Outrage. That’s the best way to describe how the Auburn family has reacted to the news that Gene Chizik is the leading candidate to fill Tommy Tuberville’s spot at Auburn.

Tuberville was fired for this?

Exchange a solid, successful and likable Tommy Tuberville for a disastrous Iowa State coach?

Even leading Auburn propagandist Phillip Marshall isn’t thrilled. Marshall said the hiring of Chizik would divide Auburn.

From what I’m told, the deal has not been finalized. President Jay Gogue still must give his final approval. If he does it, he’ll do it under fierce opposition and it will divide Auburn people to such a degree that it will be very difficult to recover…
But what is obvious today is that, fairly or unfairly, Chizik would be the most unpopular choice in modern Auburn history.

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It would seem the Auburn family would be as fractured with the hiring of Chizik as Alabama fans were during the tenure of Bill Curry.

Cyclonereport.com expressed what most everyone is thinking.

With a 5-19 career record as a head coach, Chizik’s hire would be a stunner.

UPDATE: No announcement set for Saturday, according to this AP report.

UPDATE: Could announcement come Sunday or Monday? Gene Chizik could be named the new head coach as soon as Monday, the Opelika-Auburn News has learned. entire O-A News story below.

11 thoughts on “STUNNER: AU coaching search nears end”

  1. Cappy, to steal a line from Dean Rusk, the other guy just blinked. I’m stunned, as I’m sure all Auburn people are. Your idol Phillip Marshall pretty much has it pegged on this one. To paraphrase, he’s saying that only time will tell whether Auburn was an idiot or genius on this one, but the choice undoubtedly divides the Auburn family now at a time whne it needs to be unified more than ever. Scary. I’m willing to keep an open mind about the guy (what choice do I have?). He was one of the best defensive coordinators I’ve ever seen in the SEC, and Iowa State has got to be one of the 5 worst jobs in the BCS conferences. Still, there’s no way to spin a 5-19 record, especially when you consider that ISU was showing no signs of improvement in the 2 years since he took over. I don’t understand.

    P.S. Has anyone in Auburn’s athletic dept. ever freakin’ heard of a guy named Chris Peterson???????

  2. In this reporter’s honest opinion, when Phillip Marshall said:

    “Athletics director Jay Jacobs is as sincere and honest as any person I know. If he tells me it’s going to snow in the summertime, I’m getting out my heavy coat.”

    In that one statement Phillip Marshall showed why he is the most credible journalist in sports today. (wink, wink.)

  3. It is a crying shame the things some “reporters” have to say just to ingratiate themselves and get news stories.

  4. auburn has hired the trial balloon.

    chizik is the name you float out there when you’re concerned about the reaction to your REAL choice. you throw his name out there, let the fan base react, then name the real choice. the fan base then breathes a sigh of relief.

    no relief here though. wonder what happened to turner gill? heard he called barkley about the job. think ole charles-in-charge scared him off?

    or was it those frats pretending (or was it practicing?) to lynch blacks?

    oh well. looks as if i don’t have to worry about any fingers in my face for a while.

  5. This is laughable. A total and absolute poofter of a thing. As I sit and read this, I realize why I was never an Auburn fan.
    Auburn is a fake … A fraud….A wannabe. A total counterfeit of a real school and program. A knockoff of such poor quality that even the Vietnamese wouldnt claim the craftsmanship.
    All the claims of “elite” and “dominant” and the boasts of being “Auburn men and women” are as hollow as Paris Hilton feining sympathy for the plight of the less fortunate.
    Given a normal healthy Bama program the last 6 years Auburn would not have risen to the not so lofty hieghts they think they have attained.
    But nevertheless. It is Bama’s fault for shooting its own self in the foot. And allowing Auburn to believe the fairy tale that they were a contender.

    Welcome back little Aubie… Meet your new big brother Troy.

  6. Tmc, it hasn’t been the last 6 years that Auburn has been better. Its the last 25. Having said that,as an AU fan nobody must have wanted this job.I don’t think if you’d have let the bama fans pick they could have done this bad.Enjoy you dominance Bama. I can’t imagine we’ll be competing for championships any time soon. Everything goes in cycles, but F-ing Chizik. I hope I’m wrong, but 5-19 at a school that had gone to bowl games 5 of the 6 years before he got there.WOW!!!

  7. danny Says:
    December 14th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
    Tmc, it hasn’t been the last 6 years that Auburn has been better. Its the last 25.
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Better than what Danny?
    4rth place in the SEC? SEC west co-champions? Tell me something Dan,,,How many times in the last 20 years has Auburn made it to #1?… Auburn is the annoying underage little brother who stole the family car, ran it into the ditch and now expects everyone to be impressed with thier goofball antics.

    Welcome back little Aubie,
    Here is your new big brother,Troy.

  8. Omni, is Chizik the one you were impressing on “the boys to hide and watch?” Good grief man, he suxs worse than Obama

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