Game Thread: UCF at Louisville (ESPN @ 6:30pm CT)

81usaf92

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He played them.

I never could figure out what the Barn logic was. It's like there was this crippling fear that a coach they felt was mostly in over his head was going to go to Arkansas and beat them, and their egos couldn't handle it. I remember being frightened that Auburn would wise up to the ruse and say, "Go to Arky, Gus, we don't care." He was a lot like Houston Nutt - take away his phenomenal first year and his overall record was average.
Ive been around several people in the know at Auburn because my hometown has a lot of Auburn grads since Avondale and Russell were huge in the area. But they told me at the time that Gus was leaving even after he beat Alabama in 2017. They mostly said he got tired of the fans and the BOT. An offer was expected but by all accounts he was going to say “I’m going home to Arkansas”. But the damn president came up with a ridiculous offer that Gus would’ve been stupid to refuse and it just mucked up the plans that everyone had agreed on. Both parties were ready to move on but a rogue president threw a wrench in everything.

I don’t think Gus really played Auburn. From what everyone said he was surprised by the offer himself.
 

selmaborntidefan

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Ive been around several people in the know at Auburn because my hometown has a lot of Auburn grads since Avondale and Russell were huge in the area. But they told me at the time that Gus was leaving even after he beat Alabama in 2017. They mostly said he got tired of the fans and the BOT. An offer was expected but by all accounts he was going to say “I’m going home to Arkansas”. But the damn president came up with a ridiculous offer that Gus would’ve been stupid to refuse and it just mucked up the plans that everyone had agreed on. Both parties were ready to move on but a rogue president threw a wrench in everything.

I don’t think Gus really played Auburn. From what everyone said he was surprised by the offer himself.
That's essentially my recollection without access to the inner workings.

I ASSUMED entering the Iron Bowl that year that he was leaving, win or lose. But I also never dreamed Auburn would be as dumb as they were to keep him with that insane level of a contract. I always chalked their willingness to offer the drunk man's deal up to "we're terrified he's going to go somewhere else in the SEC and beat us."
 

81usaf92

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That's essentially my recollection without access to the inner workings.

I ASSUMED entering the Iron Bowl that year that he was leaving, win or lose. But I also never dreamed Auburn would be as dumb as they were to keep him with that insane level of a contract. I always chalked their willingness to offer the drunk man's deal up to "we're terrified he's going to go somewhere else in the SEC and beat us."
From what I was told that the decision was made the week after LSU, and Arkansas,Gus, and Auburn all had an exit strategy in which no one was getting dorked over. But the new president didn’t like the idea that he wasn’t involved and Jacobs stepped away without a successor. So after the Iron bowl all hell broke open.
 

selmaborntidefan

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From what I was told that the decision was made the week after LSU, and Arkansas,Gus, and Auburn all had an exit strategy in which no one was getting dorked over. But the new president didn’t like the idea that he wasn’t involved and Jacobs stepped away without a successor. So after the Iron bowl all hell broke open.
And then Auburn got afraid they'd be mocked for losing a coach that got his team in the playoff.
 

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