Below is a detailed breakdown I posted on this exact topic last week before it was deleted (not moved to the Auburn forum where I could at least respond to replies, deleted) because there were apparently too many Auburn-oriented posts on here, even though Auburn in and of itself wasn't the focus. No disrespect to your post, but I have absolutely no idea how it got to stick around...
"A Furled, Alpha Brow vs. A Sheepish, Submissive Grin
I'm not the type to pile on much to the mess at Auburn. I have good friends who are good Auburn fans, and I simply don't find much satisfaction in their misery. I wouldn't state more of the obvious unless there was an Alabama angle to it. During the waning months of the Mike Shula era, rival fans were throwing parades in the street, and literally developing web sites that paid weird homage to him. He's been the joke of the SEC for the first decade of this century, and very undeservedly so.
That said, I wasn't a huge Shula supporter but allowed him far more tolerance in relation to our circumstances than many fans, and to this day, I admire him for his character and will always be proud of his overall accomplishments related to Alabama. In fact, I was still on his boat until the overtime of the 2006 Arkansas game. I was fighting to not rack my head against the wall while shouting: "THIS SHOULDN'T BE HAPPENING! WE SHOULD'VE WON BY 17 IN REGULATION!" while the camera panned over to him. Someone on the sideline must have said something funny the play before Arkansas made the game-winning score, because he laughed. At a time when nothing in the universe could've been funny, the coach inexplicably laughed. Then the play happened, and I sat back and simply said: "It's time for him to go."
Anyway, fast-forward through a bunch of Aubie delight and here we sit with the roles reversed — the main difference being our torture was ruled by sanctions levied by governing bodies bigger than us whereas Auburn (especially taking in their 180-turn in offensive and defensive philosophies into consideration) is the embodiment of a self-induced manic depressive breakdown.
Gene Chizik definitely looks the part, with the furled, alpha brow and blocked chin. He has a stern look, and rarely if ever says anything that makes him seem weak. Mike Shula on the other hand definitely looked the part... of a guy who always looked like he'd just gotten back from the beach. His face was the kind that seemed to only need shaving a couple times a week, and his sheepish, submissive grin before each press conference suggested he was going to begin each answer with: "Ahh... gee."
However, if you look to the numbers and take all circumstances into account, you'll find that Coach Shula was much more ready to man-up to the task of fighting through a ball game than Chizik by a long shot. Below are listed the records of each (while pontificating that Auburn finishes this year as prediction would have it at 3-9.) More telling, though, is the differential in scoring in the times each team lost and even further the differentials in each coach's 10 worst losses. What you'll find is the "tough guy who's 'written' a book" with a large enough sampling now manages a team that loses each game more than twice as badly as "our clown".
_______________________
Mike Shula
Record (4 years) 27-24
Differential in losses = 8.1 points per game
7, 3, 3, 14, 15, 24, 5, 8 = 8.7
17,17, 4, 16, 8, 4 = 9.4
3,10 = 6.5
1, 15, 3, 8, 14, 7, 7 = 7.8
Ten worst losses:
03 LSU (Nat Champs) - 24
04 ARK - 17
04 USC - 17
04 LSU - 16
03 Ole Miss - 15
03 UGA - 14
06 LSU - 14
05 AUB - 10
03 Hawaii - 8
04 AUB - 8
Gene Chizik
Record (4 years) - 33-23
(You can of course make your own deductions from this based on whatever asterisks you find warrant it, since the meat of this argument doesn't even pertain to 2010.)
Differential in losses = 17.8 points per game
21, 7, 21, 7, 5 = 11.9
14, 24, 35, 38, 28 = 27.8
7,18, 2, 17, 21, 4 = 13.5
Ten worst losses:
11 UGA - 38
11 LSU - 35
11 Bama - 28
11 Ark - 24
09 LSU - 21
12 Ole Miss - 21
09 Ark - 21
12 MSU - 18
12 Ark 17
11 Clem 14
That said, so many of Shula's games had a "coulda, woulda, shouda" feel to them. "I can't believe we blew a 17-point lead". "If only he could've held onto that interception." "If only that holding call hadn't have happened." These and multitudes of other like-wise questions were the ones I asked myself while ambling out of the student section with regularity. Some of them could've been applied to the one game Auburn could've absolutely embarrassed us in Bryant-Denny as Spencer Pennington, Aaron Johns and a no-name defense running on unrealized talent and pride took the fight through four quarters in 2004 (what will most likely always be my favorite Iron Bowl loss... if there could be such a thing.) But while Shula couldn't hold on much of the time with third and fourth strings, Chizik can't seem to keep his firsts and seconds from quitting.
I hope the early part of the last decade was the darkest we'll ever experience as Tide fans, but even in that time, we still knew how to fight, with a coach who seemed always afraid he was going to interrupt someone even. And we don't even have a Creed, nor are we all related."
