Sunday, December 14, 2008

The shallow end of the Gene pool

Remember Auburn football? Until recently, this was a program marked by a certain sense of underachievement. Every season they would be touted as national title contenders, only to suffer an early season loss, hide away in the middle of the rankings for a while, then crush Alabama in the Iron Bowl. Which kept everybody happy.

Until this season. This season, they lost the Iron Bowl at last after a six year winning streak. So coach Tommy Tuberville had to go.

And then, Auburn returned to its redneck roots with a vengeance.

One of the final two candidates for the coaching job was Turner Gill, who has turned around a dismal Buffalo program, going 8-5 with a massive upset win in the MAC title game, and a bowl berth for the first time in 50 years.

The other was Gene Chizik, who went 2-10 with Iowa State, 0-8 in the Big 12. No bowl berth, no organization, no apparent plan, and no future at Iowa State.

So Auburn hired Chizik.

The white guy.

Seriously. 2-10 and light skin beats 8-5 with a historically dreadful program and dark skin.

If anyone can come up with a better explanation for this hire, I'd love to hear it.

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