This not to say that Gill should be faulted either. Coaching is a high stress job, and coaches highly value their own comfort level. A coach is only going to succeed if he is comfortable, and it may be that at this time in his head coaching career (which again is very young) Gill is only comfortable surrounded by his people and doing things his way.
Besides, go tell Mike Leach, "You're a fantastic coach and we'd love to have you, but you'll have to run your program the way Jim Tressel does his. After all, Tressel has won several BCS bowl games and a national title." Reply: Thanks but no thanks.
So now you know why Gill was not hired. Now you know why Gill insists that he was not mistreated. And now you know why the media has chosen to trash Auburn instead of other better candidates for racist coaching hires.
Which better candidates? How about COLORADO in the 1990s? Bob Simmons had been a part of building that program for many years and had helped build West Virginia in years prior. Rick Neuheisel, on the other hand, was in his early 30s, had only been in coaching a few seasons, and had only been at Colorado one year, his first with coordinator-type responsibilities (where Simmons was defensive coordinator and assistant head coach). Even better: Bill McCartney endorsed Simmons for the job!
Well, the job went to Neuheisel, and the guys who made the decision begged Simmons to stay on and be the head recruiter and administrator—to actually run the program behind the scenes—so Neuheisel could focus on his offensive scheme and gameday coaching (the only thing that he knew a thing about) while receiving the credit and pay of a head coach.
Of course, Simmons declined and ultimately took a job at Oklahoma State, which at the time was suffering from massive sanctions, scholarship reductions, outdated facilities, and had no tradition...one of the worst jobs in the country.
Jesse Jackson even attempted to make it an issue and urged Simmons to file a racial discrimination lawsuit, which Simmons would have certainly won. (Simmons declined.)
The same media rags that are now trashing Auburn, including ESPN? They rushed to the defense of Colorado. They criticized Jackson for getting involved, poking his nose where it didn't belong. Sure, on paper Neuheisel was less qualified, but couldn't they see that there was something different about Neuheisel? Something special?
USA Today actually ran a major story about Neuheisel, calling him "the next Bobby Bowden." They stated, "Sure, this lack of black coaches issue is a legitimate one, one that we have talked about, but not at this time."
Why? Because the media supported the hire. Period.
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