College Football: Auburn Fan Goes into Hiding After Picking Gill over Chizik

Some of you may remember this video clip of an “Auburn fan” yelling his expert opinion at Jay Jacobs (Auburn’s athletic director) over the decision to consider (and hire) Gene Chizik as Auburn’s  head football coach.

Apparently this “fan” was not impressed with what Chizik had done as defensive coordinator at both Auburn and Texas, or as the head coach of Iowa State.

Chizik’s first season at Auburn came in 2009, and he led the Tigers to an 8-5 record and an Outback Bowl victory. While Outback Bowl wins and 8-5 seasons are nice, they won’t keep a fan base happy forever.

As you know, Chizik finished his second season at Auburn with a perfect 14-0 record.  Auburn beat rival Alabama (the 2009 national champions), won an SEC Championship and the BCS national title and had Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Cam Newton. 

On the other hand, Turner Gill, the other coach Auburn considered before hiring Chizik, is currently 5-16 overall as the head coach of the Kansas Jayhawks.  While only in his second season at Kansas, things do not look great for Coach Gill.

Gill was an up-and-coming college football coach when he took the Kansas job, and for good reason.  He was the head coach at Buffalo from 2006 to 2009, where he had a 20-30 overall record and was 14-18 in Mid-American Conference play.  In 2007 the Bulls were co-division champions of the MAC’s East Division, and in 2008 the Bulls won the MAC Conference Championship after defeating No. 12 Ball State in the MAC Championship game.   

There were plenty of points to be made in favor of both Gill and Chizik when Auburn was evaluating who their next coach would be.  With no disrespect to Coach Gill, those who are paid to make the decisions at Auburn decided that Chizik was their guy.

This guy in the video apparently thought that was the wrong decision.  In fact, he was convinced that he was so much smarter than the collective brain trust that running the Auburn football program that he decided to voice his opinion as loudly as he possibly could. 

So, I have to ask, where is he now? 

Is he still under the impression that Chizik was a bad hire? 

Does he still believe Auburn should have hired Turner Gill? 

Has he heard the phrase “it’s better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt”?

I can only imagine this guy is probably lying fairly low right now and hoping everyone has forgotten about his on-video comments.  However, despite his conviction that Chizik was the wrong man for the job, I am guessing he was probably one of the first people in line for tickets to last season’s BCS title game in Glendale, Arizona.