Let's Dance with Gus

To me our season is like a father having a daughter who enters a dance recital.

She picks out the dance she wants to do and begins to practice. Everyday she puts in hours learning her dance steps until she has every step, every tempo, every movement down to perfection. You are so proud of her.

The work she has put in. The discipline. The memorization. All of it. You are sure she will win. Or at least, place. Then two days before the big day, the program director says the dance isn't one that has been approved by the committee. So she must learn a new dance.

She has 48 hours to learn this dance well enough to compete. How well do you think she will do? 

Exactly. IMHO that is exactly what Gus & Co have encountered this year. All throughout their summer camp everyone couldn't say enough about JJ. Even analysts were talking JJ and the Heisman. Gus at SEC media days was pumped.

But it all fell apart.

There is no way anyone could have predicted JJ would fold under pressure. Or that Duke would get himself kicked off the team. Or that Lawson would get injured. But it all did and suddenly Gus is having to teach his team a new "dance" right in the heat of SEC West football. With a QB who had never taken a snap in college ball. A defense trying to learn a new DC's schemes and injuries on key starters giving him a roster of freshmen.

 I doubt that Saban could have done any better. And when you compare Gus with other coaches his age, Sumlin, Freeze, etc....they aren't doing very well either. I don't count McElwain. Seems like a lot of coaches have a charmed first year. So we will see. Fisher has some loses himself.

The only young coach that is being consistently good is Dabo( Clemson's Head Coach) and he learned a lot of what he does from Gus. But he also coaches in the ACC and he stays with dual threat QB's.

So really, who do all these fans plan on replacing Gus with?  Meyer, Saban & Harbaugh are older and are not going to come to Auburn anyway. Les Miles & Mark Ritch have had up and down years. We need to stick with Gus. I'd almost guarantee you that next year we will see a difference. If we don't then I might question Gus's abilities. But not now. Not this year.

War Eagle,
Martha