Jacobs: No decision on Slater’s future
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Auburn University baseball coach Tom Slater has yet to lead the Tigers to an SEC Tournament berth in his four years on the Plains.
Jay Jacobs is in no hurry.
Four games remain in Auburn’s baseball season, which looks increasingly likely to end without a trip to the Southeastern Conference Tournament. The Tigers haven’t qualified for the SEC tourney in head coach Tom Slater’s four-year tenure.
After a 6-6 start to SEC play, Auburn has gone 5-10 in the conference. The Tigers have won just one of their last five SEC series, at home against last-place MSU.
That slump, along with the SEC Tournament drought and a league-worst 43-74 SEC record over the past four seasons, has raised questions about Slater’s job security.
But Jacobs, Auburn’s athletics director, isn’t answering those questions. Not yet.
In an interview with the Opelika-Auburn News on Monday, Jacobs said he plans to wait until the season is over before he’ll make any statements on Slater’s future.
“We’re still in our season,” Jacobs said. “There’s still ballgames to be played. We need to take care of the business at hand. We’ll sit down and visit at the end of the season, like we always do.
“We’re going to look at the season in its totality.”
Slater, who replaced Steve Renfroe after the 2004 season, has one season remaining on his contract. If the decision is made to fire Slater,
Auburn must buy out the remaining year of the contract.
Last season, Jacobs issued a vote of confidence in Slater with six games remaining.
“Tom Slater has a plan in place to return the Auburn baseball program to national prominence,” Jacobs said at the time. ” I believe in Tom and his plan for the baseball program, and I’m behind him 100 percent.”
The AD has made no such outward show of support this year.
Auburn plays at Mercer today and concludes the SEC schedule with three games against LSU at Plainsman Park, beginning Thursday.
AU, currently tied for 10th place in the league standings, isn’t yet eliminated from SEC Tournament contention. But the Tigers (27-25, 11-16 SEC) face long odds.
The best chance for Auburn is to sweep LSU this weekend — no easy task, as the Bayou Bengals have won nine consecutive SEC games and vaulted to the top of the SEC West standings.
Even that won’t be enough. AU will also need last-place Mississippi State to sweep Arkansas and Tennessee to sweep South Carolina on the road.
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By The Numbers
A look at all 12 SEC schools and their conference records over the last four season. In parenthesis, the number of times a school has made the SEC tournament from 2005-07.
Vanderbilt 66-50 (2)
Alabama 66-51 (3)
Ole Miss 65-52 (3)
Arkansas 62-54 (3)
USC 61-56 (3)
Georgia 60-55-1 (1)
Florida 59-58 (2)
LSU 58-57-2 (2)
Kentucky 54-61-1 (1)
Tennessee 53-60 (2)
MSU 47-66 (2)
Auburn 43-74 (0)
Source: http://www.secsports.com
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