fiver

Butch to Tennessee

The chances of him having any real say in that defense are next to zero - it's Saban's defense. I'm sure he does something well or he wouldn't be on Saban's staff, but I'd like somebody who I know had more control over their side of the ball than Kirby likely has had in Alabama. I've also heard that Kirby wasn't very impressive in his interview with Auburn. Certainly, he's seen how things should be done. However, there are just a lot of question marks. How would Smart handle being 'the man'? Saban keeps his coordinators locked in the back room hidden behind a curtain. They aren't even allowed to address media. Saban does all of the talking for his teams.

One of Malzahn's disciples will become his offensive coordinator. Clemson OC, Chad Morris Arizona State OC, Mike Norvell Arkansas State OC, Rhett Lashlee. Given Morris's 6 million dollar buyout, I'd bet it's either Norvell or Lashlee.

Kelly did that when he took over, save 1 guy. Not a bad idea when the program needs an overhaul. I support this move. In the short term, it is going to damage some relationships with 2013 commitments. However, top recruiters on the last staff, Trooper Taylor and Curtis Luper, were rumored to be enablers in many cases and contributed to AU's overall culture issues. It's best just to start fresh even if we take a hit on recruiting this year. Malzahn is a pretty good recruiter himself, so I believe we'll keep the recruits on O. AU hired Ellis Johnson as the defensive coordinator late last night. He has been the D coordinator at Alabama, Mississippi State, Clemson, and South Carolina before becoming the head coach at Southern Miss this past season. HE went 0-12 as a head coach, but he's had some great defenses at most of his stops as d-coordinator, and was also interviewing to replace Stoops as FSU's defensive coordinator. I think it's a solid hire.

Ellis Johnson is surfacing as a top candidate to become Auburn's defensive coordinator. So far, recruit retention is looking pretty good with the Malzahn hire. Of Auburn's top 5 recruits, 4 reaffirmed their commitment yesterday. Carl Lawson (DE and ranked #2 overall at Rivals) seems to be wavering. However, Rueben Foster (ILB and # 6 overall), Dee Liner (DE and #22 overall), Earnest Robinson (WR and #45 overall), and Jeremy Johnson (QB and #94 overall) all appear to be staying.

AU won in spite of Chizik, not because of him in 2010. Chizik was initially opposed to offering Cam Newton a scholarship and was talked into doing so by Malzahn. All of the seniors on that team were recruited by Tubberville. Malzahn took a 500k pay cut to leave AU and become the head coach at Arkansas State largely because Chizik began heavily meddling in Malzahn's offense in 2011. I'm ok with Malzahn becoming the head coach. I want to see who is hired as the DC and whether AU is going to be able to hold onto all of the highly touted defensive recruits that have committed.

I believe either Gus Malzahn or Kirby Smart will become AU's next head coach, and a decision is likely to be made today or tomorrow. I'm hearing that Petrino probably won't get an interview.

Gus Malzahn interviewed with AU on Sunday and Kirby Smart is interviewing today. Petrino remains a possibility. I will be ticked if UT ends up with Jimbo Fisher and Arkansas with Chris Peterson.

dew...i see conflicting reports today. One says Gruden has removed his name from the UT search and that pay for assistants was the big road block. However, there is another report (Chattanooga Times Free Press) that indicates UT may still pony up the cash for the assistants...? What are you hearing?

Or not "@SIPeteThamel: Just spoke to Charlie Strong. He's angry. He says he did not interview at Auburn and has not spoken to them. "It's not true."" Mysteriously, no current head coach ever interviews or is interested in another job until the day they get the new position.

au interviewed charlie strong sometime during the past two days. Louisville had a nice season...i don't see any wins that really grab me though. http://www.al.com/auburnfootball/index.ssf/2012/11/auburn_interviews_louisville_c.html#incart_river_default

No, Jeff Fisher is not going to Auburn. I believe Jimbo Fisher is still a possibility though. It will be one of Jimbo, Petrino, Malzahn, Patterson, or Peterson.....

He's 1 for 9 from three point range this season...he can stop shooting those any time...and yeah, he shouldn't dribble either. Play defense, pass the ball, and crash the boards, please.

Petrino is likely going to get an interview for the AU position. Gary Patterson evidently is gaining some traction also. Kirby Smart is falling...may not interview. Per 247 staff, the names still in play are Petrino, Patterson, Malzahn, and Fisher.

Agree....SbB is the only one reporting this. Everyone else references SbB. It's garbage that is attracting hits to his website.

Without question, Petrino has the ability to game plan. He has the ability to coach his kids and get the most of their ability. However, is he going to be able to recruit against Saban, Miles, Richt, Muschamp, etc? Will he still be able to convince parents to send their kids? If he's able to consistently pull a top 15 recruiting class, I think he would be able to compete with Saban, Miles, Richt, Muschamp. I'm speculating, but given the characters issues, I believe AU would need to whiff on Jimbo, Gus Malzahn, and Kirby Smart before turning to Petrino. I saw that Jimbo denied today that he's interested in any coaching job other than at FSU. I don't think that necessarily rules him out of any of the SEC openings, but I think AU would have to throw a hell of a lot of money at him, and I'm not sure if he's that much better than some of the other candidates.

