How does Gene Chizik not know whether Auburn signed single or multi-year scholarships? (UPDATED)

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During a 25-minute press conference yesterday, Auburn coach Gene Chizik discussed his 2012 signing class. During the Q&A he was asked if the recruits were offered one- or multi-year scholarships.

On if Auburn signed anyone to a multi-year scholarship...
"We signed everybody to the exact same scholarship."

Which is the one-year?
"Yes."

The university later said this was not true; that Auburn had followed the Southeastern Conference lead of Florida and had signed everyone to four year scholarships:

A tweet from Jay Tate from the Montgomery Advertiser:

Auburn now says it offered 4-year scholarships to today's signees -- sign one time and cannot have it revoked due to athletic performance.
— HABOTN (@HABOTN) February 1, 2012

How does the head coach of Auburn University not know what kind of scholarship his incoming class signed up for? Were his statements accurate? Did the university change the scholarship offer without his knowledge? More importantly, how might this have affected Auburn’s recruiting class?

Chizik lost out on several highly coveted athletes yesterday. Kwon Alexander, Ronald Darby, Eddie Goldman, Cordarrelle Patterson and Leonard Williams were all high on Auburn’s board but chose to sign elsewhere. Instead of closing with a bang yesterday, Chizik closed with a whimper. If Chizik didn’t know he could have been offering them cushy four-year deals to play with the Tigers, how many of those top recruits swing his way?

Recruiting is the lifeblood of college football. How and who you recruit to your program almost always translates to success on the field. Any advantage that could be used in the living rooms of top prospects is ruthlessly exploited.

There is a raging debate over whether offering four-year scholarships is a good idea or a bust. There are valid points on both sides and that’s a debate for another day.

But to have the head coach stand before the media during such a high profile press conference and flatly state that he and his staff recruited with one-year scholarship offers, only to have the university “clarify” his statement and claim that all were signed to four year deals is mind-boggling.

What’s going on over there? Surely the head coach isn’t this clueless.

UPDATE: Reader JDiddly23 has a valid question in the comment section: “won't this apply to ALL sports under Title IX and NCAA regulations?” It would seem like it would, and if I were a member of the 2011 signing class, I’d be more than a little interested in why the 2012 signees are so special. As mentioned above, there is a raging debate over the impacts of offering multi-year scholarships and the Title IX and equal treatment issues are two of the most important aspects of the debate.

UPDATE II: Via Jon Solomon of the Birmingham News: “Auburn coach Gene Chizik initially indicated he offered all one-year renewable scholarships this year. An athletics department spokesman later clarified that Auburn provided five-year scholarships.”

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Neither Bama nor Auburn likely to make hires before bowls, but Chizik’s choice is critical

Alternate headline: Auburn’s Gene Chizik to prolong fan anguish for a few more weeks.

Both Alabama and Auburn enter the holidays looking for new coordinators. Don’t expect either Nick Saban or Gene Chizik to make those hires before 2012 rolls around, but Chizik’s hires will be worth careful scrutiny.

Alabama will replace offensive coordinator Jim McElwain, who takes over the head coaching job at Colorado State after the BCS Championship Game. Auburn needs a matched set—defensive coordinator Ted Roof left for the same job at Central Florida and offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn left to take the Arkansas State head coaching position.

As covered in an entry earlier this week, it’s unlikely that Saban’s new guy will be a splashy coach known for his “decided schematic advantage.” We already know what kind of offense Alabama is going to run in 2012 and anyone expecting the Tide to sling the ball around the field 50+ times in a game will be bored silly. Saban will make his choice, the new coach will be announced (but not introduced) to the media, and it’ll be business as usual in Tuscaloosa.

Auburn’s hires are much more significant. I’m bucking conventional wisdom and postulating that who Chizik hires as a defensive coordinator will be much more important than the offensive guy going forward. This is especially true if there are no significant changes in offensive philosophy.

Pete Roussel has a fascinating look at how teams with up tempo offenses affect the performance of the programs’ defensive units. To put it bluntly, teams that rack up points with high octane attacks have defenses that usually suck.

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For example, West Virginia defensive coordinator Jeff Casteel has proven to be one of the best in the business for years.  Since 2007, the Mountaineers have finished 8th, 11th, 31st, and 3rd nationally in scoring defense.  Enter Dana Holgorsen's up tempo offense in 2011 and Casteel's defense dipped to 63rd nationally in scoring defense.

