuberville -- who was highly successful by any measure -- so we could get this guy with 2 years head coaching experience! Yes, seriously! His record is 5-and-19! Yeah!"




:confused:

This is definitely a head scratcher. It brings no excitement or hope that things will get better.

[adoniijahsooner]

http://auburn.nu/board/
http://auburnfootballfanforum.yuku.com/

[soonerinabilene]

In all fairness to Chizick, I think he just took the Iowa State job to get some experience as a head coach. A Stoops/Brown/Carroll/Meyer clone couldnt turn that program around in 2 years, he really had no chance. He is a fantastic DC though, and I think he will be good in the SEC. But Turner Gill definitely would have been the best choice. Almost guarentees him going to Syracuse now.

[Stitch Face]

In all fairness to Chizick, I think he just took the Iowa State job to get some experience as a head coach. A Stoops/Brown/Carroll/Meyer clone couldnt turn that program around in 2 years, he really had no chance. He is a fantastic DC though, and I think he will be good in the SEC. But Turner Gill definitely would have been the best choice. Almost guarentees him going to Syracuse now.

Syracuse just hired the Saints' OC.

[PrideTrombone]

Worst... Hire.... Ever.
http://www.progets.com/simpsons/pics/the%20comic%20book%20guy%20pondering.gif

[Curly Bill]

How very underwhelming for them.

[RUSH LIMBAUGH is my clone!]

Chizik will have a rough time recruiting against Saban. Auburn is about to be the Auburn of old.

[Soonersince57]

Let's get rid of Stoops and hire Duke's coach.

[aurorasooner]

So will ISU go after TG and if TG is a little bitter over the Huskers hiring Bo over him--? Probably bad for TG, but if I remember right ISU wasn't paying Chizek bottom of the barrel wages. I can't really see it as that would be like Heupel taking the OC job in Stoolwater, but the ISU/Corn game would be interesting and the corn boards would just flat implode. I know very little about it, but while the Huskers rivals are supposedly Colorado or Missouri and to a lesser extent KSU and KU, I've heard that Nebraska and Iowa State just hate the livin' h&ll out of each other.

[OklahomaTuba]

Who is Iowa State???

[HungaryGator]

Bobby Lowder is killing their program. The Aubbies are massively PO'd.

[RacerX]

The people we've talked to here in Auburn/Opelika are not impressed.

[RedstickSooner]

I'm still completely puzzled by why Allbarn got rid of Tubberville. Does anyone have a linky to an article or whatnot that explains what the fudge they were smoking?

[HungaryGator]

Lemme explain for those who don't know Auburn. That school is controlled by a big money booster named Bobby Lowder. He sits on the board of trustees and is the president of Colonial Bank. In 2003, Lowder decided to get rid of Tuberville and hire Bobby Petrino who was the coach of Louisville at the time. Word got out that Auburn was talking to Petrino. The administration denied it of course but Bobby Lowder's personal jet was spotted landing at the Louisville airport and identified immediately by its tail number. Pictures were taken and posted on the web within minutes of its landing.

Not surprisingly, being caught in a lie....being caught interviewing another coach when their own coach had not even been told anything made both Bobby Lowder and Bobby Petrino look like the snakes they both are. The fanbase at Auburn was outraged and this gave Tuberville the upper hand. The administration at Auburn (Lowder's pawns) had to apologize and back down. This whole episode became known around the SEC as the "Stooge Putsch."

Lowder doesn't take well to being humiliated like that. The very next year, Auburn went undefeated. This really gave Tuberville the upper hand. Lowder bided his time and waited. So this year when Auburn finally had a disappointing season, Lowder saw his chance and pounced. Supposedly Tommy Tubberville "resigned" despite the AD begging him not to. Auburn therefore did not owe him anything.....but decided to fork over the $5 mil buyout out of the goodness of their hearts I suppose. :rolleyes:

I don't even think this is about winning and losing. This is about the ego of one man. The vast overwhelming majority of the Auburn fanbase hates Bobby Lowder and does not support anything he does, but he holds all the power at that school---same as it ever was.

[OU341]

I don't have the link but tubervilles mom said that he was fired and did not resign.

[AllAboutThe'O']

Lemme explain for those who don't know Auburn. That school is controlled by a big money booster named Bobby Lowder. He sits on the board of trustees and is the president of Colonial Bank. In 2003, Lowder decided to get rid of Tuberville and hire Bobby Petrino who was the coach of Louisville at the time. Word got out that Auburn was talking to Petrino. The administration denied it of course but Bobby Lowder's personal jet was spotted landing at the Louisville airport and identified immediately by its tail number. Pictures were taken and posted on the web within minutes of its landing.

