I totally agree Jay. I love what Tuberville has done as much as the next guy but the evidence over the last two years is overwhelming that Tubbs is losing ground in the SEC wars and it is getting worse. I have always argued that with todays scholarship rules, every team gets its fair share of good players if they recruit well. The difference between winners and losers is coaching and our guys are not getting coached well on offense. We have been hanging on with good defense but even that is starting to look very shaky. How many times are our linebackers going to play out of position before some changes are made?

The cold fact is that after a while even the best coaches get left behind as their competition strives to get better and bring a new look to their teams. Tuberville is still serving the same product he always has with the same old coaches. Once you hit the zenith in your program (2004) it should be easier to maintain that high level of talent influx because of the stature of the program and the guys you are sending to the pros. On the other hand it is harder to maintain because everybody is gunning for you and you constantly need to stay on the vanguard of football philosophy and theory. Thats why big time coaches get paid big time money. If Tubbs was making $800 grand…well you get what you pay for. Tubbs hit his Zenith in 2004 and is now back where he started in ‘99, most coaches don’t come back from that to reach previously scaled heights. I can’t think of any outside the legends of Paterno and Bowden. If you hit 10 years with a program and you are obviously on the slide down chances are you’re done.

My biggest concern is Tubbs just doesn’t have it in his boiler to make the changes necessary and give up the control he needs to get back to SEC title contention. Nothing he has shown me in the last 3-4 years leads me to believe he has the vision to get back to where we were. Remember the 2004 class was recruited in 99 and 2000 when things were fresh and Tubbs was selling a new Auburn program. Its been downhill ever since those guys left and its not been because we haven’t had the talent come through. We consistently have had top rated QBs, WR’s and RB’s come to Auburn, only to flounder and not reach their potential. That is failure to coach and develop your talent and that ultimately goes back to Tubs. We have been stagnant as a program while others have grown and surpassed us. We all know about UGA, Fla, LSU and Bama but Ole Miss is now making a move and will contend next year. Tenn won’t accept floundering any longer and Fulmer won a National Title! I think Tubs is a good man and I am not against giving him another shot to right the ship but really if you are only giving him a year or two to turn it around….well…sometimes you have to amputate to save the patient.

Am I drinking the Kool-Aide, or just missing something? I also see the meltdown happening right in front of me, but what would you have Auburn do? There are only a couple of coaches who would make an immediate impact on a school and thier conference just be showing up. Bama made that hire, Florida made it as well… Notre Dame will make that hire as well (if they can get Urban). The big time coaches that are left are pretty entrenched in thier own programs. Will Muschamp is not one of those coaches. I just do not believe in him. Kiffen is not either, we will see in a couple of years. Name me a big time coach, that can make an immediate impact that would come to Auburn.

We should be talking about OCs instead of Head Coaches.

post immediately folowing the Franklin fire has been proven correct . Eventhough bloggers overwhelmy did not like what you said. I know no one loves Auburn and wants to see us succeed more than you do ! Thanks for always telling it like it is !

of the entire season to view…..saturdays performance was not unexpected. The knee jerk reaction and complete about face by you Jay however is. Tuberville has not lost the past two seasons on and off the field to Saban. One recruiting class was stellar for Saban and less than stellar for Tuberville (although it was respectable). For you to make some of the statements that you are making is very dissapointing. Tuberville has not been passed by in the game or any such crap. The man may have picked the absolute worst time to change offenses from a fans short term perspective but he was looking towards the future and I agree that the change will benefit AU in the future. I thought I had seen the last of the flip flopping with the end of the election year campaigning. Col.Angus and his ilk will be calling for heads every other year no matter who is the coach. Bama has enjoyed the perfect storm and we should not knee jerk our decisions based on the goings on in Tuscaloosa. Bama has a lack of depth that should have reared its ugly head and bit them in the ass but due to some Les Miles type luck they went unscathed. Think back to Texas A&M with R.C. Slocum all he did was have 9 and 10 win seasons every season and beat UT on a regular basis. Now where is he and where is the Texas A&M program? Is that where AU is headed? Get rid of Tuberville and who is better than him that you can bring in? It sure isn’t Muschamp. We should be reaffirming our support for our Coach rather than fueling the fire. Tuberville deserves the chance to right the ship plain and simple. You can’t let one miserable season disrupt our program possibly for many seasons to come. Rally around Tuberville and he will keep AU at the top of the SEC. Our only question should be who is our next OC and what position coaches is he bringing. Let the fair weather fans have the knee jerk reactions.

