re: What I’m hearing (coaching search)

Sumrall is not Harsin.

The man has been around really good coaches. He is a Saban acolyte.

I will ban myself IF he can’t make the playoff in 4 years

My choices are:

1) Lashlee (who whipped Brohm's arse Saturday by the way).

2) Dilly

3) Sumrall

Lashlee is too expensive and Dilly is loyal to ASU. Sumrall is my 3rd choice and I will be perfectly fine with him. I would like nothing more than to see a coach make his name at AU (sorta like Dye). Sumrall's floor could be low, but his ceiling might be pretty high. It's worth a gamble I think.

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I will ban myself IF he can’t make the playoff in 4 years

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Bookmarked

Fine. I believe you. He might still get a Harsin like outcome if he's forced to start in the hole created by the situation he'd be in though. He's a Saban Acolyte huh? Wonderful. The only way that matters is if he's relentless on AND off the field. Being some hard arse like MOST Saban guys only works when you have the resume to back it up with players. My opinion is unpopular in this area........ but I think the era of the hard arse no nonsense coach has ended. You've got to be more of a (firm politician) now. Not soft like Freeze, but Definitely not as hard as Saban was. Not even Saban could be Saban anymore.... that's why he quit. Love it or hate it that's the landscape now.

Sumrall is coaching because he loves football.

He was an all SEC LB whose career ended with injury.

He is hungry.

Harsin knew nothing about the SEC.
He was arrogant.
He did not recruit.

Sumrall will work hard at recruiting.

Some players will portal no matter who we hire.

IF Sumrall wants Durkin to stay- fine.
BUT does Durkin even want to stay?

I’m just a fan. I graduated from Auburn 40 years ago. I’ve supported every coach and player from Shug Jordan to interim DJ Durkin. I’ll want AU to win whether we hire Durkin/Brohm/Dillingham/Sumrall/ or even Tater Tot or a cardboard cutout of Doug Barfield

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his Division II coordinators with him

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The Philadelphia Eagles won with D2 coaches

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USC hasn't ever recovered from the NCAA sanctions. It's been even longer since they have been relevant than Auburn. Its been 20 YEARS. Go back farther than 3 seasons and does the resume become different then? Sometimes it just doesn't work out between a job and employee.

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You seem oblivious to the fact that USC gave Lincoln Riley a whopping $110M contract to turn them around, and he has failed to do so. USC didn't fail, Riley has failed. You seem to be excusing his failure for no reason at all. And really, what is his excuse supposed to be? USC is the #1 program in California and UCLA has sucked dog-dick the entire time Riley has been there. Cal has also sucked dick and they just fired their HC. So who's fault is it that Riley is only winning ~8 games a year there over the past 3 seasons? It seems to me that he has zero competition in his own state.

Liker you said yourself: USC has struggled in recent years even before Riley got there, and so has Auburn. So given the fact that Riley hasn't been able to turn around USC, what would make you think that it would be different at Auburn? He would be walking into the same type of recent irrelevancy at Auburn as he walked into at USC. Its not going to be any easier for him here in the SEC, obviously.

And why would I go back further than 3 years to look at his resume? All that says is that he was considered to be a great HC at one point, and now something has happened and he has declined. Why would anyone assume to be getting ~2019-2022 Lincoln Riley and not 2023-2025 Lincoln Riley? Hopes and prayers? You look at the most recent results because they obviously give you the most current picture of the candidate's potential competency. You cant just wave away 3 years of completely pedestrian/average results and pretend like they don't mean anything.

If you go back 3 years then Dabo Swinney would still be considered an elite coach (Clemson was 11-3 in 2022). Maybe we should hire Dabo and pretend that the most recent ~2-3 years at Clemson just didn't happen lol?

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If USC is wanting to cut bait and he is wanting a fresh start then something isn't working out and neither side wants to claim responsibility(if the rumors have been true). That could open the door to paying him a smaller contract,

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This makes zero sense. Riley's estimated buyout if he were to be fired by USC is a whopping ~$78 million. Why would Riley do them a solid and leave for free and then take less money from Auburn than what his buyout would be? If we were to hire him, then he would have to be paid at least $80 million, otherwise he is just leaving money on the table. This is just common sense. He isn't going to walk away from a near $80 million buyout and then sign here for $50 million.

And this is the crux of the gamble that you don't seem to understand: you have to pay Riley a PREMIUM RATE to get him to leave his cushy buyout at USC, but you are gambling on a guy who hasn't produced frick-all in recent seasons. So pay a shite ton for the hope that he is actually still an elite coach and not someone who has declined.

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AND there isnt really and better options that will consider.

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This is just conjecture that you obviously can't prove since we don't know for certain how anyone will do here. One can easily argue that Riley maxes out at ~8-9 wins here (given recent results at USC). In which case, how do I know that Sumrall or anyone else can't match that? Yes Sumrall might suck like Napier, or he might be the next elite HC - nobody here knows. However, I'm not going to pretend that a guy who is winning ~8 games at USC is somehow the best we can do.

I think you’re overlooking a very important factor in your analysis of Riley. The guy is a Texas native, and played qb at Texas Tech. Even while he was HC at OU, he was very much plugged into the Texas recruiting pipeline. Now he’s 1400 miles away in a place where he’s hasn’t spent a lifetime cultivating relationships. His pedestrian record is probably more indicative of a bad fit than a bad coach. Get him back in a geographical location that lets him lean on his Texas relationships and he’s probably a different coach.

Thank goodness

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I think you’re overlooking a very important factor in your analysis of Riley. The guy is a Texas native, and played qb at Texas Tech. Even while he was HC at OU, he was very much plugged into the Texas recruiting pipeline. Now he’s 1400 miles away in a place where he’s hasn’t spent a lifetime cultivating relationships. His pedestrian record is probably more indicative of a bad fit than a bad coach. Get him back in a geographical location that lets him lean on his Texas relationships and he’s probably a different coach.

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Maybe. However, the other thing you need to consider is that all of his success at Oklahoma came in the Big 12 while Texas was notably down. Go look at the teams that he was competing with in the Big 12. You'll see Iowa State, Oklahoma State, and Baylor as the other "best" teams in that conference while Riley was winning 10+ games a year at Oklahoma. Which of those programs are anywhere near Oklahoma?

He had it VERY easy in that conference, no different than how Dabo was sleepwalking to 10+ wins a year in a crappy ACC while Miami was in turmoil.

Convince me that Riley isn't simply an overrated HC who looked great because he took over a pre-built program at Oklahoma that was already winning before him, and got to beat through a bunch of lower tiered Big 12 teams that had less talent, all the while the only other "great" program in that conference (Texas) wasn't even good.

It is very important to understand that Riley didn't actually build anything at Oklahoma. Bob Stoops was already winning 10-11 games a season all the way up until his retirement.