I don't think they've had a good hire since they got Pat Dye. No, not even Tuberville.That’s why Auburn is in the shape it’s in. Threes straight bad coaching hires/retentions (should have called Malzahn’s bluff and let him take that Arkansas job), not the SEC office being in Birmingham. Not some grand conspiracy against Auburn.
I've said time and again that Auburn is an 8-4 team annually, but they get that average 8-4 in the most bizarre ways possible. aTm GENERALLY goes 8-4 every year, period. Yeah, the occasional fluff or Manziel years. But Auburn is the only one that will INCREDIBLY follow six straight seasons of AVERAGING five losses a year with an unbeaten season. Or have two straight 5-win seasons (1991 and 1992) and then run the table (1993). Or go 3-9 one year (2012) and play for the title the next (2013). There are a lot of teams that average 8-4, but only Auburn does it in that wild of a way.
Tuberville has managed to turn his sole 13-0 campaign into "he was a good coach!" But take that one year away from him and he - literally - averages 8-4 every year. I was told "you can't really count Ole Miss because he was crippled." Ok, but then doesn't the fact that Alabama, Arkansas, and Kentucky were all on probation when Tubs was at Auburn. You can't ONLY use this argument when it works in your favor. Tuberville - all things considered - was pretty successful given the limitations at Ole Miss when he took over.
Or was he? Lane Kiffin, who was considered a train wreck at one point, is doing pretty well there.
But the reality is this: Auburn will always be second banana to Alabama and nobody pretends any different. The job will ALWAYS be an uphill climb, and the days of paying under the table money to a superstar's pastor daddy are long gone. (I'm not naive enough to believe ONLY Auburn ever cheated, even in 2010, but they'll be on the losing end of NIL severely).
They will have to accept the fact that they're a long-term 8-4 team annually with the occasional one-loss season.