That reminds me. I’m gonna miss Arnett.
I tend to be more optimistic about our programs than a lot of folks around here, but I'm in the same boat. I lost track of how many TDs got called back in the Jackie years because of penalties so I do the same thing. Enjoy the play, wait for the flag.
They should have never gotten rid of Malzahn. He was established and he would have righted the ship. The guy they have now needs to be gone today and Auburn start the search. Teams usually get better the second season, but Auburn has regress.
That program is an absolute train wreck. Harsin was a bad hire, but their issues go so much deeper than that. They may have the most interfering and dysfunctional boosters in All of football. Bama envy has pushed them over the deep end.
You don't hang on to a bad coach that's destroying your harming your program for stability. But at the same time, you can't switch horses everytime you think your coach isn't a championship coach. Malzahn was good enough for Auburn. Florida was too quick to pull the trigger on Mullen although I get he was a bad personality fit there. Harsin is probably a bad fit for Auburn but they have ensured he will fail by undermining him from almost the get go. Hard to recruit when your school is basicallyh advertising you are a short termer.
Putting out a bull**** story that he was banging one of his staff members in an attempt to get him axed was a real class move by them too.
They can't keep Harsin for the sake of stability now, after they have spent the past 8ish months trying to undermine him. But while the hire didn't make a lot of sense to begin with (you pay Malzahn to go away to hire him???), I can't say he wouldn't have been ok if hotseat rumors hadn't started before the end of his first year. I don't know if there were huge red flags like with JoMo that appeared early, but looking from teh outside in, it looks like he was never given a chance to succeed there.
How long has it been since we've kept a DC this long? If he keeps up the good work here, he'll get a HC Gig but that's a hell of a lot better than sucking on D thus nobody wanting him.
Just quickly googling on his tenure at Tech and WSU, it looks like he runs through DC's at about an average rate. Looks like probably 2-3 years on average before changes? Obviously would like to keep Arnett longer; I think his philosophy works well with the athletes we can consistently get. But even if we can't, if we can keep DC's for 3 years on average, that would be a nice improvement.
Being a fan of both MSU and the Saints, this is the default reaction for any big play : /
We literally fired a coach after two seasons three years ago.
Yea the Malzahn and Moorhead firings are totally comparable*
Because he sucked. It wasn't a close call where somebody was arguably building a program and needed time, or was doing ok and just not as good as people hoped. Even when it was clear he was on the hotseat, he couldn't manage to stop our starting QB from getting a broken eyesocket by his teammate or limit the plume of smoke coming from the players floor.
But the entire point was about the value of stability as a whole. Not why you may have instability. TAMU and Auburns issue isn’t instability. It’s hiring coaches that aren’t good.
Auburn’s issue wasn’t hiring bad coaches, it was firing good ones (Malzahn was a good coach).
With Covid messing up 2020, Moorhead would have been given a pass for 2020 and coached at State for at least 2020 and 2021.
Leach has been here less than 3 years and only 29 games (in which he is 15-14) That last hard headed buffoon lasted just 2 years. How is that "bypassing instant gratification"?
Maybe. He was trending down. Won 52% of his sec games his last 3 years and appeared resistant to change.
Auburn's problem is that boosters meddle and undermine coaches. Interviewing Petrino while Tubberville was still under contract was pretty ridiculous. Recruiting for Malzahn certainly wasn't made easier by all the boosters clamoring for his head. They're like 13 year old girls there. They wanted to fire Malzahn one minute, and then the moment they realized Arkansas wanted him they backed the brinks truck up to him with a big guarantee.
They haven’t given Jimbo too much of a leash but they gave him way too much buyout money.
If you know the guy you've got isn't the right guy, you've gotta make a move. The worst thing any program can do is keep a coach around for the sake of "continuity." We kept Jackie too long, and we kept Croom too long, and it set us back. I'm actually proud of Cohen for pulling the plug on Moorhead so quickly because he was so obviously wrong for us.