Not surprisingly, being caught in a lie....being caught interviewing another coach when their own coach had not even been told anything made both Bobby Lowder and Bobby Petrino look like the snakes they both are. The fanbase at Auburn was outraged and this gave Tuberville the upper hand. The administration at Auburn (Lowder's pawns) had to apologize and back down. This whole episode became known around the SEC as the "Stooge Putsch."

Lowder doesn't take well to being humiliated like that. The very next year, Auburn went undefeated. This really gave Tuberville the upper hand. Lowder bided his time and waited. So this year when Auburn finally had a disappointing season, Lowder saw his chance and pounced. Supposedly Tommy Tubberville "resigned" despite the AD begging him not to. Auburn therefore did not owe him anything.....but decided to fork over the $5 mil buyout out of the goodness of their hearts I suppose. :rolleyes:

I don't even think this is about winning and losing. This is about the ego of one man. The vast overwhelming majority of the Auburn fanbase hates Bobby Lowder and does not support anything he does, but he holds all the power at that school---same as it ever was.

So who's the bigger egomaniac booster for his school, Lowder or T. Boone?

And yeah, the Chizik hire is totally underwhelming. I would've hired Houston Dale Nutt as head coach before I would Chizik.

[OU341]

Especially after two underwhelming seasons at Iowa State where he amassed a whopping 5 wins.

[RedstickSooner]

Lemme explain for those who don't know Auburn. That school is controlled by a big money booster named Bobby Lowder. He sits on the board of trustees and is the president of Colonial Bank. In 2003, Lowder decided to get rid of Tuberville and hire Bobby Petrino who was the coach of Louisville at the time. Word got out that Auburn was talking to Petrino. The administration denied it of course but Bobby Lowder's personal jet was spotted landing at the Louisville airport and identified immediately by its tail number. Pictures were taken and posted on the web within minutes of its landing.

Not surprisingly, being caught in a lie....being caught interviewing another coach when their own coach had not even been told anything made both Bobby Lowder and Bobby Petrino look like the snakes they both are. The fanbase at Auburn was outraged and this gave Tuberville the upper hand. The administration at Auburn (Lowder's pawns) had to apologize and back down. This whole episode became known around the SEC as the "Stooge Putsch."

Lowder doesn't take well to being humiliated like that. The very next year, Auburn went undefeated. This really gave Tuberville the upper hand. Lowder bided his time and waited. So this year when Auburn finally had a disappointing season, Lowder saw his chance and pounced. Supposedly Tommy Tubberville "resigned" despite the AD begging him not to. Auburn therefore did not owe him anything.....but decided to fork over the $5 mil buyout out of the goodness of their hearts I suppose. :rolleyes:

I don't even think this is about winning and losing. This is about the ego of one man. The vast overwhelming majority of the Auburn fanbase hates Bobby Lowder and does not support anything he does, but he holds all the power at that school---same as it ever was.

Cool, thanks for the info :)

[SoonerBoognish]

Here's what I'm asking myself. Did Iowa State make a bigger mistake by firing McCarney and hiring Chizik, or was it Auburn firing Tubberville and hiring Chizik? Somewhat similar in my mind. McCarney had some decent success by Iowa State standards with bowl appearances and whatnot, then had a typical ISU year and they can him. A couple of parallels there... sorta.

[Partial Qualifier]

^^ good question. I'd say ISU screwed the bigger pooch because it's a stepping stone program normally, but they had a guy (and a good coach) in McCarney who was in it for the long haul.

[royalfan5]

So will ISU go after TG and if TG is a little bitter over the Huskers hiring Bo over him--? Probably bad for TG, but if I remember right ISU wasn't paying Chizek bottom of the barrel wages. I can't really see it as that would be like Heupel taking the OC job in Stoolwater, but the ISU/Corn game would be interesting and the corn boards would just flat implode. I know very little about it, but while the Huskers rivals are supposedly Colorado or Missouri and to a lesser extent KSU and KU, I've heard that Nebraska and Iowa State just hate the livin' h&ll out of each other.

I don't think Gill will take a Big XII North job. If he did, I don't think NU fans will get real worked up about it unless Bo falls flat on his face, or Gill morphs into Warren Powers Jr. ISU may hate NU, but NU doesn't care about ISU at all. It's like OU and Kansas or something like that. I think most NU fans hope Gill gets a far better job than ISU. If he bides his time for a couple years, maybe he will land in College Station. Or if Bo fails, or leaves, back in Lincoln. TCU would be a very likely spot if Patterson were to move up as well.

