As a current blogger and former journalist, there are times I can’t help but wish Gene Chizik could liven up his press conferences just a bit, give the media classes just a few more juicy quotes to spice up our blog posts and wire stories.
Then there are times like yesterday, when what I wish for instead is a bookie that would take odds on what Chizik would say when asked a given question. And that way, when he was asked about Marcus Lattimore and said
“We don’t talk about the ones we didn’t get.”
I’d have a new ski condo. That was still only the second-most predictable quote of the Chizik press conference, though, the first being this one:
“We knew we really had to use this class to build a foundation of what we’re trying to do at Auburn. This building block, exactly a year later, was exactly what we envisioned.”
If we’d been playing “Gene Chizik Siging Day press conference bingo,” the word “foundation” would have been the word in the center square so you knew everyone would get it for free. It’s an unavoidable concept when talking about this Auburn class. I used it myself the other day. If Chizik’s Auburn becomes the program we want them to be, his first surprising cobbled-together class will be a nice story … but it’s this second one and that luminous Signing Day we all enjoyed yesterday that’s going to be the class and the date we point to as the place that rise began. Chizik and Co. had laid down some building blocks. But the foundation didn’t appear complete until yesterday.
But here’s the problem with the metaphor: it’s all couched in the future. If Auburn becomes the program we want them to be. The foundation appears complete. You know how many other major signing classes have been heralded by their coaches as a “foundation”? Let’s put the number at “oodles,” and leave it at that.
And while some of those foundations have proven sturdy, some of them have been shown to have been made out of papier-mache and sandbox sand. Think Charlie Weis’s drastically improved classes at Notre Dame. Ed Orgeron’s at Ole Miss. Bill Callahan’s at Nebraska. Ron Zook’s at Illinois, which have blown away like so much dust in the wind and left the Illini with this.
Now: Auburn’s class of 2010 is miles, miles better than a lot of those classes. (Look through Rivals’ record of team rankings–which goes back to 2002–and you’ll see that no team with as, shall we say, “limited” a national profile as Auburn has cracked the top 5. Nebraska is the only thing close.) And we would like to think that coaches like Chizik and Co. will know what to do with their new toys in way guys like Orgeron and Callahan never would.
But right now we can only think. We don’t know, not yet. It’s beyond cliched to say This is only the beginning–it’s a surprise Chizik didn’t borrow that particular phrase as well–but, you know, this is only the beginning. The story has its opening lines, but Auburn still has to write the rest of it. Maybe it will be a story of triumph. Maybe it will be another cautionary tale to file alongside the Zooks of the world, another windswept cow skeleton along the dusty trail to victory.
We know that the former is more likely than the latter, of course. We know that Auburn’s new foundation looks sturdy enough. Gene Chizik and his staff have acquired the bricks, the mortar, the blueprints. Yesterday, they made a promise, both to the young men who joined their football team and the fans that support them. Now they just have to keep it.
Build on yesterday, Auburn. Build.
Photo by Van Emst, who ought to win some kind of award for that one photo. You know the one.
My sentiments exactly. In all of the excitement yesterday, while I was happy, I kept thinking “Don’t celebrate just yet”. Don’t be satisfied. As great as yesterday was, it is only a piece of what will determine Auburn’s greatness in history. Yesterday is over. Let’s keep building. Let’s keep working.
It’ll be interesting to see how next year’s class pans out. The LSU’s and South Carolina’s of the world will be on high alert whenever Auburn coaches start snooping around. It might be fair to say Auburn “snuck up” on a lot of people this year and pulled their best player out of state before they realized it was their best player (i.e. Shon Coleman). Hope our coaches keep aiming high. (Imagine if we go after another kid from Trovon’s high school… their coach will have a coronary next time his best player says “I’m really feelin’ Auburn”)
One skill of this staff that isn’t getting a lot of press yet is their ability to find hidden gems. Not enough evidence yet to make any grand proclamations, but with Darren Bates and Anthony Gulley showing well in their first year on the Plains, it seems they know a good thing when they see it. Now the coaches have resigned Izauea Lanier who was also a lowly regarded recruit in 2009… I assume this more than confirms their initial feelings about Lanier. I’ll be keeping a close eye on Chris Davis, Chad Slade, Justin Delaine, Ladarious Phillips and the Nigerian kid from Georgia. This group will tell us a lot about Chizik’s evaluation skills. (for the record, Tuberville was way over-rated at this.. my calculations from Rivals show that he found one good player for every six or so 2* and below he signed, which I figure is average at best).
