Two years after a BCS title, could Auburn’s Chizik get fired?
Brian VanGorder (right) watches his career path take a discernible downturn. (AP photo)
Even as Auburn was en route to the BCS title, there was something unreal about the journey. Not that the 2010 Tigers weren’t the nation’s best team. But you wondered how they got that way.
This is a reference to Cam Newton, but not in the way you’d think. Nearly two years after it was reported that Newton’s dad had sought $180,000 to send his son to Mississippi State, we await the first bit of evidence that Auburn paid, or even offered, anything beyond a scholarship. The NCAA investigated at length and found nothing untoward. So far as can be discerned, Auburn won with Newton fair and square. That said …
Newton blew across the Plains in the time it takes to change, er, planes at Hartsfield-Jackson. (OK, slight exaggeration. But only slight.) He arrived from Blinn Junior College in January 2010, took his team to 14-0 the next January and, Heisman Trophy in tow, was gone. He was an Auburn student-athlete for roughly a year.
Auburn began its championship run ranked 22nd in the Associated Press preseason poll — one spot ahead of Georgia, six spots behind Georgia Tech. The Tigers were 8-5 in the season before Newton, 8-5 in the season after Newton. Today they’re 1-4, the victory coming in overtime against Louisiana-Monroe. They just lost 24-7 at home to an Arkansas team that was outscored by 100 points in its two previous SEC games. Which brings us to the other part of the disconnect.
The 2010 national championship was won by Gene Chizik’s team. Is Gene Chizik a national championship coach?
Counting two seasons at Iowa State, his career record is 36-33. His record without Cam Newton is 22-33. His record before Cam Newton was 13-24. His record since Cam Newton is 9-9.
A BCS title should buy a coach a long honeymoon, but let’s remember that Chizik works at Auburn. Where Terry Bowden resigned under pressure 11 months after he’d led the Tigers to the SEC championship game. Where school officials were moved to take a clandestine flight to Sellersburg, Ind., to woo Bobby Petrino, then of Louisville, to fill the head-coaching position occupied by Tommy Tuberville. Where Tuberville himself was gone four years after an undefeated season.
Things happen faster in the win-or-else SEC, and Auburn occupies the epicenter of Football Gone Wild. The Georgia-Georgia Tech relationship has been described as clean, old-fashioned hate. There’s nothing clean or old-fashioned about the feelings Auburn and Alabama have toward one another. Theirs is the dirtiest form of loathing, updated daily.
Alabama again reigns over college football. It has won two of the past three BCS titles and is in Position A to claim yet another. For one year, Newton and Chizik and Auburn usurped Nick Saban’s throne, but that year seems now — heck, it seemed so even then — as the one-off to end all one-offs.
So today we ask: Could the coach who claimed a national championship in January 2011 get fired before 2012 is done? Anywhere else, you’d say no. Auburn, however, is not anywhere else, and this is among the worst Auburn teams ever. It ranks 113th among 120 FBS teams in total offense, 117th in scoring, 110th in passing efficiency, 75th in total defense and dead last in turnover margin. This with a new offensive coordinator (the overmatched Scott Loeffler) and a new defensive coordinator (Brian VanGorder, of whom you’ve heard).
According to Rivals.com, Auburn’s signing classes from 2010 through 2012 ranked fourth, seventh and 10th nationally. Continuity, alas, has gone missing. Nick Fairley, who won the 2010 Lombardi Trophy, arrived as a JUCO transfer and left for the NFL after two seasons. Running back Michael Dyer was the offensive MVP of the BCS title game and was kicked off the squad 361 days later. Auburn has begun each of Chizik’s four seasons with a different quarterback; the latest, sophomore Kiehl Frazier, has thrown eight interceptions against two touchdown passes.
The Tigers’ next two games are at Ole Miss and Vanderbilt. (They’re a six-point underdog against the Rebels.) If Auburn loses both, it could well finish 0-8 in SEC play — two years after going 8-0. The SEC has seen all manner of strangeness, but such a plunge would have no precedent. Then again, Auburn’s rise to No. 1 didn’t have many antecedents, either. Yes, Herschel Walker lifted Georgia from 6-5 to an unbeaten national championship in his first collegiate season, but he stuck around a couple of more years and the Bulldogs stayed really good. And nobody wondered if Vince Dooley, who’d won three SEC titles before Herschel, could actually coach.
