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You should never make a decision to let a coach stay or make him leave based on one game. There are too many variables in a 60-minute slice of college football to base a career decision on a single outcome. Besides, the person making that decision has a mountain of available evidence to consider beyond that one encounter.
What is the trend line? Are there tangible reasons to believe the current coach will make a bad situation better given more time? Is the money readily available to dismiss one head coach and his staff and hire a new and better regime? Have you identified a coach that you are confident you can hire who is likely to win the way your program expects to win?
That said, Hugh Freeze should approach Saturday's Brunch at Jordan-Hare with a sense of urgency that has not been readily apparent during his 1 ½ seasons on the Plains. Might I suggest a theme for Year 2, Game 9: Beat Vanderbilt, or sooner or later, be gone.
History is not on Freeze's side here.
Every AU Family member knows that the last two Auburn coaches to lose to the Commodores did not coach another season on the Plains or anywhere else in the SEC. Vanderbilt 14, Auburn 13 marked the beginning of the end for Tommy Tuberville in 2008, his perfect 2004 season but a memory at that point. Vanderbilt 17, Auburn 13 was part of a hay bale of final straws for Gene Chizik in 2012, his 2010 national title notwithstanding.
Those were the last two seasons in which 'the Dores broke on through to finish with better conference and overall records than the Tigers. This season is heading in a similarly desultory direction with Vanderbilt at 5-3 and 2-2 to Auburn's 3-5 and 1-4.
How bad are things for the Tigers despite the band-aid provided by clueless Kentucky? Win or lose Saturday, they still will be looking up at the Commodores in the SEC standings in November. ...
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