5 More Reasons Gene Chizik Will Win at Auburn, No. 1: Auburn

Optimism Day is almost over. Our fifth and final new reason that Gene Chizik will at Auburn is ... drum roll please ...



Coaches can win at Auburn.

I think it's fair to characterize the Auburn tenure of two of Auburn's last three head football coaches as wildly successful. It's fair to say the other, at the very least, had his moments. It's fair to call those first two very, very good football coaches, and admit that the third could, at the very least, draw up some good offensive plays.

But if those first two men made the job, and the third at least did for a while, it's also fair to say: perhaps, to some extent, the job made them as well. Perhaps what what made the first two men successful wasn't only the abundant talents they shared, but, to some much smaller degree, the position they shared as well.

I m not suggesting that Auburn football will succeed even in the face of poor head coaching. But I do think it can help make poor head coaching a little less poor, perfectly mediocre head coaching something slightly above perfectly mediocre, good head coaching a little better, great head coaching a little greater.

I do not know what kind of head coaching Gene Chizik will provide. But his head coaching will be helped by being the head coach at Auburn. I believe this. Even now, even today, I believe this.

Hope you enjoyed Optimism Day, folks. See ya tomorrow.

5 More Reasons Gene Chizik Will Win at Auburn, No. 2: Gene Chizik

Optimism Day!'s No. 2 new reason Gene Chizik will win at Auburn:



Gene Chizik.

Let me explain, because I know that makes no sense. It's not really so much that "Gene Chizik" is the reason that Gene Chizik will win, but that other things aren't going to be the reason he fails. Specifically, nebulous, intangible, not-really-football-related things like "buzz" or "negative atmosphere."

Look, things have sucked lately. That the national media wants to juice its ratings by calling Auburn's administration a bunch of closeted Klansmen sucks. That Auburn fans have been hacking each other and Auburn's leadership to pieces over the Internet--and occasionally driving to the airport to boo--for the better part of two weeks sucks. That every college football fan in America looks at Auburn as the quickest and easiest punchline in the football comedy book at the moment sucks.

But none of that is going to win or lose Auburn any football games. Sure, the race comments will sting a little bit on the recruiting trail, probably, but nowhere near as much as hiring a new, 5-19 coach will. Everything else is temporary, a firestorm that will pass on somewhere else in a few weeks when our natural fan anger burns itself off and the media need something else to honk their car horns about. What's leave behind will be the hard work of building a football program and nothing else.

Blowhards like Mandel who claim that Chizik will fail because he doesn't have "the support of the community"--and who exactly at Auburn isn't supporting him?--never explain how "the support of the community" leads to winning football games. Yes, it would be better if Chizik was thought of as a rising star in the coaching profession. Yes, it would be better if Auburn was portrayed as a shrewdly-managed powerhouse rather than a program enveloped in turmoil and run by the chimps from the Career Builder commercials. Yes, it would be better if potential recruits couldn't log onto messageboards and read WDEEufaula76's prediction that Chizik will be fired after one year and replaced by a homeless guy wearing Pat Dye's pants.

But if Chizik can't get the current Auburn team to stop the bleeding and build some modicum of momentum, if he can't convince recruits that Internet morons like WDEEufula76 (or Jerry Hinnen) don't know what the hell they're talking about, it wouldn't matter if he'd been greeted as the man to bring about the 100-miles-per-gallon car, world peace, and a Talking Heads reunion. He'd fail. At the end of day, it's about Gene Chizik, his players, his staff--but mostly, Gene Chizik. Everything else is a red herring and nothing more.

Note: This picture is borrowed from flickr and is awesomely titled "Gene Chizik is my Homeboy."

Optimism Day is for good recruiting news!

Nick Fairley, the fairly* large gentleman pictured at right, has become the first signee of the Gene Chizik era. He's a defensive tackle originally from Mobile and currently enrolled at Copiah-Lincoln Community College in Mississippi. He was rated three stars coming out of high school by both Scout and Rivals, is large, and is already a signee because he's going to enroll in January for spring practice.

In other recruiting news, Charles Goldberg's theft of information from the paysites indicates that if it's still way too early to be overly optimistic about the 2009 class, even if it is Optimism Day, at least Auburn's recruits are listening to what Chizik has to say.