In Dana Holgorsen's two years as the offensive coordinator at Houston, the Cougars finished 91st nationally and 95th nationally in scoring defense. One year later at Oklahoma State, the Cowboys finished 61st nationally in scoring defense while Holgorsen was the offensive coordinator.

Holgorsen, however, did help Oklahoma State win 11 games in 2010. And under his leadership this season at West Virginia, the Mountaineers have earned a trip to the Orange Bowl.

Whether it be at Tulsa or Auburn, the defensive units opposite of Gus Malzahn's up tempo style have finished 100th, 75th, 79th, 53rd, and 80th nationally in scoring defense.

Tulsa, however, was 21-7 with Malzahn and Auburn won a national championship thanks in large to Malzahn's offensive philosophy.

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Roussel also cites the examples of Chip Kelly at Oregon and Chad Morris at Clemson, whose offenses have also corresponded with mediocre (at best) defensive performance. While all of those teams have won a lot of football games, their defenses have stayed on the field and their performance has been disappointing.

For the last three years, Auburn has recruited offensive players geared for Malzahn’s up tempo attack. A radical shift in philosophy would likely result in a few years of pain and suffering as the right players are recruited and developed to execute the new scheme. See the 2011 Florida Gators, for example. Given the pressures at an SEC school like Auburn, that would likely mean Chizik goes straight to the hotseat and doesn’t get off until he wins or it detonates. You don’t see that happening, and neither do I.

Given the pattern described by Roussel and knowing that the offense will stay up tempo, it becomes apparent that Chizik needs to hire a stud defensive coordinator. He needs to swing for the fences and nail the homer. The question is, would that type of coach be willing to take such a risk?

Extraordinarily good coordinators are ambitious men with proven track records. They’re not always looking forward to an eventual head coaching job (see LSU’s John Chavis), but the best probably are. If your defenses have consistently ranked in the top quartile nationally, do you risk joining a team that is almost certain to dent your numbers and darken your résumé? Not unless it’s for a totally sick amount of money.

If you’re going to win consistently in the SEC, you’ve got to play ferocious defense. You don’t just fall down in the face of oncoming ball carriers. Who Auburn hires to run the defense will go a long way in determining whether the 2011 season was a run-of-the-mill rebuilding year, or the new normal.

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Flea Flicker: The Long Goodbye

Cartoons from The Flea Flicker™ appear on the right sidebar of this blog, but when a really good one comes up, it's worth promoting to a blog post. Here's the latest on Gene Chizik's farewell to Gus Malzahn.

Cartoon greatness.

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Follow the guys at Flea Flicker™ at @FFCartoon, @K1ngCrimson and @Banditref

Auburn Defensive Coordinator Ted Roof FIRED

Numerous media outlets—primarily Auburn fan sites—are reporting that Auburn defensive coordinator has agreed to take over the same duties at the University of Central Florida. There has not (yet) been a statement from head coach Gene Chizik.

While today’s news is carefully crafted to make it look like Roof is merely moving onto another opportunity, let’s be honest. You don’t leave a top assistant’s job at an SEC program that isn’t even one year removed from a BCS Championship and go to a place like Central Florida. While UCF is a nice, up-and-coming program, it’s still a directional school that has only been playing Division I (FBS) football for 15 years. UCF has been a member of Conference USA, but will likely join the Big East in 2013. No one with ambition makes a move like this.

Auburn fans have to be happy, though. Under Roof, the program has posted its worst defensive performance over any three year stretch in the modern history of the program, and the Tigers were blown out this season more times and by wider margins than any time in recent memory.

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Tide domination elates Bama Nation, worries the Auburn Family

Yesterday’s 42-14 blowout in the 76th Iron Bowl sent a powerful message from Mobile to Muscle Shoals, and the message seems to confirm a celebrated prophecy from ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit: “All due respect to Auburn.. but when Alabama gets this thing going, they control that state.”

Alabama seems intent on painting the state Crimson, and while the Iron Bowl rivalry remains a hotly contested one, the only competition really seems to be between the fans rather than the programs.

It’s not been much of a rivalry on the field, recently.

