welcome to arkansas!
(land of champions)
it was entertaining yesterday, having the shoe on the other foot. not a full week after their sixth straight victory over alabama, auburn fans and auburn news and auburn's football "coach" were all that jazz on the local sports-talk airwaves. "will he or won't he?" "a deal is on the table." back and forth went the talk-jockeys. my source said this. mine said that. for a full hour prior to lunch, each segment began with the "news" that tuberville could be gone and then the two guys proceeded to debate whether auburn needed tuberville more or vice versa. occasionally, they'd take a phone call from joe auburn fan. more often than not, joe was pretty defensive and good riddance about the whole thing. "if tuberville doesn't want us, then let him go." quite frankly, i don't know if auburn would really miss a beat if tubs went anywhere. from an outsider's point of view, i don't get the impression that he really does anything other than wear a headset and model under armour gear. borges runs the offense. captain mcpottymouth runs the defense. sure, tubby throws a pretty good hissy-fit, but i am not a big fan of coaches that don't have anything to do during the game other than throw tantrums and hold up one finger after a touchdown.
let's face it, auburn, the new car smell is off this era anyway isn't it? the program is solid. recruiting is solid, if not spectacular every year (it has only taken one year for saban to out-recruit auburn and take most the state's best players back). wouldn't it be cool to throw 80 hundred million at petrino again or some other "hot" coach and see if you couldn't take it up a notch for a few years? shoot, i would. but, then again, i am an alabama fan. my glass is half-full already. as for auburn, i wonder if yours isn't half-empty. 13-0 was great. 13-0 should have at least merited a shot at usc. but 13-0 isn't happening again. not anytime soon. not when you lose to georgia and lsu every year. not when you're about to start losing to alabama again sooner than you might let yourself believe.
if i am an auburn fan, i am crossing my fingers that tommy tuberville takes the cash at arkansas and fills their cupboard for years to come with 9-3 to 7-5 records just like he's done at auburn. and i am hoping that petrino comes to auburn and plays the kind of offensive ball that will be necessary to match up in two or three years with teams like georgia, lsu and alabama that will always have more "talent."
it's been fun as an alabama fan with a chip on his shoulder to have something to laugh about late this week. after hearing that julio came on the roundtable talking about oklahoma and florida, i needed a pick me up.
misery does love company. come on in, joe auburn fan. let's watch west virginia hang 60 on pitt and put me one step closer to being "that guy" that got one prediction right one time and rubs it in all his friends' faces for as long as he can (edit: ugh. or watch their starting quarterback and my pick go down in flames. kiker, andy, etc...you are off the hook.).
6 comments:
please. you are one of my dearest friends, but you sound kind of like a bitter bama fan. obviously better at predicting future than remembering past. although lost to ga and lsu this year, you cannot say that we lose every year. check your history.
bitter bama fan? hmm.
hello, pot. my name is kettle.
ah, donna. i am glad you came by and made my point for me. i went back for your sake to check "my history". what i found was this. auburn may not lose to ga. and lsu every year, but in the last five years, auburn is 2-3 against both. that's what you want??? that's the problem. tubs and auburn have grown accustomed to being just better than average every year with the one exception being 2004. and if you are happy with that, send a note to jay jacobs and tell him to pony up the cash for an already overpaid "ceo".
you must have missed the tone of my post, for i wasn't dissing auburn as much i was tuberville. i do like auburn most of the time. and i think they represent the sec fairly well. but, if you think they are better off with tuberville staying long term, well, i just don't know what to tell you. enjoy going into every season knowing you are going to lose two or three games i guess.
ok. i realize that i am just a girl and don't know much about these things. i just don't get the anti-tub sentiment. i like tuberville. a lot of my opinion is not based strictly on coaching football. i like tuberville and respect the things i hear about him off the field.
but as far as football goes, he seems to be one of auburn's best coaches in my memory. in respect of our friendship, i am trying to avoid easy shots about our in-state rivalry. however, i will point out that there is a theory that some of the speculation about tuberville as a candidate for other jobs is coming from interests of that rival who see coach tub as a major obstacle in the way of their attempt to move back into their glory days.
granted tub is 5-4 overall against both ga and lsu during his time at auburn. of course i would like better. i would like a string of undefeated years.
i think his overall record at auburn is 79-33. career is something like 104-53. (compare to saban's 98–48–1) i guess you would just have to explain to me why with similar career w/l records, saban is alabama's savior and tuberville (who is paid less than saban) is an overpaid ceo.
of course in the end, i am an auburn fan regardless of who our coach is. we are the auburn nation. some people are the saban nation. for us it is about our team - not about one man.
so this is a lengthy discussion when i was simply pointing out that we kind of havea back and forth thing going with ga and lsu rather than losing every year as your original post implied.
btw: i have something for caroline that she needs before christmas.
wow.
i cannot believe you just played the "we are the auburn nation card."
and i cannot believe you brought stats to my blog. i won't blame your ignorance (when it comes to this subject. my subject. my opinion...not in general...this is too trivial to make personal...but fun anyway.) on being a girl, but if you truly do not understand the "saban as savior" concept, i will draw you an analogy that hits closer to home. do you remember how everyone (that was willing to admit it) at humc breathed a collective sigh of relief when charles lee left? i know you do, because you breathed with me. well, the same breath was breathed when saban came because it coincided with mike shula leaving. you are correct about tubs being one of the more accomplished coaches ever at auburn. well, shula was the opposite of that. he was the worst. ever. alabama had one decent season in spite of him, but he was completely incompetent in the context of the job he was handed as was charles lee. in our minds, rick owen was the new hope, the pastor we had heard good things about that we hoped could help us remember our own "glory days" and reclaim our tradition. (i don't know that he failed to execute any positive momentum despite being given every benefit of every doubt says more about him or huffman. probably a little of both.) saban is bama's rick owen. he's won a national championship playing out of the same league that alabama plays out of. he's turned around three college programs. and he is now being given every benefit of every doubt. so forgive me for laughing at the thought of it "being about one man". it is not saban alabama fans are worshipping. it is the church of alabama football being what it once was. the hope of what it could be. my hope of what it will be.
to bring it back to my original thought (my original post), though, if tuberville is auburn's "hope" for you, then great. if i were an auburn fan, it wouldn't be. it's as simple as that.
btw - caroline said, "cool."
we obviously just miss talking to each other if we can have this long conversation about something that will make no real difference in either of our lives.
the shula/saban to lee/owen analogy makes a lot more sense than just thinking saban is the best thing that ever happened to alabama. i don't think tubs is auburn's only hope, but i don't quite think he falls in a lee or owen category either.
this has been fun.
well, it looks like he signed the extension.
enjoy.
i guess.
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