Most of the players than Kiffin ran off were dead weight who were never going to be good players. We were not going to win with those players.
That's a questionable assumption. So you are saying it was all Kiffin evalutating talent and not about a player or two or three leaving because they didn't trust Kiffin? But I am not going to go back and research it, it's not worth it to me, so we can agree to disagree.
Giving a coach an extension and a raise for mediocrity is the definition of allowing said coach to become complacent.
Two part answer. One, who said we were mediocre in 2007? We made the SECCG. Granted, we snuck in. Much was made of UF and Bammer hammering us that year. You mean those two programs that won 4 of the last 7 MNCs? Think maybe that had something to do with it? 2007 was not perfect, but I attribute that to a very young D. That was the worst D of Chief's career, and it's because we lost so many players from 2006. Every now and then, you have to rebuild. The offense was fine in 2007. But more important, I don't think we were mediocre because we easily could have played for the MNC in 2006. Were we down a notch? Definitely. But I would say we declined from "excellent" to "just good". Mediocre is overstating the case. This is probably another one we can agree to disagree on, but I wanted to explain my view in more detail.
Second part...it's not the "acceptance of mediocrity" by Hamilton that bothered me, but the perception that he was responding reactively to every which way the wind blew. I was happy with making the 2007 SECCG but I didn't think Fulmer deserved a freaking extension and raise (like I said...it was a "good" but not "great" season). IMO, had we won the SECCG then Fulmer would have deserved the raise and extension. Then I thought Hamilton overeacted to the pressure on Fulmer in fall 2008. I thought he should have waited till the end of the season, but whatever, the main thing is that it looked to me that he was responding to pressure from fans and alumni and not making up his own mind. That's not leadership.
Demanding excellence vs. acknowledging how hard it is to achieve... that last thing is a copout, an excuse, and is the exact mentality that Mike Hamilton perpetuated. fizzle rationalization... this is a historically great program... hell yes it's hard to be successful in the SEC but Florida, Alabama, Auburn, and LSU don't seem to be worrying about how hard it is.
Auburn might be without Cam. Maybe it's a copout, maybe not, but those who thought firing Fulmer would wave a magic wand and fix things were dead wrong. I completely disagree that Hamilton perpetuated any rationalization of mediocrity. I think the opposite is true. It's almost as if he listened to the youngest, stupidest part of our fanbase to make an "edgy" hire in Kiffin to try and get "some energy" into the program IMO. And when that failed spectacularly, he stayed true to form and bent entirely the other way and made a "safe" hire (or more likely, hired the only decent candidate he could find on short notice.
Another point...Auburn lost their longtime coach at the same time (and although he did not win the MNC, he probably should have). Their hire worked out better than ours (though how much of that was Cam, I don't know). Let's take the other teams on that list. Florida arguably has more talent than us and had a season almost as shizzlety, but even Urbie didnt' keep them at that top level forever. Let's throw in uga...they have for quite awhile been about where we were when Fulmer left. So of the top 6 programs, 3 currently have issues and I am not even sure Chizik doesn't get axed in a couple of years.
So this is consistent with my view that a coaching change might work out...or it might not. No one can foresee the future. It's a bit of a crapshoot.
Put another way, "we are where we are". I do expect to see significant improvement next year, I agree on that. I think I disagree that it's easy. It definitely is not, and I think part of the problem is that a lot of people thought it would be easy last time around.
I don't think a coaching change should be made right now... he deserves the third year to see if he can advance us past everything and we need another year of stability (if you can call our situation stable). But, the perception is that he is a coach who is hard to work for and from what I've heard that's more fact than perception. Saban is hard to work for too, but Saban WINS. Derek hasn't. I'm fully prepared to be following a coaching search next December. All you have to do is read between the lines of what Dave Hart is saying and watch the coaching turnover that is going on. Hart is not going to be patient with someone who isn't his guy when King Football is falling off the plate of the hundreds of thousands of people who live and die with it. Bank that.
I completely agreee with this. My expectations for next season might be a bit lower, but I do expect significant improvement.
