November 16, 2008
Like a CMT soap opera set in the Appalachians, Auburn’s season this year has gone from bad, to worse, to abominable.
And there’s really only one person who should be held accountable for that. Tommy Tuberville has proved, time and again this year, that he either doesn’t know, or doesn’t care, how to be the head coach of a Division I-A football program in the NCAA.
Forget streaks, forget the past, forget anything else. Auburn is a dismal 5–6 right now, and are 2–5 in SEC conference play. In fact, since their “lost championship” year in 2004, where they went a perfect 13–0 but were denied a shot at a National Championship, Auburn has been on a continual downward slide in conference play.
The ludicrous Tony Franklin Experiment on offense this year didn’t just show Tuberville’s ineptitude at implementing such a major change. It highlighted his utter lack of leadership as the head coach of the Auburn Tigers.
Tuberville’s skated for many years by sacrificing assistants and coordinators whenever the Tigers failed to perform. So his throwing Franklin under the bus is nothing new under the Auburn sun.
But what has truly cemented Tuberville’s fate is his stunning inability to recruit against the Crimson Tide. From the moment he stepped off the tarmac in Tuscaloosa, Nick Saban basically took Tommy Tuberville out behind the woodshed in what is without question the most important part of any successful program and the most important job of any successful head coach: recruiting.
Successful recruiting is nothing less than laying the foundation for the very future of your program. Successful recruiting is the difference between Tyrone Willingham getting three years at Notre Dame, and Charlie Weis getting four.
Last year, while Nick Saban was putting the finishing touches on wrapping up the #1 recruiting class in the nation…a recruiting class which translated into immediate results for the #1 ranked Crimson Tide this year, where do you think Tommy Tuberville was?
Duck hunting.
After 5 very mediocre years of conference play, Tuberville survived a coup in 2003, thanks to the sports media blowing the lid off the JetGate debacle.
He won’t get a second reprieve this time around.
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November 16, 2008
And yet another shoutout to yet another SEC team who got the job done today to become eligible for post-season play…Ole Miss.
I have to admit, the Ole Miss t-shirt above is now considered a limited edition collector’s item. Since the arrival of Houston Nutt, the Rebels have been playing with an intensity not seen since…well, ever.
Now, I’m in no way, shape or form suggesting that anyone on Mississippi’s campus would do anything to curtail any activity related to their burgeoning careers in professional drinking. Nutt may be a big step up in coaching for the Rebels, but he’s not a miracle worker. And getting anyone from Ole Miss to stop abusing their liver?
That’s the Mississippi equivalent of Mission Impossible.
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November 15, 2008
Big huge shoutout to all the Gold in the house for Vandy’s important win over Kentucky tonight.
That win made Vanderbilt bowl eligible for the first time since 1982, which was during the first of Ronald Reagan’s glorious two terms in office.
Vandy tonight proved you don’t have to be big, dumb and slow to have success in college football.
Maybe somebody could tell that to Arkansas?
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November 12, 2008
So MSU is one of two remaining SEC teams standing in the way of Alabama finishing perfect in the regular season.
Normally, you’d think a team that’s 1–4 in conference play wouldn’t be much of a threat to the #1 ranked team in college football, right? And you’d be wrong.
The Starkville mafia have put the chomp on the Tide the last two years in a row, including an upset in 2006 that was MSU’s only conference win that year. Not surprisingly, that was also Mike Shula’s last year as head coach of Alabama.
MSU had a respectable 8–5 season last year and beat Central Florida in the Liberty Bowl. They also beat Auburn, Kentucky, Ole Miss, and Alabama.
I know the wheels have come off for Sly and the Family Bulldog in 2008, but upsetting Alabama would be a season-salvaging win, and maybe even a job-saver for Mr. Croom.
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November 11, 2008
I’m jumping just a bit out of order, but I had to get in a shoutout to the team with the best mascot in all of NCAA football for their big matchup against Florida this week.
This year’s Spurrier Bowl has a lot at stake actually. The Gamecocks are already bowl-eligible, but would like to shine up their stats a bit to avoid playing in the Boudreax’s Butt Cream Bowl or some other ridiculous post-season matchup.
The Gators, obviously, are still in the NC hunt, and desperately want to buff the stats of Timmy Jesus so he can reach the all-important 20/20 club and take home his second Heisman.
But most of all, Coach Cryer desperately wants yet another chance to try to prove to himself that he won’t always be the second-best Florida coach in history. Good luck with that, Urban.
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