re: To Former Coach Thomas Hawley Tuberville

quote:

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You stated that it would be difficult for the staff in place to duplicate your success at Auburn. Why did you have to say that?

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It will be extremely difficult. Why are you crying about your former coach telling the truth. I'll explain:

- Tuberville coached against DuBose, Franchione, and Shula before finally having to recruit against and play against Saban.

- Chizik is being thrown into the fire against Saban from day one, and will be expected to perform. Like it or not, Chizik is going to have a much more difficult time experiencing the same amount of success Tuberville did - as long as Alabama is still in "good shape" with Saban at the helm.

- There are currently 4 coaches with National Championships under their belts in the SEC.

- There is another guy by the name of Mark Richt who has turned Georgia into a powerhouse football team, and a guy by the name of Bobby Petrino who beat you guys last year with the worst Arkansas team that he'll ever coach.

- There are 3 "new coaches". 1 was an NFL head coach and seems to be a great recruiter. 1 was the offensive coordinator behind what has become the Florida juggernaut. 1 is Gene Chizik.

- When Tommy Tuberville went undefeated in 2004 with the Auburn Tigers, the SEC scene looked like this:

Alabama - Mike Shula (6-6)
Arkansas - Houston Nutt (5-6)
Mississippi State - Sylvester Croom (3-8)
Ole Miss - David Cutcliffe (4-7)
LSU - Nick Saban (8-5)
Florida - Ron Zook (7-5)
Tennessee - Phil Fulmer (10-3)
Georgia - Mark Richt (10-2)
South Carolina - Lou Holtz (6-5)
Vanderbilt - Bobby Johnson (2-9)
Kentucky - Rich Brooks (2-9)

So, as you can see, the SEC was not nearly the monster that it is now. In 2004, there were only 3 teams other than Auburn that won 8 or more games.

It's simply not logical, or in my opinion - fair - to expect or even suggest that Gene Chizik should have the same amount of success as Tommy Tuberville, and I believe that Tuberville was justified in saying so.