Boy, this is incoherent.
Posting one of the worst all-around years in the major men’s sports — football, basketball and baseball — didn’t do much in terms of shaking the confidence of athletics director Jay Jacobs. Less than a month after saying “Auburn athletics is strong” in wake of a historically bad year for those three sports, Jacobs isn’t dwelling on the past.
Who could blame him?
Football went 7-6, narrowly avoiding its second losing season in four years with a win against Memphis in the Birmingham Bowl, including a 2-6 record in SEC play. All of that came just two seasons after winning the SEC title and coming within 13 seconds of a national championship.
Despite that, Jacobs extended head coach Gus Malzahn’s contract through the 2020 season, confident that Malzahn is the right man for the job moving forward.
All in, baby.
Much like with Malzahn, Jacobs expressed confidence that things will turn around for the football team this fall, noting that the keys will be a revamped defense led by new coordinator Kevin Steele — the third coach to hold that title at Auburn in as many years — and the play at quarterback, which will fall to either incumbents Jeremy Johnson or Sean White, or junior college transfer John Franklin III.
“Gus feels good about the couple options we have,” Jacobs said. “Absolutely we have to do better but I can tell you this: We’re not sparing any resources to give each of those coaches — those three and the other 12 — an opportunity to be successful. Whatever it is they need, certainly within reason, but having been in this business and played, I know what’s within reason.”
Absolutely. Because Auburn has always been the face of responsible athletics spending. Besides, Gus is just one second chance away from turning everything around, right?
Get The Picture 
Where’s the rabbit’s foot?
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“Not sparing any resource”…The Fed will be glad to hear about the increased spending. The global economy can use the boost.
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Auburn represents everything that’s world in the world.
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Wrong with the world. Jeez
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I like the way you said it the first time
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Another Auburn official trying to sell the contents of a colostomy bag on Ebay.
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I’d love to have a profound comment, but this is Auburn we’re talking about. We should have all come to expect the lowest of morals and the highest of talent at cheating a long time ago. Auburn is always one felony arrest at another SEC program or one highly paid recruiting class away from being a formidable program in any sport.
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Chad Clay could play QB for them this year!!
They love a thief at QB!
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Is Malzahn really on a second chance or simply at the end of his halo period, which was extended due to his 2013 season.
What to do with Malzahn is as much about answering the question who would be better as it is about the direction of their program? To be clear, I do think he can survive another 7-6 season where their offense is putrid, which would be the second chance with a “significant improvement” mandate. That said, if they do make a chance and you are Jay Jacobs where would you turn?
Is Auburn that desirable a job right now? As long as Saban is at Bama and we don’t revert to post-Kemp Dooley recruiting, I am not really sure how much success any coach can have on a consistent basis at Auburn. The obvious counterpoint is their 2010 and 2013 season, but they were very unique. In 2010, Cam simply put the team on his back and did things that the league was not ready to defend, which Manziel was able to repeat two years later, albeit without the national title. 2013 obviously benefitted from extraordinary good fortune. As the league has gotten better at stopping spread and pace driven offenses, Malzahn’s schematic strengths have been curtailed. Thus, he has to show he can adapt, but I am not sure he can.
The obvious choices are the names that get bandied around ranging from Herman to Patterson to Peterson, etc. More regionally, I suppose one could add the freeze and Mullen. While I am certain that Auburn is a better job than Ole Miss and MSU, does the difference in the quality of the job match the MUCH higher expectations for success at AU than their current jobs? If either coach goes 7-5, neither of their fans will blink an eye. It will take 3 years of 7-5 before rumbling even starts. Further, in Auburn’s history, the closest thing they ever made to a splash hire was Tuberville who was off the Jimmy Johnson coaching tree and did very well under tough circumstances at Ole Miss. I don’t see anything like that in their future. (save the Petrino-Auburn jokes…which I think we all can laugh about in our heads)
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But. They won the natty just a few short years ago. And Malzahn is obviously a phenomenal coach because he got his team to a Natty game. Keep him forever!
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Can I found any details about this subject in other languages?
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