Sorry Jay but i just can’t agree with your writings this time. I’m sure that your as upset with this weekend as the rest of us. It was as if our team didnt show up for the game. But to fire our coach of the past 10 years that has given us so much to cheer for simply because of his 1st bad season is knee-jerk to say the least. He did something to turn around our offensive melt-down and it has bitten him and us pretty bad. But to throw him under the bus for it is wrong. He deserves time to right the ship and make amends. When i first had the money to start buying season tickets was in 2001. Those tickets for the handicap section 17 in the student section were easy to come by and not that expensive. every year those tickets got harder to get and more expensive. Do you know why? It was because every year that we got better those tickets got harder to get and more expensive to get. Do you know why we got better? Tuberville! I couldn’t get season tickets this year because they were sold-out before they went to the general public sell. I could have bought a single game ticket but the athletic dept told me that they couldn’t exchange them for a handicap ticket cause it was full. So for all you idiots that are saying that you won’t be going to the games anymore because we weren’t as good as before. I’m glad! Maybe now the real fans can attend the games that we love so much.

I can’t begin to describe my disappointment in “Auburn people” making statements like have been made here today. The more I sit here, the more steamed I become. As I said earlier this morning, this is absolutely ludicrous. Do you people really want somebody like Kiffin, or worse, somebody who answers to “Dabo” heading up our program? What in the world makes you think they’re even close to Tubs?? Get a grip folks … we’re going to command no one better than UT or Clemson … especially, after running off someone like Tuberville!

Jay …. this is destructive and serves no useful purpose. PLEEEEEASE … close this thread, bury it, and let’s talk about how well we’re going to do recruiting fine, young men to represent the university we love!

…..Those are questions that Gogue needs to ask. And Tommy T. needs to ask them of himself, too. He’s set for life, financially. Does he want to do what it takes to contend, from this point forward?

…..One thing about Auburn University, is that it produces men and women who WILL demand accountability. Sometimes it’s too public, and Auburn people are seen as hot-headed. Our feuds among ourselves are just too public, outsiders say.

…..What would have happened, though, if the Auburn family did not cry out about William Walker, David Housel, and Jetgate? Ultimately, we held our leader accountable for it, even if it was embarrassing. It had to be done, and I admire the courage of the men who stood up for what is right.

……Jay’s asking the hard questions that need to be asked. No, it doesn’t make us look good. It CAN’T have been easy to make that post above. Painful, and difficult, I’d think. Those of us invested in the Auburn program, both emotionally and financially, are indebted to responsible folk like Jay, who ask the difficult questions.

……There is a reason, that since Bear Bryant passed out of the SEC, that Auburn has a winning record against every conference foe save Florida. We have a winning record in the past quarter century against Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, and LSU. Think about that for a moment. That’s the upper echelon of the league. It did not happen by accident. Hard decisions were made in the wake of the Barfield administration. The Vince Dooley hire was botched, and Auburn people outside the university insisted on change. And painful or not, every coach who’s stumbled has had to answer for it, including Dye, including Bowden, and now it’s Tuberville’s turn.

…..Here’s hoping that Tuberville and Gogue can sit down, make the necessary hard decisions, and go forward with new purpose. Replacing Tuberville would be a big mess, and would set us way back. But the question of whether Tub will do what it takes, had to be asked. Has to be asked.

But i prefer to look at it as a needed wake up call to Tuberville rather than an eviction notice on his office door. Because I don’t think that we’ve gotten to that point quite yet.

I will agree that if Tub’s isn’t doing his job on the recruiting trail like he should be (i.e. making phone calls and writing letters) then someone, somewhere needs to get the man on the ball.

WAKEUP CALL!

I think that some of the posters here are missing the point of Jay’s article. He is not calling for Tuberville’s head. In fact I think that he is just pointing out the facts. He is correct about Saban whipping Tubervilles rear in recruiting. We have done ok over the past few years. Ok will not cut it with Saban in the picture. He is a master recruiter, and Tuberville will ahve to work extra hard to get these boys to the Plains.

I think that everyone on this site wants Tuberville to return. I think that he will return, but I also think he will be “forced” to let most of his staff go. Lets focus on getting the right staff in here so we can right this ship.

‘Fire Tubs NOW!’.. We should never be afraid to ask questions. Especially when those questions are hard ones to ask. I am a huge Tubs’ supporter, and my posts support that. What is getting old is lack of retention at the Coordinator positions (which doesn’t help recruiting). And if we are recruiting well enough, where is the coaching to support that talent?

Jetgate hurt more than just the trust of a Coach in his University. It has also crippled the ability of the Admin to have these tough conversations and demand accountability. And frankly, what is worse than hearing some people calling for Tubs’ head are those that lack the faith that AU is a good place to be a football coach. At the end of the day, we are all on the same side. We want excellence at Auburn. Let’s just hope we don’t run the opposite direction from excellent during the off season.

You nailed it with this statement, “Jetgate hurt more than just the trust of a Coach in his University. It has also crippled the ability of the Admin to have these tough conversations and demand accountability.” I couldn’t agree more.

years ago, it still seems to rear its ugly ugly head. Thank you for all of the updates!