The former Auburn coach Pat Dye, who seldom makes a lick of sense, recently claimed he wouldn’t trade Chizik “for 10 Sabans.” If Chizik keeps losing, Auburn might soon swap him for one Bobby Petrino.
By Mark Bradley
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403 comments Add your comment
Big Crimson 75
October 10th, 2012
3:54 pm
Paul in NH
October 10th, 2012
3:50 pm
How the heck do you replace Ted Roof as DC and have your defense get worse?
——-
That’s easy — Brian Van Gorder
LakeDawg
October 10th, 2012
3:55 pm
There are plenty of non Division I college football programs in Georgia to go watch on Saturdays. Clark Atlanta, Morehouse, Point, Shorter, Valdosta State, West Georgia, Fort Valley State and LaGrange all play every week and Mercer and Reinhardt come on board next year. It’s a whole lot cheaper, no scandals involved, and a lot of fun.
——————————————————————————————————————————
I’ve gotten back into HS ball. Very refreshing. Pure sport. HS teams are pretty good now. They do everything the colleges do. Spread, etc. Plus you will still see the Wishbone, WingT, etc.
Under The Bleachers
October 10th, 2012
3:55 pm
Mike P is that You?
2_dawgs
October 10th, 2012
3:57 pm
Let’s hope “JB” is wrong.
Nativebird
October 10th, 2012
4:00 pm
Wow. One of your all-time best interesting, unbiased, balanced, well-reasoned approach to a legitimate question in major college football. Now if you could only approach GT and their over-rated coach the same way.
Knute Rockney
October 10th, 2012
4:00 pm
Fire D’Bum
Under The Bleachers
October 10th, 2012
4:03 pm
Hollywould,
HBO did it and SI the same, I will take them over a known lying preacher.
Big Crimson 75
October 10th, 2012
4:03 pm
The former Auburn coach Pat Dye, who seldom makes a lick of sense, recently claimed he wouldn’t trade Chizik “for 10 Sabans.
———
Who’s Pat Dye’s Nanny now?
Someone needs to be properly taking care of this poor man.
Mister Clean
October 10th, 2012
4:03 pm
Van Gorder has become an albatross. Since Georgia, he has been a program killer.
Hollywould
October 10th, 2012
4:05 pm
Under/ last time/ if it was proven what happened? Nothing as usual. I am out/ posting with you is making me want meds.
SuperB
October 10th, 2012
4:07 pm
If Auburn fires Chizik, can the Dawgs get Van Gorder back?
Saban
October 10th, 2012
4:09 pm
Offer me 5,000,000 per year and I’m there. I’ll fix all your problems, until I get a higher offer….
Tiger
October 10th, 2012
4:11 pm
3 undefeateded seasons in the last 20yrs. more than anyone else. they’ll be back. enjoy it while you got it miseable leghumpers.
Seriously?
October 10th, 2012
4:12 pm
Who cares? Auburn and Georgia are both mid-tier SEC teams at best. Doesn’t matter who their coaches are. Mediocrity is mediocrity.
Jacket Detective
October 10th, 2012
4:14 pm
Richt’s record vs GT has saved him.
I think we are losing on purpose to prevent Uga hiring a NC calibre coach and having us really jealous.
U can’t beat Spurrier.
So nothing to get jealous of.
Under The Bleachers
October 10th, 2012
4:15 pm
Hollywould
Your panties are in a bunch and your program is a loser and losing.
Those are Facts.
Jacket Detective
October 10th, 2012
4:19 pm
Where have all the dawg trolls gone?
Long time passes.
Where have all the dawg trolls gone?
Long time ago.
Where have all the dawg trolls gone?
Squashed by Spurrier, every one.
When will they fire Mark Richt?
When will fire their reverend and return to the top?
(just trying to help)
Jacket Detective
October 10th, 2012
4:26 pm
I left out they.
I’m so inspired by all the insults flying I thought I would channel Pete Seger and join in.
dagnabit
October 10th, 2012
4:27 pm
I’m just “wiped out” that these georgia fans are so ready to desert the Richt train.
Seriously?