Are there any big names in this class that look like a long shot to qualify?
As important as the metaphorical building blocks are, the choice of firmament is key, as well. Seems as if I read that somewhere … Tebow’s eye black, perhaps.
Seems like they are on the right track fo sho. They are stockpiling talent and won’t be as thin depth wise as last season. They may struggle this season at times again, but I think overall, you can expect about the same number of wins in 2010 as in 2009. A lot of the 2010 games are tossups in my mind: Clemson at home, at MSU, SCAR, LSU, UGA, ARK, at Ole Miss, at UK. Bama is the only team that I am pretty sure will beat AU at T-Town and AU has 3 home cup cakes that they should destroy. Talent wise they should beat UK and MSU but SEC road games can be tough. SCar, Clem, and Ark have similar talent but AU has them at home. LSU and UGA have a bit more talent but AU also faces them at home. I predict 9-3 with losses to Bama, LSU, and Ark. Maybe another NYD bowl. However, if Newton is a total badass running and throwing, and the defense improves a lot with the talent added, who knows what the record might be by the time the Bama game comes around. Lot of excitement right now.
Tyler- I heard Jeremy Richardson is a worry. Don’t know about others though
“Heard”? There was a B’ham News story (linked in the big SD post) confirming that Richardson is a worry, though not without reason–Richardson’s had like three close family members pass away in the last 18 months or something. He’s the only one there’s anything hard on, but there’s been whispers about Carter (from Greenville, where the last two D-I prospects also failed to qualify) and Slade.
Marmot: I think you make an excellent point, and it’s one big reason (along with the fact that this class will be Auburn’s biggest and the one in which there’s the most PT to offer) I’ll be pleasantly surprised if Auburn reaches these kinds of heights again. I’m thinking 6-10 range in the future, and that’ll be fine; as I’ve said many times, it’s not necessary to beat Alabama on the trail, we just have to hang with them and let the coaching do the rest.
Kenny: Word.
Homer: Way too early for me to start tossing around 2010 record predictions, but you’re right there seem to be an abnormally high number of toss-up games on the slate, thanks to Auburn getting the stronger teams on the schedule at home and the lower-profile ones on the road. The best- and worst-case scenarios are going to be wide, wide apart.
Question for anyone: Has Gene made a bad decision yet on how the team should be coached, selected, trained, recruited, led?
One that could be compared to Houston Nutt? Lane Kiffin? Phil Fulmer? Mike Shula? Ed Odgeron? Ron Zook? or even Tommy Tuberville?
Try as I might, I just don’t see anything that he has done in the last year or so that I object to. Sure, the team lost a few games that I felt we had a chance to win, but that happens to every program in the BCS.
Stop looking for worse-case. Stop waiting and worrying about the ‘next test’ for this staff and team.
Relax. We’ve got a good coach, who hired a good staff, who coach a really good bunch of kids (and recently selected some other good kids) to play for the team we all love.
Just sit back and enjoy the ride. Despite my misgivings last year, Jacobs proved me wrong and hired a coach I can believe in and now back 100%.
War Eagle. Can’t wait until football season.
Sullivan013
Yeah, I should have mentioned the negative side too… conversely the offense may be inconsistent under a new signal caller, injuries become a problem again, and the defense is not yet developed and talented enough to consistently stop SEC foes, similar to last season. Also fairly talented teams like Ark, Clem may have a breakout year and be much tougher than you would expect. MSU may be drastically improved as their talent and experience increases. LSU may have one of those great(lucky) years where they will be nearly impossible to beat. Bama will be good regardless. In this case AU will be lucky to make a bowl at 6-6. So yeah, very wide spread.
sechomer-same number of wins would be 7…not nine. Auburn will win 10.
sully-CGC so far has done everything right.
Kenny-you buy a bird dog on breeding and pedigree. How he hunts in the field is determined by training. CNS
We are now free to celebrate about the cabin….SWA
Sully, the fake punt against Ball St. where McCalebb got hurt was a bad call. That’s all I got.
Re: relaxing, I wouldn’t say I’m worried or that I’m looking for the worst-case. I’m just saying previous teams and coaching staffs have had opportunities similar to the ones Auburn now has, and haven’t made the most of them. Nothing’s guaranteed. Likely? Yes. Am I worried? No. But there’s more work to be done.