Auburn: High Plains Drifter 2009

It was late November 2008 and the air was wet and cold. There was a vibe that something was about to happen down on the plains. Tubberville had just lost to his dreaded rival, Alabama, 36-0. The sheriff also had an unbelievably bad season. He went 5-7 and posting loses to teams such as Vanderbilt, 5-7 Arkansas and almost getting beaten by 4-8 Mississippi State.

Fighting his way out of the O.K. Corral would have been easier than this crumbling wet paper sack called the Auburn football program. But the local mining company owners had enough. They had enough of the poor assistants, the lies of what would be and the truth that the sheriff and his posse could no longer round up the best cattle to put out on the field.

And so the whipping began.... shortly thereafter, the sheriff crawled out of the program with a measly 6 million dollars in retribution. Severance for 10 years of mediocrity. Sure he beat his rival 7 out of 10 times, but, he only won one SEC championship during a time when the harvesting was so abundant because the other ranches were so poorly managed.

And now with his rotting corpse sitting aside at Lake Martin the town-folk of Auburn call in a new sheriff. A man who once stood on those hollowed grounds and coached a defense to a 13-0 record. A man they hope will be the salvation to put the Auburn Tigers back to their rightful place of, of, of.....well, to at least beat Alabama again and continue beating UT.

Chizik, what can be said that hasn't already been said? A national championship as a DC, a perfect season as a DC, and 5-19 team as an HC.

Chizik's perfect season at Auburn was a good one. The team was able to beat four teams with winning records that year including UT twice. The other 8 teams they played had a combined record of 34-56. This is not Chiziks fault.

Chizik then moved on to Austin to help Texas have a perfect season and win the National Championship. The following year in 2006 the longhorns had a successful season as well and Gene was noticed by the lowest team in the conference. He was ready to be Head Coaching material.

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