October 10th, 2012
4:29 pm
Meh. Can’t return to a place you’ve never been.
Eric
October 10th, 2012
4:31 pm
At least we aren’t Georgia (Haven’t won a title since 1980)
Seriously?
October 10th, 2012
4:34 pm
1957 – Cheated
2010 – Cheated
AppleCEO
October 10th, 2012
4:37 pm
New OC, new DC, new QB and offensive players recruited to play in a spread offense. Chizik gets a pass this season. If they do not have a very good team next year, he is gone. I hear Big Bird might be available! War Eagle!!!!
TN Dawg
October 10th, 2012
4:39 pm
Mark, excellent point. No one seems be able to explain how a team can go from barely winning to immediate National Champs back to mediocre immediately after.
Has that happen to another other Nat’l Championship team so quickly? Seems like all other Champs have at least 3 good years consecutively.
AppleCEO
October 10th, 2012
4:52 pm
AU was not “barely winning” the decade leading up to the title run. Undefeated three times since ‘93. How many programs can say that???
Frustrated, Inc.
October 10th, 2012
5:02 pm
I am always amazed at the amount of stupidity on these ajc forums. What a pack of losers. Led by the head loser, Mark Bradley. Mark, you suck and you know it. How you are still employed amazes me. And to the tool who mentions that AU can’t settle on a mascot…WTH?! You then talk about bammer. Uhhhh, they are the crimson tide and they have an elephant mascot. stupid rube.
PR
October 10th, 2012
5:04 pm
Thanks for the help Jacket Detective. I think the better question would be.. when is GT going to send Paul Johnson packing with Al Groh?
UGA is 5-1 this season. Mark Richt is 10/11 against GT. Not defending Richt, but wondering why a Jacket fan who’s team lost by 20+ to MIDDLE TENNESSEE STATE a few weeks ago is even commenting on Richt. Just trying to help…
Wait… nevermind. I hope Paul Johnson stays at GT for another 25 years.
eddy
October 10th, 2012
5:04 pm
Chizik is getting what he deserved. Ol’ Cam is coming back to haunt him. When you lie down with dogs, you get fleas. Cam was a triple threat..liar, cheater and a thief (see UF history)but Ol’ Gene was with him all the way. Cam’s father is supposed to be a preacher….wonder what he preaches…..”get yo’ money befo’ someone else do”" What a joke and now Chizik, the joke is on you. PS—-wonder what the fat boy recruit and his Mama with the Auburn tatoos are thinking now. Nope Clorox won’t get the tatoos off.
azdawg
October 10th, 2012
5:13 pm
One thing AU proved to the college football world is if you have at least one very dominent player on Offense and one on defense sourrounded by a fairly gpood supporting cast, get a few breaks, you can win the NC in one season.
Yes, Chizik is on thin ice at AU. I can see AU biting the bullet and hire Bobby Petrino, put him on a short leash, one eff up and he’s gone, just to put W’s on the board. Petrino can do it the scuzz bag that he is. He knows how to make an offense go. Kids will want to play for him and if Bobby puts the W’s on the board all will be forgotten reference his doing it on the back of a bike. The AD will become a hero having the genius to hire Petrino and give the coach a 2d chance. The PR dept will make sure of a positive spin along w/a media that will eat it up. Its all about winning and keeping the $$ rolling into the athletic dept. If not AU, there will be other AD’s willing to sacrifice their rep to ressurect their football program. But not the dawgs, they’d rather lose w/CMR.
Good Stuff
October 10th, 2012
5:14 pm
Need to get off the wallet.
Good Stuff
October 10th, 2012
5:15 pm
I am talking Cam Newton type money…
OkieDawg
October 10th, 2012
5:27 pm
Chizik doesn’t really want to coach. He wants to be a barber. That’s why he wears a barber shirt. He looks like Floyd Lawson.
OkieDawg
October 10th, 2012
5:38 pm
Auburn has a HC that looks like a barber, a DC that looks like a porn star, an OC that looks like he just got off the short bus and a wide receiver coach that doesn’t know the bill goes to the front. And you wonder why the program is a dumpster fire?
Turkey Neck
October 10th, 2012
5:43 pm
Still fear that Georgia will kick my tail next month but I love the support from Jacket Detective. Keep it up, JD – just might save my team this year.