Would somebody like Jimbo be scared away by the NCAA checking out Trooper's recruiting methods? Could be blown out of proportions, but the little bit I've heard sounds really bad for Auburn. I'm not going to get too worried about it unless Auburn actually receives a notice of allegations. The NCAA has interviewed AU staff about the recruitment of Jovon Robinson. As you probably know, his grades were changed by his guidance counselor. However, nothing that has been released by the NCAA suggests they have found a compliance issue. AU's athletic director, Jay Jacobs, indicated in an interview this weekend that he has 'the utmost confidence in our NCAA rules compliance'. Of course, I've been calling for Jay Jacobs' head this season as well, so it's not like I take his word as fact. I don't know how interested Jimbo is in the job, but there is going to be a year or two devoted to rebuilding the program anyway, so I don't think that potential sanctions related to an infraction that hasn't yet been defined would be a huge deterrent. For what it's worth, I do believe many Tennessee boards often get carried away when discussing Trooper Taylor because of his history with that program. I'd be ok with AU hiring Fisher, Smart, or Malzahn. Malzahn, nor Smart have yet proven anything as a head coach though. Another potential knock against Malzahn is that I'm hearing that he would be hesitant to hire assistant coaches he doesn’t know extremely well. I believe this means he may want to retain some of the current AU staff. He also approved a number of players with questionable character when he was Auburn’s offensive coordinator. Mostly, I'm referring to the four players who broke into a drug dealer's house with a gun and robbed the drug dealer. Making bad decisions and getting in trouble while in college is one thing. Armed robbery is another. All that said, I do believe that Malzahn has a great offensive mind, is a great recruiter, and may be a great head coach. Jimbo was supposed to have his team in the national title hunt this year and hasn't been able to do that yet; it's not like Jimbo is head and shoulders above Malzahn and Smart in my mind. If I had to guess, I'd say that Malzahn ends up with the job.

Is there no loyalty? The guy recruited Cam Newton. The hearing the leading candidates to replace Chizik are Guz Malzahn, Kirby Smart, and Jimbo Fisher. Of those three, my choice would be Jimbo Fisher and the staff he would bring with him, including former AU QB Dameyune Craig and recruiting coordinator Bob LaCivita. He has a good thing going at FSU, but he did coach for AU for six seasons and met his wife there. I think he's going to at least listen to an offer.

agree. Hollowell is trying to do more than he is capable of doing offensively right now. He's doing an adequate job of rebounding. I'm not sure his defense is adequate yet, but it's passable. However, on the offensive side of the court, he needs to make only safe passes until he has better judgement, and he needs to reduce the number of shots he's taking. He just needs to play his role without trying to make so many things happen, else he negatively impacts the team. Yeah, Ferrell is handling the ball fairly well, is distributing, and is playing decent D. He's extremely quick, but he's definitely not shooting the ball well yet. Edit - Looking at the box score, I guess Hollowell only took one shot last night....but this is mostly due to him turning the ball over prior to him being able to shoot the other times he touched the ball.

Hollowell played terribly against Georgia and Georgetown. It doesn't look like he's going to be much help this year during conference play. I'm hoping Perea makes more of an impact....and yes, Zeller was very passive in this tournament, or maybe he just has trouble with athletic bigs. He hit important free throws down the stretch, but he doesn't look like player of the year material thus far. IU has so many weapons though...very fun to watch.

...not if we want a top 3 draft pick in 2014.

hard to argue with that It's a sticky situation. President Jay Gogue has not publicly indicated whether AD Jay Jacobs or HC Gene Chizik will keep their jobs. Those close to the situation are indicating that Gogue is likely going to keep Jacobs as the AD. However, my understanding is that Chizik is likely to be fired. A 7 million dollar buyout is significant, but you're losing merchandising and ticket revenue by fielding a team that shouldn't be on the same field with other SEC teams. It's not that they are just a bad team. They are the worst team in Auburn history. They are fundamentally unsound. Four and five star recruits are not being developed. Recent comments from new Defensive Coordinator Brian VanGorder is there is a culture issue that he is battling..laziness, entitlement. There have been too many arrests, too much player turnover (players being dismissed because of character issues) during Chizik's reign. Chizik does have a nice recruiting class verbally committed for 2013, and many prominent recruits have indicated they may decommit if Chizk is let go. I expect Chizik will continue to tell recruits that he is coming back next year until he is told otherwise.

Wouldn't they owe Chizik close to $8 million if they fire him? Yes, but I'd be surprised if he keeps his job.

I didn't realize until last week that he was headed to Oregon until A&M offered late in the process and he decided to stay closer to home. Dude is fun to watch...envy your position, him playing so well as a freshman. AU football doesn't have a legit FBS QB on the roster and the coach has completely lost the team. A solid HC hire in a few weeks hopefully gets things back on track.

Was the Tuscaloosa crowd hospitable after the game?