Most assistants on the road recruiting

With the exception of offensive line coach Hugh Nall and defensive coordinator Paul Rhoads, Auburn’s staff of assistants will continue meeting with potential recruits and going about their daily business.

Nall has already cleaned out his office and has been rumored to be close to signing elsewhere. Rhoads’ name was in the mix for the open job at Utah State before Gary Andersen was named the Aggies’ coach Thursday.

It doesn’t necessarily mean Rhoads, or Nall for that matter, are entirely gone, but it’s a telling sign.

UPDATE: Nutt gets new deal at Ole Miss

Well, this shouldn’t be new to Auburn fans, but the roles are somewhat reversed.

It looks like Houston Nutt will be staying in Oxford, according to a report from the Associated Press. Here’s the brief story.

JACKSON, Miss. (AP)—Mississippi is working on a contract extension to keep Houston Nutt amid reports he’s a top candidate at Auburn.

Nutt is working out the extension with athletic director Pete Boone and the new deal will be announced as soon as it is complete, a person with knowledge of the negotiations told The Associated Press on Friday on the condition of anonymity. The person asked not to be identified because an announcement hasn’t been made.

Nutt signed a four-year, $7.4 million contract when he took over at Ole Miss last season after resigning at Arkansas.

Nutt told the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal and the Clarion-Ledger of Jackson he has had no contact with Auburn.

The timing seems a bit ironic, considering that Nutt’s name emerged as a top candidate just this morning, according to multiple reports. Nutt is represented by super agent Jimmy Sexton, who also represents Tommy Tuberville and other big-name coaches. Just last year, Tuberville’s flirtation with the open job at Arkansas delayed and extended talks between he and athletic director Jay Jacobs before the two settled on a contract extension and the well-noted meaty buyout.

It’ll be interesting to see how many other coaches, and Sexton clients, use the opening at Auburn to get a bump in their hometown paychecks.

And so, the search continues. No one thought this thing would end in a day. Let’s just hope it’s over before Christmas.

UPDATE: The Jackson Clarion-Ledger reports that Nutt will receive a raise and extension on his contract, which is expected to be in the $2.5 million per year range.

Examining the Tuberville era ...

***The much-promised something special in the previous post.***

It’s now been around 48 hours since Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville’s resignation, and the news has been hit with quite a bit of scorn from across the nation and within the Auburn family.

All the talk of Tuberville’s “body of work” and so many people saying he deserved another year (which I think he did, for the record, although since it was apparently his decision to go that’s not really the point), made me want to examine Tuberville’s tenure just a little bit.

Here was his year-by-year record, including his time at Ole Miss, which I compiled Wednesday afternoon.

Ole Miss
1995*: 6-5 (3-5 SEC)
1996*: 5-6 (2-6 SEC)
1997: 8-4 (4-4 SEC)
1998x: 6-5 (3-5 SEC)
Auburn
1999: 5-6 (2-6 SEC)
2000y: 9-4 (6-2 SEC)
2001: 7-5 (5-3 SEC)
2002: 9-4 (5-3 SEC)
2003: 8-5 (5-3 SEC)
2004z: 13-0 (8-0 SEC)
2005: 9-3 (7-1 SEC)
2006: 11-2 (6-2 SEC)
2007: 9-4 (5-3 SEC)
2008: 5-7 (2-6 SEC)

Record at Ole Miss: 25-20
Record at Auburn: 85-40
Overall Record: 110-60
SEC Record at Ole Miss: 12-20
SEC Record at Auburn: 51-29
Overall SEC Record: 63-49

*-on NCAA probation
x-did not coach in bowl game
y-won SEC West
z-won SEC

A 110-60 record is certainly pretty good, and his 85-40 record at Auburn would seem to speak for itself.

But, just for the sake of argument, look at those 14 years as a head coach.

Outside of his three losing records, what years absolutely stand out as different from the others?

2004-2006.

The 33-5 record Tuberville compiled in those years is certainly impressive, but it stands in stark contrast to his more common theme of eight- or nine-win seasons.

In 14 seasons, Tuberville won more than nine games twice. Bobby Bowden, by contrast, didn’t win less than 10 games over a 14-year period at one point in his career, and he has spent 30 years at a little brother school, as Auburn is often known.

If you subtract those years, his overall record is a more pedestrian 77-55, and his Auburn record would stand at 52-35.

I’m going to come back to the 2004-2006 years in a little bit, but I also wanted to delve into another part of his record.

Tuberville’s SEC record over 14 years, counting his two SEC title games, was 64-50. Now, part of his 12-20 conference record at Ole Miss obviously stems from the fact that he inherited a program in shambles, and his 51-29 (52-30 counting title games) SEC record at Auburn is pretty good.

But let’s take a look at his record against every SEC school.

Alabama: 7-7 (0-4 at Ole Miss)
Arkansas: 6-8 (1-3 at Ole Miss)
Auburn: 0-4 (all at Ole Miss, obviously)
Florida: 3-5 (0-1 at Ole Miss)
Georgia: 7-7 (2-2 at Ole Miss)
Kentucky: 2-0 (no meetings at Ole Miss)
LSU: 7-7 (2-2 at Ole Miss)
Ole Miss: 7-3 (all at Auburn, obviously)
Mississippi State: 9-5 (2-2 at Ole-Miss)
South Carolina: 3-0 (1-0 at Ole Miss)
Tennessee: 4-3 (0-2 at Ole Miss)
Vanderbilt: 9-1 (4-0 at Ole Miss)

Now this metric might not be entirely fair when including the Ole Miss time, but I think it gives a decent picture. If you take away Vanderbilt, South Carolina and Kentucky, Tuberville was 50-49 in SEC play.

