re: Auburn took a chance on Bruce and that worked out so......

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All that from 3-8 and broke. Dont belittle that. It was a major accomplishment and it was done with very little talent.

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I think that you need to go back and re-examine that roster because it was not in any way shape or form a roster lacking in talent. Those players went 3-8 the year prior because the team quit on Chizik, not because they lacked talent.

RB: Mason, Artis-Payne, Grant - All three played in the NFL.
FB: Prosch - drafted as a FB and that is a rare feat. Played in the NFL.
HB: Uzomah - barely utilized in Malzahn's offense but still playing in the NFL. Very talented player.
WR: Mainly used for blocking in 2013; but this group featured Coates and Louis who were 3rd/4th round picks and provided the deep-speed that was needed to keep the opposing defense honest.
OL: Robinson, Dismukes, Slade, Patrick Miller - Robinson was one of the most dominant run blockers to play at this level in ~10-15 years, Dismukes a quintessential NCAA star with tons of experience, Slade a solid starter who's still in the NFL, and Miller being an NFL-caliber talent who we didn't develop fully.

DL: Ford, Whitaker, Gabe Wright, Blackson, Eguae, etc, etc. Ford was an obvious star and the rest of the DL was deep with rock solid, experienced players. Blackson wasn't even a starter and he's still in the NFL. Whitaker and Wright were "NCAA star" type players that just lacked NFL athleticism. This was a super underrated group and also had Freshmen Carl Lawson and Montravius Adams.
LB: By far the weakest position group on the team.
DB: Super experienced and deep group of solid players - Jonathan Jones, Mincy, Chris Davis, Therezie, Ryan Smith, Josh Holsey. Jonathan Jones ended up being a very good NFL player and the rest were sound NCAA starters with a lot of experience.

ST: An absolutely elite unit - Parkey and Steven Clark at K/P and Chris Davis at KR.

The main thing about that roster and the main thing about any winning team - OL and DL. Lots of experience and solid talent/size in those two groups.

I'll do it again.

I find it interesting that people complain about Gus but have some kind of "I don't want this dude because of what he did there" attitude. Sometimes people need a second chance and they get a taste at one place and go wild due to success. They get caught and go on to learn from it at their next stop. Freeze is a pretty good coach and watching Liberty over the past couple of years he has them rolling. I wouldn't mind him being the next Coach at Auburn. I think he would do a good job as a coach here. I think he was exiled, and now on a redemption tour. Kind of like Kiffin. I don't understand people being ok with Kiffin but not Freeze as both have actually done the same thing. One just got caught.

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what happens if AU finishes 8th in the conference in basketball this season? Bad coaching, roster mismanagement, etc? Have to admit we have the 3rd/4th most talented roster in the conference.

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Did Bruce refuse to recruit point guards for the last 4 years?

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We got rid of our best softball coach ever over mishandling an issue with his assistant coach. Auburn is not the place for low life's.

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That’s a pretty generous explanation of events.

We were lucky that incident didn’t cause unholy fire to rain down upon the program in my opinion.

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Auburn took a chance on Bruce and that worked out

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Ross:

We were lucky that incident didn’t cause unholy fire to rain down upon the program in my opinion.

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Fantastic work by Jay Jacobs, for sure.

The people claiming Freeze isn’t a good coach have no idea what they’re talking about! That dude is 100x the coach FG Gus is.
I would take Kiffen or Freeze any day of the week and twice on Sunday over what we have now. They actually have a clue when it comes to offense, unlike our “offensive guru” booger eater

Following the example of outstanding experience in hiring assistants at Ole Miss. Maybe he'll bring that staff with him to Auburn and then we can enjoy three years of no Bowl Games and ten years of poor play because of the recruiting penalties. Looking forward to that crap.

How about we find two or three candidates that have no BS behind them?

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Freeze is most definitely a superior version of Gus and would win games here, but I worry if he has the coaching fortitude to develop the OL/DL driven "mantra" that is required to become a Bama/LSU/Georgia caliber program. The guy is a damn good coach looking past the off field stuff, but there is still the angle of him being one of those "boat race offense" coaches.

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I wonder if Freeze could be our 'Pearl'? Banished bc of past trangressions, but still a good coach, needing a good place to resurrect his and a program's program.

Not sure he is who I would want, bc of what you said about whether he is that type of coach that builds that wall of very good OL/DL. True issues.

To me Freeze is far too similar to Gus.

I know he's a good football coach, Gus can be as well. I have no reason to think Freeze can compete on the trail with Kirby or Saban. I also have no reason to believe that Freeze can run a program better than Gus, show more leadership than Gus, or energize the fan base like Pearl (as someone referenced).

To be clear, this isn't a defense of keeping Gus, it's a rebuttal of the argument for Freeze. The only thing Bruce and Freeze have in common are history with the NCAA. Bruce was not only a great coach (I admit Freeze is a good coach), he's a dynamic personality - one of the best in the history of CBB most likely. He had the ability to appeal to talented players before the program was successful, and had the coaching ability to sustain success once it started.

I don't see Freeze as that guy at all. The argument for Freeze would have to be that he's such a good coach that he'll get the program winning at such a high level and that program performance will be sufficient for recruiting. I'm just not convinced he's capable of that at Auburn.