Chizik narrows gap on ‘Bama with top class

By Dusty Harper (Contact) | Dadeville Record

Published Wednesday, February 3, 2010

On National Signing Day Wednesday, the rivalry that never ends in Alabama became a little bit tighter.

While Nick Saban and Alabama kept their machine rolling with another top-tier class, Gene Chizik showed that Auburn won’t lie down for the Crimson Tide and that maybe the AU decision makers aren’t complete idiots after all.

Auburn took a public beating for its decision to bring a coach who was 5-19 in his two seasons as a head coach. Talk show pundits laughed at the decision, opposing fan bases rejoiced and AU was even accused of racism for not hiring Turner Gill (who won five games at Buffalo last year and is bringing in a stellar 57th-ranked recruiting class in at Kansas).

Where are the doubters now? I wonder if anyone will boo Jay Jacobs when he walks around the athletic complex today.

What Chizik accomplished by bringing in this recruiting class is not getting the attention it deserves. Chizik and his all-star recruiters landed the top player in Louisiana, Arkansas and Mississippi, not to mention the nation’s top junior college recruit in Cameron Newton.

AU also held its own in the state of Alabama, something it has whiffed on in the past few years. When your archrival is on top of the college football world, you have to bring in impact players that can make a difference in a hurry.

While the Crimson Tide was on its way to a national title in 1992, Auburn was struggling through a 5-5-1 season and turmoil under Pat Dye. The outlook for the ’93 season was bleak at best.

With the hiring of Chizik last year by Auburn, coupled with Saban’s job of restoring Alabama, the future of the Tigers was cloudy even for the most diehard tree rollers on the Plains.

But, just as in 1993 when Auburn shocked everyone with an undefeated season while on probation, the Tigers are turning heads with this recruiting class. If the casual college football fan looks at the schools in the top 10, Auburn is probably going to be the one that makes him do a double-take. And rightfully so.

The Tigers do not have the prestige or history of a USC, a Texas or an Alabama, yet they’re right in the thick of it with those powerhouses. Why is “the other school” in the state among the ranks of the big boys?

Because Gene Chizik does not care about the perception of his team. He’s made it clear from the start: he’s there to change perception. Compared to other schools, AU is lacking on things that would draw top players. Auburn is not a large city with a ton of activities to get in to, it’s not by a beach and it’s not a school that you will hear about on ESPN every day.

Coaches have to work hard to sell the appeal of Auburn. Tiger fans know about it, but most high school players around the country do not. Chizik, Trooper Taylor, Curtis Luper, Tommy Thigpen and company have done an outstanding job of marketing the program to high school prospects. Sure, they used gimmicks (limousines, Big Cats) and they may have broken a couple of minor rules (no one else does that), but they got it done.

However, just as it was too early for naysayers to bash AU for the hire, it’s too early to say Chizik can win championships or even beat Alabama. He has the talent, but he has to coach it up.

Winning eight games in his first season was a great start. Now, it’s time for the hard part: he has to produce. Alabama still is in the driver’s seat and will be until Auburn does something about it.

It may not be next year when that happens, but compared to the state of the program last year at this time, AU faithful have to like their team’s chances of standing up to the Crimson Tide sooner rather than later.

---

WOULD YOU LIKE TO SHARE THIS STORY?

---