[nytehorn]

IMO, you cannot rate if he is a good head coach or not at Iowa St. It seems impossible to me to recruit great players, when the school is at the bottom tier of the Big 12, plus has a bigger university(Iowa), grabbing the best recruits that want to play in the Big 10. Yes, McCarney was a bad firing decision.

[HungaryGator]

BTW, Dan McCarney is our DL coach. He really did a great job of taking a bunch of talented kids and molding them into a good solid unit this year after our DL was a weakness last year. Before that, he turned USF's DL into a force which led to a #2 ranking for them at one point last year. Our DC-Charlie Strong-is and will be a candidate for a head coaching position. We probably won't hold onto Charlie much longer and when he goes, McCarney is the overwhelming choice of most of our fans to become DC. He's a good coach.

[DenverSooner751]

I don't think Gill will take a Big XII North job. If he did, I don't think NU fans will get real worked up about it unless Bo falls flat on his face, or Gill morphs into Warren Powers Jr. ISU may hate NU, but NU doesn't care about ISU at all. It's like OU and Kansas or something like that. I think most NU fans hope Gill gets a far better job than ISU. If he bides his time for a couple years, maybe he will land in College Station. Or if Bo fails, or leaves, back in Lincoln. TCU would be a very likely spot if Patterson were to move up as well.

IMO, Gill will end up being the next AD at Nebraska. Everyone knows Tom is a short term AD, he has said it himself, and besides, he is up there in years and I imagine that he will want to turn the department over to another "family member" from the past.

A little tid bit about Gill that has not been mentioned in this conversation, he has NFL front office experience with the Green Bay packers, I think he was the player development director or some such title.

My gut feeling says, here is a guy with a legacy at NU, pro level front office management experience and head coaching experience showing improvement year over year, and this year he has the MAC champion team, with a winning record, a signature win over an undefeated Ball St (trust me, this is not my idea of signature, but it would be considered as such for the Buffalo program I imagine) team and a bowl appearance coming up. This guy IS IT whenever Tom steps down as AD at Nebraska, I would say, forget all the talk about TG becoming a head coach somewhere else, although I am sure he will be targeted aggressively, I think he is going home to Lincoln as an AD in the near future.

That would be my predeiction of TG's future.

As far as AU hiring Chizik........ looks like Alabama beating Auburn will be back to the trend.

[royalfan5]

IMO, Gill will end up being the next AD at Nebraska. Everyone knows Tom is a short term AD, he has said it himself, and besides, he is up there in years and I imagine that he will want to turn the department over to another "family member" from the past.

A little tid bit about Gill that has not been mentioned in this conversation, he has NFL front office experience with the Green Bay packers, I think he was the player development director or some such title.

My gut feeling says, here is a guy with a legacy at NU, pro level front office management experience and head coaching experience showing improvement year over year, and this year he has the MAC champion team, with a winning record, a signature win over an undefeated Ball St (trust me, this is not my idea of signature, but it would be considered as such for the Buffalo program I imagine) team and a bowl appearance coming up. This guy IS IT whenever Tom steps down as AD at Nebraska, I would say, forget all the talk about TG becoming a head coach somewhere else, although I am sure he will be targeted aggressively, I think he is going home to Lincoln as an AD in the near future.

That would be my predeiction of TG's future.

As far as AU hiring Chizik........ looks like Alabama beating Auburn will be back to the trend.

The main school of thought here has Dave Rimington or Ed Stewart as the new AD. Rimington has been running Boomer Esiason's foundations, and Stewart has been in the Big XII administrative office. I can't see Gill giving up coaching at such a young age to be an administrator.

[SoonerBacker]

A buddy of mne who is an Auburn fan just sent me this. you'll get an idea of how AU fans are feelin these days.

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/blog/dr_saturday/post/Gene-Chizik-meet-Auburn-s-finest-torches-and-pi?urn=ncaaf,128957

[Soonerfan88]

Auburn fans definitely aren't happy. But I got to this comment and my jaw dropped. WTF has he been smoking/snorting/shooting?


50. Posted by michael w Sun Dec 14, 2008 4:40 pm EST
it doesnt matter no sec team will be up for the title next year anyway it will be notre dame and texas mark my words

[SbOrOiNaEnR]

yep, that's what I'm talking about.... Should be interesting to hear what Charles Barkley has to say, lol . . .

