The Works, Optimism Day!-style

Hello JCCW readers! Tired of gloom-and-doom from the Auburn newspages and blogs like this one who can't get over their overwhelming apprehensiveness regarding the Chizik hire? So are we! So welcome to Optimism Day! at the JCCW, where this edition of the Works will include nothing but good news and later we'll count down five new reasons to believe the Chizik hire will work out.

First: maestro, some theme music!



COME ON AUBURN FANS, YOU DON'T HAVE TO CRY! WE CAN BE HAPPY!*

For instance, Tyronne Green is on his way to the Senior Bowl, which is not only very cool for him but ensures that we fans will be able to play the "spot the AU logo decal on the helmets of other team's players" game, which is half the fun of the Senior Bowl anyway.

An open mind is a good thing. If there's anyone who you might not get too disappointed with for saying "To hell with this" and walking away before dealing with his fourth quarterback coach and/or offensive coordinator in only three seasons, it might be Kodi Burns. But not only is Burns sounding like he's not even considering putting his star-crossed Auburn experience behind him, it sounds like he'll be a happy camper regardless of who Chizik hires as his OC:

All indications, both from Chizik and Jacobs, are that Auburn will return to a more run-heavy, traditional type of offense next season.

Burns, who struggled with the spread this season, said he doesn’t have a preference.

“The spread is great when you get different playmakers and stuff. But play-action is also great,” Burns said. “When you’ve got great running backs like we’ve got and all you have to do is put the ball in front of them, fake it and everybody comes up, you’ve got a lot of guys open down the field.”

Burns has had three offensive coordinators (Al Borges, Tony Franklin and Steve Ensminger) over the past two seasons.

“It’s been a wild two years for me at Auburn,” Burns said. “But it’s good to have some stability now.”

Good to hear, Kodi!

Auburn's going to win their basketball game tonight! They're playing D-II Tuskegee. Good news!

People love Gene Chizik! By now we all know that the Chizik hire comes with a very big (perhaps too big? Optimism Day!) stamp of approval from Pat Dye, but it's not just Dye. Carlos Rogers traveled all the way down from Washington D.C. just to show his support for the Chiznick. And a bevy of Chizik's former coaching contacts expect him to succeed, as chronicled by the Press-Register's Mike Herndon:

But those who have worked with Chizik along the way say the numbers aren't indicative of Chizik's worth as a coach.

"Don't let his record fool you," said Boots Donnelly, who gave Chizik his first full-time college coaching position at Middle Tennessee in 1990. "Whatever he's done wrong, he won't repeat it. That first experience as a head football coach is always the toughest."

The reasons for that faith were evident as far back as his days as a coach's son in Clearwater, Fla. His personality and intensity were evident from the beginning, Roper said, when a chance meeting at a wedding jump-started a career that has led to him being named the Tigers' 26th head coach.

"He's got the gift of gab, so there was no question in my mind he'd be able to recruit," Roper said. "With (Nick) Saban over at Alabama, we're going to find out what kind of recruiter he is. It's going to be a big challenge for him and I kind of think that's what he's looking forward to."

OK, so "Chizik's friends think he's a success" isn't quite so much good news as not-bad-news--what else are they going to say?--but hey, it's better than the alternative, no? (And Herndon's article is definitely worth a read as a look into how Chizik got where he is today.)

Jay Ratliff and Ronnie Brown are going to the Pro Bowl! Awesome!

Is Chizik sorta kinda like Gene Stallings? At least one writer at al.com thinks so. And hey, the parallels aren't entirely a stretch. On Optimism Day!, I'm sure not going to argue.

Stewart Mandel thinks Chizik has "zero chance to succeed." Here's your catch-22 of the day: Mandel is a kind of canary-in-the-coal mine in the national college football media. Whenever he expects a given event to happen, it becomes less likely to happen; whoever he expects to fail becomes more likely to succeed. So Stewart Mandel stating that Chizik has "zero chance" to win automatically means that Chizik's chances are now nonzero. They might have been zero before, but Mandel can't point that out, because as soon as he does, they're nonzero because he's Stewart Mandel. It must be very, very weird being Stewart Mandel.

Anyway, the point is this: Mandel thinks Chizik will fail. This makes him more likely to succeed. Good news! (For what it's worth, the reason Mandel believes Chizik will fail is because of the poisonous, divided atmosphere around Auburn. Nevermind that I don't know any Auburn fans who wish Chizik anything but success or hold anything against him--there's a reason the "FireSo-and-So" website that's actually gaining traction is Jay Jacobs' and not Chizik's, at least for the moment.)

And finally, because this is Optimism Day, a reminder of some of the very good times Auburn's had with the Chiznick:



The Countdown starts soon.

*Dude, this edition of this song crushes the real one like a grape. And am I the only one who thinks Muppet Kate Pierson is kind of hot?