It’s December 13, 2008. Auburn just lost Tommy Tuberville. They have just hired Gene Chizik. He had only two wins the previous season at lowly Iowa State, the cellar dwellers of the Big 12. The football community is up in arms about his terrible record, but not just because of his poor performance, but because Chizik is selected over the coach of Buffalo, an African-American coach named Turner Gill. As sir Charles Barkley so eloquently put it, g "race was the Number one factor. You can say it's not about race, but you can't compare the two résumés and say [Chizik] deserved the job. Out of all the coaches they interviewed, Chizik probably had the worst résumé."
Flash forward almost exactly two years later. Transfer Auburn quarterback Cameron Newton stands up at the podium selecting arguably the most prestigious award in all of sports, the Hesiman Trophy. Chizik has led his team to the 2011 BCS National Championship in only two years, a twenty one and five record, and an SEC Championship. Turner Gill went 5-7 in his last year at Buffalo and then 3-9 in his first season at Kansas.
Maybe Auburn knew something we didn’t know? The race card (Sir Charles) is sometimes trumped by the performance card. In the end Chizik is the better coach, he turned the team around and obviously the Tigers knew what they needed/wanted and got it. Not saying Gill does not have a bright future, but he wasn’t exactly burning through the MAC. So as of now I would say Auburn made the right choice.
Even if all he did was buy Cam Newton’s dad a car to get him to come to Auburn…
-Mike Serra (@MikeSerra90)
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