Alabama head coach Nick Saban is now 3-2 in Iron Bowls. Auburn head coach Gene Chizik is now 1-2. Alabama has won three out of the last four, including two blowouts to end the 2008 and 2011 seasons. The combined score of the last four Iron Bowls is 130-60, for an average score of 33-15, a three-score differential not far from yesterday’s Vegas spread of 21 points.

Alabama fans couldn’t be more satisfied with either the body of work of the Crimson Tide over the last five years, or with yesterday’s statement-making blowout win. The defense is loaded with ferocious talent and impressive depth. The offense dominates the line of scrimmage and is in position to catapult its star into the program’s second Heisman Trophy in three years. From 2008 through 2011, Alabama has been in contention for the national championship in all four seasons. The program has two SEC West titles, one SEC Championship and a BCS Crystal Ball. If pundits and analysts are correct—Alabama is a better than even candidate to play for its 14th national title.

Alabama is a program that is still improving. Game to game, season to season, recruiting class to recruiting class. Alabama has dismembered every opponent on the schedule in 2011 except one (and is in line to avenge that loss).

The program’s opponents—and its chief rival—don’t need to concern themselves with the players who may or may not declare early for the NFL Draft. They need to worry about the guys the Alabama staff redshirted in 2011. Alabama’s backups to the backups would probably have been starters in Starkville, Oxford and Auburn, and the 2012 class is already looking like another one of then nation’s best. Two of Alabama’s biggest playmakers yesterday were Tight End Brad Smelley and Defensive Back Dee Milliner. When was the last time you heard either of these names mentioned during SportsCenter highlights? The team is full of great players that people have never heard of.

Auburn fans are mired in uncertainty and concern. Since Chizik and defensive coordinator Ted Roof arrived at the Plains, the program has produced statistically the worst three years in the program’s modern history. Chizik & Co. caught lightning in a bottle with last year’s experienced offensive line, talented playmakers and the twin freaks Cam Newton and Nick Fairley. They rode that to a 14-0 perfect season and their first title since 1957. But astute observers examine the body of work over the last three years and see a lot of unanswered questions. They look at the performance of their team over the 2011 season, and they see cause for grave concern. Offensively, they’ve regressed. They don’t look anything like the yardage eating, point scoring machine of last season. Have they even improved over the course of this year? Does Auburn’s offense look much better than it did at the end of the 2009 season? The answer to both questions has to be “no.”

Auburn is a program that made a lower tier bowl with Chris Todd in 2009 and will make a return trip to that tier with Clint Moseley. Despite three straight quality recruiting classes, Auburn is still a program populated by youth and inexperience. Auburn has been blown out by every decent football team they’ve faced. Clemson, LSU, Arkansas, Georgia and Alabama each took turns beating the daylights out of the 2010 champs. Think about that. Auburn faced five decent teams in the 2011 season and never seriously challenged even one of them.

Think about this, also: As a head coach, Gene Chizik is 20-29 without a Quarterback named Cam Newton. That includes a 5-19 mark at Iowa State, an 8-5 season in 2009 and a 7-5 record to date this season. Twenty and Twenty-nine without Cam Newton.

When it steps on the field, Alabama is a serious threat to beat anyone they play. Auburn is only a threat to beat Utah State and Mississippi State in down-to-the wire finishes. Their possible bowl opponents include the same Clemson team that demolished them in September and a scandal-ridden Penn State. They’d likely only be favored against the latter. Alabama will be a coin toss against LSU and an overwhelming favorite against any Sugar Bowl opponent should the BCS selection process tap someone else.

The future is bright in Tuscaloosa. In Auburn, it’s uncertain.

The final score of yesterday’s game was an exclamation point on a statement that’s being written in Crimson. It’s confirmation that Herbstreit was right. Alabama has this thing going, it is controlling this state, and yesterday showed that there’s not much Auburn’s been able to do about it.

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Auburn fans are not happy with their coach

What would Iron Bowl week be without a dig at our upcoming rival?

I had this image sent to me by a reader via email. The chart below shows the median points scored since current Auburn head coach Gene Chizik was the program's defensive coordinator under Tommy Tuberville.

Chizik left the Tigers after their undefeated 2004 season to coordinate the Texas Longhorns' defense. In 2005, Texas went undefeated and won the national title. Things on the defensive side of the line of scrimmage weren't as peachy in the years immediately following Chizik's departure. But the wheels really came off when Chizk returned as the head coach and hired current defensive coordinator, Ted Roof.



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