This is all Good News! It's Optimism Day! Yay Good News!

*Sorry. I had to.

5 More Reasons Gene Chizik Will Win at Auburn, No. 3: Rock-bottom

Optimism Day!'s third of five reasons that Gene Chizik will win at Auburn:



That's a screencap (click for big) of the bottom rungs of this year's total offense rankings at cfbstats. Now, consider the myriad circumstances that led to this putrid point:

1. A dire lack of recruiting when it comes to playmakers, particularly at wide receiver, stretching back years

2. The hiring of an offensive coordinator whose schemes and techniques were completely unfamiliar to the position coaches drafted to coach beneath him, resulting in an offense horribly lacking in cohesion and unified vision

3. Said offensive coordinator following in his predecessor's footsteps in one significant way: neglecting to encourage or develop Auburn's most talented quarterback prospect, leading to a quarterback controversy that only enhanced the offensive divisions

4. The firing of said coordinator midseason, resulting in yet another coordinator philosophy shift, the third in less than 12 months

5. Said firing resulting in Steve Ensminger becoming Auburn's acting offensive coordinator for the final six games of the season.

Now, how many of those circumstances will apply to Auburn's offense next season? No. 1 will, certainly, but the rest will not. Sure, the transition to yet another new coordinator's not going to be seamless, but it'll be light-years better than 2008's exercise in creating an offensive version of a rat king.

And the new guy's cupboard won't be entirely bare. Certainly, the same lack of explosiveness at wide receiver will be a problem unless the sudden absence of Greg Knox does even more for the likes of Hawthorne and Billings than we'd expect it to. Certainly, Burns isn't going to change into a world-beater overnight and certainly, getting the remaining linemen's heads screwed on straight again will be a challenge.

Still: seven returning starters including the quarterback and best running back is seven returning starters including the quarterback and best running back is seven returning starters including the quarterback and best running back. Add in the benefit of having one guy running the show, and it should be very, very difficult for Auburn's offense to suck quite as sucktastically as they did in 2008.

Meaning: to stop the bleeding and start building some kind of forward momentum, all Chizik really has to do in 2009 is a) hire someone who isn't the world's worst offensive coordinator* and then b) keep a defense that should also return the majority of its starters from any kind of serious regression.

That latter part is easier said than done, based on Chizik's ISU experience. But surely our defense-first, smash-mouth head coach can find a way.

*i.e., he should not hire Pat Nix.

5 More Reasons Gene Chizik Will Win at Auburn, No. 4: Ca$h

Optimism Day!'s No. 4 new reason Gene Chizik will win at Auburn:



He will have the full financial support of the Auburn administration.

Even on Optimism Day!, I can't bring myself to say it's a positive that Chizik is going to have to spend so much time kissing the rings of the administration who brought him in. Like everyone else, I have a hard time hearing Jacobs repeat over and over again that Chizik is "the right fit" and not think that "the right fit" means "the guy who won't give us any backtalk."

But if we can assume that Chizik has some, any, measure of independence from his Lowderian overlords, it's also fair to assume that said Lowderian overlords will back those measures with everything they've got, financially speaking. Jacobs certainly cannot survive Chizik's failure; if the good ship S.S. Right Fit goes down, Jacobs goes down with it. Maybe there's not quite as much at stake for the Overlords themselves, but I don't think it's fair to question their commitment or love for Auburn. It may be a strange, dark, and brutal love, the kind that causes husbands to do 200 hours of community service after charging into their wives' workplaces and beating up the first male sales clerk they see, but still: they haven't enjoyed seeing Auburn's name dragged through the mud this week any more than you or I have. They know that as big a black eye as this coaching search and hire have been so far, it's only going to get bigger if Chizik crashes and burns.

So as much as Auburn is currently doling out to ex-offensive coordinators, ex-head coaches, ex-position coaches, and possibly ex-waterboys and ex-laundry managers, if there's anything left over in the kitty for recruiting trips or assistant salaries or better washing machines for the current laundry managers, I have to think Chizik only needs to ask to get it. It's sad to the point of tears to believe Tubby wasn't given the same privileges during his tenure--and unfortunately, that is what I believe--but it's the S.S. Right Fit or nothin' at this point. I can't imagine whatever financial means this program has won't be put towards keeping her afloat.