Tater Tot was a paradox. A terrific game day coach and as long as he had Pat Dye's talent he showed it. Discipline issues abounded. Yeah he was forced out, just like Tommy 10 years later and I don't mind that we did so for a second.
He was truly one of the worst recruiters I've ever seen. Not only did he religiously fail to land recruits kind of considering AU, but he chased off some players that grew up AU fans. Left an absolute mess that Tommy had to clean up. To Tommy's credit, he did a fine job and we were competing again in 2000, but the 3-8 and 5-6 seasons in 98-99 were a direct result of Terry's actions. Heck, we were starting tiny little WRs like Markeith Cooper or Heath Evans, a pure fullback, at RB in Tommy's first year because Terry couldn't be bothered to recruit an actual RB. And Gabe Gross was a disaster at QB. Good thing Ben Leard was serviceable and we might have gone bowling that year had he not gotten dinged up and left us starting poor overwhelmed Jeff Klein. Luckily, Tommy found this fella in JUCO named Rudi Johnson and in 2000 we had a balanced offense capable of winning games again.
Tommy, on the other hand, just burned out. Like Les, he couldn't adapt to the changing times. He did make a ham handed attempt at installing the spread, which worked in the 07 Peach Bowl, but his assistants (the BBQ gang) never bought into it and Franklin was scapegoated for our horrendous 08 offense. Almost like he was using his own team to prove a point that the spread wouldn't work in big time college football. Tommy's loyalty to the BBQ gang was a huge a part of his being forced out. Slacked off in recruiting too. He was a perennial 8-9 win coach and seemed satisfied to remain so while the college football world blew by him. What happened to him in '04 was a travesty though. At the time of Jetgate, I was furious at David Housel and felt that he had let down the school he said he loved. In hindsight though, I really feel like he was trying (in some convoluted way) to protect Auburn's interests. I haven't totally forgiven him, probably never will, but I feel much less animosty toward him.