That’s kind of average.

So when you look at Tommy Tuberville, in many ways you’re looking at a good coach with an OK record.

So what explains the 2004-06 seasons, and what explains the quick dropoff since then?

Well, that’s what I’m going to try to talk about a little bit, and here is where I go to a little bit of the coaching community pipeline that occasionally trickles down to me (full disclosure: my uncle, Ronnie Cottrell, is a former recruiting coordinator at Florida State and Alabama).

Auburn has always had three major areas for its recruiting: Alabama, Florida and Georgia.

From Tuberville’s second season, Alabama was available to him in a way that probably no Auburn coach since Shug Jordan (in his pre-Bear years) had.

From late 2000 until 2002, Alabama was under the cloud of an NCAA investigation. From 2002-2004, they were on probation. From 2003-2006, they were under the stewardship of a less-than-stellar coach in Mike Shula.

And Auburn took full advantage of the situation, and you have to credit Tuberville for doing so. The man’s not dumb.

But that wasn’t his only advantage.

From about 1998 until the middle part of this decade Florida State was not recruiting very well, which opened up South Georgia and North Florida to Tuberville’s staff in a way it never would’ve been in the 1990s. And the Tigers have landed numerous players from that area, as any Auburn fan would know.

But that’s still not all.

While Ron Zook was at Florida, he may have recruited well but he left a lot of Florida more open than normal, and it didn’t hurt that he was being portrayed as a buffoon by every recruiter looking to land a player from the Sunshine State.

Just think of some of the players from Florida Auburn had from about 2002 until last year. A lot of those would not have been available in the 90s when Spurrier was there and Florida State was still a major player.

But Tuberville also made a lot of hay in Georgia during Jim Donnan’s final two years, and in Mark Richt’s first few years before he locked the state down.

But what is the main thread coming through all of those areas?

Richt, Nick Saban and Urban Meyer are now getting everyone they want, and making getting the ones they don’t want tougher on everyone else.

The last two recruiting classes were a bigger challenge than anything Tuberville had faced in his time. And when you factor in his pipeline in Mississippi beginning to dry up when Ed Orgeron showed up, as well as Steve Spurrier locking up the few cast-offs they could get in South Carolina, finding players became more and more difficult.

If you’re looking for a reason in the drop-off, look no further than all those names.

Now none of this is to say Tuberville wouldn’t have righted the ship. A successful spread offense certainly could have opened up more recruiting inroads, if not in their normal hotbeds then certainly nationally.

But if you’re looking for the best way to sum up the Tuberville era, it might be to say that he was a good football coach who knew how to play a winning hand (which he got in a way no Auburn coach has before, and may not ever again), and misfired when the cards he was dealt weren’t quite as good.

Weekend Picks, Week 15

We’re down to the nitty gritty. As always, AP Top 25 and SEC (although this doesn’t apply this time) games.

Last Week: 15-3
Overall: 219-70

Today
No. 12 Ball State vs. Buffalo (MAC Championship, at Detroit)
The Cardinals are the national darlings all of a sudden, even getting alumnus Jason Whitlock on their bandwagon. And that leads me to believe, when facing a hot under-the-radar team with a good coach, they might be finally ripe for the upset. Buffalo 37, Ball State 34

Saturday
No. 1 Alabama vs. No. 2 Florida (SEC Championship, at Atlanta)
I’ve already gone over this pretty extensively in my column (sorry for the belated link) and plan to do so just a little more tomorrow, but I like the Tide. Alabama 27, Florida 24

No. 4 Oklahoma vs. No. 19 Missouri (Big 12 Championship, at Kansas City, Mo.)
The weather’s going to be nasty, and since some part of Sam Bradford’s throwing capacity is hurt (I’ve totally blanked on it) this might not be as ugly as it would’ve been. Oklahoma 31, Missouri 7

No. 5 USC at UCLA
This will be nasty ugly. USC 54, UCLA 0

No. 13 Cincinnati at Hawaii
Man, how bout those Bearcats? They win the Big East, get a BCS bowl trip (to either party happy New Orleans or Miami) AND get to go to Hawaii? Cincinnati 31, Hawaii 21

No. 18 Boston College vs. Virginia Tech (ACC Championship, at Tampa, Fla.)
The parallels to last year are kinda eery. But the Hokies are pretty lousy. And while BC is too, I think they’ll win. Boston College 21, Virginia Tech 17

No. 23 Pittsburgh at Connecticut
Wannstache is due for another meltdown. Connecticut 24, Pittsburgh 20

I might, might have something special (and super late to the party) later today. Maybe.

Clarion-Ledger: AD Boone mum about Nutt

Ole Miss coach Houston Nutt, who was listed as a potential candidate to replace Tommy Tuberville in today’s Birmingham News, met this morning with Ole Miss chancellor Robert Khayat and athletic director Pete Boone.

Jackson Clarion-Ledger reporter David Brandt staked out the meeting. He did not receive the warmest of greetings when Khayat and Boone departed.

Boone had no comment to three questions regarding Nutt’s alleged candidacy. Khayat did the same.

Here’s the official story posted on the Clarion-Ledger’s home page.

Not that it needs reminding, but Auburn has snatched a coach away from Ole Miss in the past. If Nutt was offered and accepted the Auburn job, this would be his third SEC West gig in three years.

UPDATE: Nutt, in a phone conversation with Brandt, said all the Auburn talk is just “rumors” and he has had absolutely no contact with Auburn. The meeting with Boone and Khayat, Nutt said, was an annual meeting to discuss a variety of things regarding the Ole Miss football program.