GeneO
October 10th, 2012
5:43 pm
with cam newton—gene was 14-0!!
without cam—he can’t coach a lick. Time for gene to go!
Turkey Neck
October 10th, 2012
5:48 pm
I love the GT fans! Thanks a lot and keep those checks coming in. Shoot, maybe we can fill the entire stadium up this year. Very good hot dogs by the way – think I might have another 8 or 9. Mmmmmmmm…burp.
Pitbull
October 10th, 2012
5:48 pm
Look at what happened when Auburn fired Tuberville.
Look at what happened when Tennessee fired Fulmer.
Look at what happened when Ole Miss fired Nutt.
Look at what happened when Clemson fired Ford.
Look at what is happening at Tech since they fired Gailey.
Dumb people do not learn from their mistakes.
Average people do learn from their mistakes.
Smart people learn from other people’s mistakes.
We have a great coach at UGA that has won 111 games in 11 & 1/2 years and beat Tech 10 out of 11 times.
Other schools would love to have him. The spoiled children fans of UGA need to get behind Coach Richt or find another school to be a “fan” of. We don’t need them.
And I still can’t decide if the Richt haters are really Tech students and fans posing as UGA fans trying to get rid of him because they can’t beat him. But that is their level of character so it may be the case.
Bobby L.
October 10th, 2012
5:50 pm
I can’t afford ‘em any more. I bought ‘em everything and then I get pushed off the board after losing the bank. You’d almost think I was valued just for my money!
HUH?????
October 10th, 2012
5:53 pm
If Chizik continues to lose then yes, he will be fired. With that said, AU won’t stand for mediocrity.
HUH?????
October 10th, 2012
5:53 pm
“Look at what happened when Auburn fired Tuberville.”
They won a championship.
HUH?????
October 10th, 2012
5:54 pm
I’ve heard rumors that Auburn will go after Kirby Smart.
HUH?????
October 10th, 2012
5:55 pm
“AU made a mistake firing Tuberville.”
Yeah, it was such a mistake that Auburn won a national championship.
HUH?????
October 10th, 2012
5:56 pm
You know who hasn’t won a national championship?
UGA
Mike
October 10th, 2012
5:59 pm
I feel dumber reading this thread, not the article Mr. Bradley.
Jacket Detective
October 10th, 2012
5:59 pm
@Pitbull.
I went to the Uga blog to say something mean during your latest loss to Steve but all the dawg fans beat me to it.
No most of the hate coming Richt’s way is Uga fans thinking he is not earning all those many millions.
Wet Willie...keep on smiling
October 10th, 2012
5:59 pm
know your facts
1-AU didn’t fire Tommy. After the Bama beatdown of AU 2008 the woodcutter called Houston Nutt and offerred the job which in fact voided Tommy’s contract. Tommy made them pay him in full and he left town with 6 million and only 1 lose to Nick. Tommy made the right business call in 2008.
2-VanGorder booted out one of Dye’s old assistant coaches from his staff meeting two weeks ago.Brian will not be at auburn in 2013.
3-The old coach,the banker,and the woodcutter still run auburn and do doubt that. The president at auburn and the bot understand their place.
fan
October 10th, 2012
5:59 pm
YOu couldn’t run that warden off!
Jacket Detective
October 10th, 2012
6:01 pm
@Pitbull.
I went to the Dawg blog to say something mean during your latest loss to Steve but all the dawg fans had already beat me to it.
Stinger 2
October 10th, 2012
6:02 pm
Why do people keep bringing up Bobby Petrino? No major college program will be hiring him in the near future. He will have to start over with a FCS school and stay out of trouble for at least 2 or 3 years.
USMC
October 10th, 2012
6:11 pm
“Why do people keep bringing up Bobby Petrino? No major college program will be hiring him in the near future. He will have to start over with a FCS school and stay out of trouble for at least 2 or 3 years.”–Stinger2
–not intended to be a factual statement
Buddy,
College Football is a BUSINE$$, and Bobby Petrino is one of THE top college coaches in America. He will end up at an SEC school (Auburn, Tenn, KY, etc) and coaching next fall. Watch.
(I am by no means a Bobby Petrino fan)