Who called it? jlew1818, ladies and gentlemen.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=3770769


Lobbying for Gill, alum Barkley says Auburn should have hired black coach

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Mark Schlabach
ESPN.com

Former Auburn and NBA star Charles Barkley ripped his alma mater on Monday, saying the only reason the Tigers did not hire Buffalo's Turner Gill as the school's new football coach is because Gill is black.


Auburn on Saturday hired Iowa State's Gene Chizik, who had a 5-19 record in two seasons with the Cyclones. Chizik was the defensive coordinator at Auburn in 2004, when the Tigers finished 13-0 and ranked No. 2 in the country.

Chizik replaces former Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville, who won 85 games in 10 seasons but was forced to resign earlier this month.

"I think race was the No. 1 factor," said Barkley, who played basketball for three seasons at Auburn during the early 1980s. "You can say it's not about race, but you can't compare the two resumes and say [Chizik] deserved the job. Out of all the coaches they interviewed, Chizik probably had the worst resume."

Gill, a former Nebraska quarterback, took over one of the country's worst programs at Buffalo three years ago. He guided the Bulls to an 8-5 record and their first MAC championship this season, upsetting previously unbeaten Ball State 42-24 in the Dec. 5 conference championship game.


The Bulls won 10 games in their first seven seasons at the Division I-A level. Gill guided Buffalo to 13 victories during the last two seasons combined.

"I'm just very disappointed," Barkley said. "I just thought Turner Gill would be the perfect choice for two reasons: He's a terrific coach and we needed to make a splash. I thought we had to do something spectacular to bring attention to the program. Clearly, if we'd hired a black coach, it would have created a buzz."

Barkley, who works as an NBA analyst for Turner Network Television, said he spoke with Gill before Gill interviewed with Auburn officials last week.

"We talked about the whole race thing in Alabama," Barkley said. "I told him it's there and it's going to be anywhere you go. I told him you can't not take the job because of racism. He was worried about being nothing more than a token interview. He was concerned about having a white wife. It's just very disappointing to me."

Barkley, an 11-time NBA All-Star and two-time Olympic gold medal winner, said he served on Auburn's search committee for a new basketball coach after the 2003-04 season. Barkley said he told Auburn officials he would serve on the committee only if the school was ready to hire a black coach.

Barkley said he presented three African-American candidates for consideration: former Indiana coach Mike Davis, then-Virginia Commonwealth coach Jeff Capel and then-UAB coach Mike Anderson.

Barkley said all three candidates wanted to coach at Auburn. Instead, the Tigers hired then-Chattanooga coach Jeff Lebo, a white candidate. Lebo has a 61-68 record in his fifth season at Auburn.

Barkley said he was removed from Auburn's search committee before Lebo was hired.

"Out of all the basketball coaches they interviewed, they picked the only one who hadn't been to the NCAA tournament," Barkley said.

There are only four African-American coaches among 119 programs in the NCAA's Football Bowl Subdivision. Illinois offensive coordinator Mike Locksley was hired as New Mexico's coach last week; the others are Gill, Miami's Randy Shannon and Houston's Kevin Sumlin.

Two African-American coaches, Washington's Tyrone Willingham and Kansas State's Ron Prince, were fired during the 2008 season, and Mississippi State's Sylvester Croom resigned.

Barkley said he wanted Gill to become Auburn's coach because Auburn is a school where an African-American coach could be successful.

"My biggest problem with the black coaches is they're not getting jobs and they're getting [expletive] jobs when they are hired," Barkley said. "They're not getting good jobs. They're not getting jobs where they can be successful. That's why I wanted Turner to get the Auburn job. He could win consistently at Auburn. You can't win consistently at New Mexico. You can't win consistently at Kansas State. He could have won at Auburn."

Mark Schlabach covers college football for ESPN.com.

[Mr2Cents]

I've had quite a few calls and emails since Saturday from my Auburn friends and this sums up their collective reaction:

http://igiveupagain2.tripod.com/aubarnreaction.jpg

[JLEW1818]

I don't really care much about race and all that, who did what and stuff. But race had a big part in this decision, I think.

[Fiatil]

Wow, here's one guy that's pretty happy Auburn was too racist to hire Capel; that worked out pretty well for us.

Shame that Auburn didn't hire Gill though, on paper there really isn't any way to defend it. I'm not insisting it had to be racism, but it really seems like Auburn picked the worse coach they had available to them. All they can do to prove us wrong is win....well uhh, good luck!