good post if Jay would put this up front it would please me.

correct me if I am wrong, but aren’t Antarrius Williams, Carlos Rodgers, and Walter McFadden black? There were others at the press conference in SUPPORT of Chizik. You know, I don’t get it. This is a stupid subject to be harping on. Refer all race cards to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave starting January 20th.

I hate when people pull the race card. And it seems like they do it alot. Especially in the south. They love to pull the race card in the south.

Its like you said Tiger, we will probably never know why we hired Chizik over Gill. Barkley is gonna say what Barkley wants to say. It has always been that way and will probably always be that way. His guy didn’t make it on staff and now he is lashing out against that. Even he admitted that in conversations with Gill, Turner had doubts about wanting to coach in the SEC because he had a white wife and felt that the pressure of that fact would become a problem with many of the supporters. Even Barkley admitted that he told Gill that it could become a problem for him after Gill told Barkley his concerns. Given those doubts it makes me wonder if he would have even accepted the job in the first place. Do we even know whether or not he was offered and simply said, “no thanks”. Hell Chizik could have been the first one that we offered that would accept the job in the 1st place. Given the fact that everyone knows that our BOT’s run this program and unless your willing to follow their rules you could end up “Jetgated” in a year or 2. What coach in their right mind would want that kinda pressure on them. Then add in the pressures of having racial tension because of your families’ diversity into the mix and you’ve got a receipt for failure. But since a black man on a national stage pulled the race card nothing else seems to matter. No other explaination will do. Its simply a black and white racial thing. No other explainations needed.

I for one wanted Gill. I could care less if he was married to a man, let alone a white woman. This is football, not the million man march. Race simply has no bearing on the field of play. The best team wins. All black, All white, or all mixed. It makes no difference.

Perhaps Chizik was simply hired for the fact that he had more ties to the south than the other applicants. They felt he could recruit the schools quicker than Gill because he already had relationships in place with those coaches. Hoping that Auburn could rebound quicker from this rather than waiting 4 or 5 years for Gill and his staff to establish themselves well enough to start to get those better athletes.

Perhaps they just decided to get in a staff that was made up of Auburn people. Alabama as well as other schools do it all the time. Why can’t Auburn? Is it possible that they decided after everything that went down with Tuberville that they(BOT’s) wanted to get in someone that would work with them rather than shut them out. Which Gill surely would have done. He told Barkley that he would demand total autonomy on his program. Leading me to believe that they wanted someone to work with them and at times take orders from them. I’m sure that Gill would have resisted that kind of intrusion. Forcing another Tuberville era of football between the Coach and the BOT’s. Which is the way it should be but we are at Auburn. Its their way or the highway. Ask Tommy who wins out in the long run.

There are so many other things that could have happened for us to go in the direction of Chizik instead of Gill. Why does race have to be at the top of the list?

I can tell you of this though. If race and bigotry was infact the deciding factor here then your right Tiger we as Auburn people should’nt stand for it. We should demand that those relics be removed from the Board as well as fire the President, and AD. And anyone else involved with these plantation ways. Auburn has and always should stand for equality in every area of its athletics and educational departments. Nothing less than that will do.

War Eagle!

I hear some of you guys saying drop the race issue. Okay, it’s dropped. Now, tell me why Gill wasn’t hired? The only other explanation is the power struggle among the BOT. Either way, as Tiger on the Mountain puts it, Auburn loses out. Listen folks, I’m not one for being a pessimistic individual. I tend to try to look at the lighter side of things until my realistic side takes control.

Now, my realisitic side has taken full autonomy over the entire issue with Auburn. You guys want to know why Saban is doing so well at UA? It’s real simple: He has complete control in his contract. The powers that be can’t meddle in what he’s doing. That’s what Gill wanted, but that’s what the powers that be at Auburn weren’t willing to let happen. Anybody wondering why Auburn’s guys aren’t willing to do that yet? We’ve won too much.

After a few losing seasons, hoping less than more you’ll see change come in 2011. Those individuals will be willing to do whatever it takes for Auburn to get back on the map and in the thick of the SEC power struggle. We’ve had lots of prosperity and the BOT’s are simply too comfortable. They think our success comes from their input. Well, I don’t believe that much at all, but the next two years that watch Auburn football become mediocre at best will prove that they certainly took us out of all the prominence such a short time ago.

Change will come, and you can almost safely bet the next coach at Auburn will be an African American. I just have that feeling.

From what I can tell, we’re all pretty much behind the same idea. I’m not sure what else we can do.

I have lived in the south my entire life…and have seen racism up front and in person. I will ask this…“if Gill had been chosen over a more credited "white” coach would be screaming racism!?" I don’t think so. Good hire or not…he was hired. I believe in Auburn, and I believe this decision, as it stands, was based on experience in the SEC. Not because Gill was black or has a white wife. We are not nearly as backwards as the rest of the country seems to think we are. I am chopping this up to…nothing else better to talk about. Charles Barkley, a great athlete, is a COMPLETE IDIOT! He is using this to get his face on national TV, that is it. A media opportunity…thats it! The more we listen, and allow this to keep going…the more fuel we add to the fire.

But if we want to talk racism in the SEC, let’s talk. A black coach (Croom) was run out of Miss State, and replaced by a white coach (Mullen)…is that racist? UAT…Saban…white…racist? Florida…Meyer…white….racist? Ole Miss…Nutt…white…racist? LSU…Miles….white….racist? USC…Spurrier…white…racist? Arkansas…Petrino…white…racist? UGA…Richt…white….racist? Outside the SEC??? USCal…Carrol…white….racist? Texas….Brown….white….racist? Oklahoma….Stoops….white….racist?

No, I didn’t think so….these are good coaches who are proving, and have proven they belong where they are at. This is ridiculous! Let’s, as an Auburn Family, move on from this. We are bigger and better than media slander…we know better.

For Barkley: Don’t forget where you came from and who made who you are. You are acting like a spoiled child whose hand was slapped from the cookie jar.

WAR EAGLE!!!!!

It wasn’t based solely on experience in the SEC, but it dang sure wasn’t because Chizik is white. That is my argument.

What if Chizik was 10-14 or how about 9-15, is it still a bad hire over Turner Gill?

If you wonder where I got the numbers from, 10-14 would be a better winning percentage than Gill has at Buffalo.