Tag: jimmy rane

Auburn fans have grown tired of the ‘good ol’ boy’ system

Auburn alumni and fans are tired of the same people running and ruining the football program over and over again.

For years, Auburn has been branded to the world as a family, but really it’s more of an avaricious autocracy where only big money talks.

When it comes to decisions regarding football, only a select group of individuals seem to be heard and whatever they say goes.

These individuals are notorious for sticking their dirty little hands where they don’t belong, and now they have single-handedly converted Auburn’s head coaching search into a clown show. They’re doing it all for the sake of control and access to exclusive perks that neither you nor I will ever see. Not because they love Auburn. Ego fragility at its finest.

We’re witnessing a coup of epic proportions on The Plains. Before Gus Malzahn was fired on Sunday, these guys knew who they wanted and they wouldn’t need to go far to find him. They had their eyes set on Kevin Steele because, according to them, Steele has the characteristics Auburn needs to revert back to the old glory days of the 1980s.

It’s not like football has advanced or anything in the last 40 years. Auburn  facilities sure haven’t. As I said before, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand why Auburn continues to fall behind other SEC schools in recruiting  battles. Since 1989, Auburn football practice facilities have been located at the Auburn Athletics Complex, which is shared by numerous sports. Auburn football is ranked in the bottom half of the SEC in terms of facilities, and its new football-only complex, which should have been a brainchild a long time ago, is set for completion in 2022.

On Tuesday, athletic director Allen Greene and President Jay Gogue  announced the university had established an advisory committee who would cooperate with the Parker Executive Search Firm out of Atlanta to assist in finding Auburn’s next head coach. It was also around this time the public found out Greene would have virtually zero say in selecting Auburn’s next head coach, and the decision would fall to the hands of the big money boosters and ultimately Gogue himself.

This charade between these three boosters and Auburn University is so predictable it’s worse than a Hallmark Christmas movie. By Wednesday, the apathetic fan grew enraged when it was revealed the boosters planned to shove the hiring of Steele down their throats. The news ignited a revolution. By midnight on Thursday, #StopSteele was trending on Twitter, and Auburn players past and present began making it clear who they wanted to see as Auburn’s next head coach.

Here we are six days removed from the firing of Gus Malzahn. It’s been revealed current Alabama offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian is lined up to interview on Sunday. Louisiana head coach Billy Napier and Clemson offensive coordinator Tony Elliot are also scheduled to meet with Auburn in the coming days. But it’s also been reinforced that the “good ol’ boy” boosters are 110% committed to hiring Steele.

Hiring Steele reaffirms the message Auburn isn’t a family, but an institution run by the good ol’ boy system. The ramifications of this will be immediate. Greene will probably run for the hills. I mean, could you blame him? Two players have entered the transfer portal this week while recruiting is in shambles. Oh, and an already lethargic fan base will plunge even further into the depths of disinterest.

We were tired in 2003 after Bobby Lowder’s “JetGate.” We were tired in 2008 after Jay Jacobs escorted a head coach with a 5-19 record into Auburn to the chorus of, “We want a leader not a loser!”

We’re outright exhausted now.

Auburn embarrassing itself with coaching search, but is anyone surprised?

Auburn has taken a coaching search to the inane as the powers that be continue fighting while some possible back stabbing has occurred.

It has only been four days since Gus Malzahn was thrown out the door by powerful boosters and there have already been enough storylines to fill a book.

Infighting between the aforementioned boosters. Continued silence by athletic director Allen Greene outside of a prepared statement. Auburn fans already preparing for a bad hire. Some possible back stabbing?

Yes, not even the writers of Days of Our Lives could come up with some of the crazy nonsense that goes on down on the Plains during a coaching search.

It seemed as if it was going to be so simple. Boosters pay the money to Malzahn with a replacement already settled on and we could look forward to 2021 and the start of a new era. How naive we all must have been to believe this narrative.

The search went from zero to inane in a matter of seconds.

Was there a possible deal for Mario Cristobal that fell through after Oregon was put in the Pac-12 Championship Game in place of Washington? Maybe. As of Thursday at 1:20 p.m., Cristobal has been offered a new contract — six years worth $27.3 million — and all he has to do is sign. Will Auburn come back with a counteroffer?

Why were the boosters so afraid of going after Hugh Freeze? Granted, there is some baggage but I laughed at the fans on Twitter who claimed they didn’t want Freeze because of his troubles at Ole Miss. These are the same people who welcomed Bruce Pearl with open arms and have no problem with the football field being named after a coach that famously got the program on major probation.

What about Steve Sarkisian? Billy Napier? Bueller? Bueller?

Yet all the disagreements between the powers that be has turned Auburn into a national punchline again and, if the new coach isn’t a home-run hire, the reaction will be even worse. That will especially be the case if it is Steele.

Auburn paid $21 million to get rid of a coach only to hire his defensive coordinator, a guy with a 9-36 record as a head coach and is 62 years old? Yeah, that won’t go over well. It certainly won’t go over well if it comes out that Steele was all part of a coup that got his boss tossed. Et tu, Steele?

All of this is turning what happened in 2003 into the good ole days. At least Auburn had a plan, even if that was going behind the back of Tommy Tuberville for a man of questionable morals like Bobby Petrino. At least they were going after one of the highest sought-after coaches in the game at the time.

Heck, this is making Tennessee’s search for a coach in 2017 look competent.

It has long been wide-spread knowledge that the person who is supposed to be in charge of the athletics program, the athletic director, is basically a yes-man to Jimmy Rane, Bill Harbert and … gulp … Bobby Lowder. Of course, Auburn isn’t the only school that has this problem it’s just most of the time these men screw up.

They care more about their egos and power than Auburn itself, plain and simple. The football program is just a game of Risk to them.

So, when all of this is over and Auburn likely comes away with anything but a home-run hire, you can put another chapter in the story of Auburn screwups.

It is what Auburn does best.