Both Coach Gene Chizik and Coach Chip Kelly have been the head coach of their Universities for two years. Since becoming the head coach of the Auburn Tigers, Gene Chizik has gone 21-5. Chip Kelly has only lost 3games since becoming the Head Coach of the Ducks and has a record of 22-3. 

WhosRight CollegeFootball

Following another embarrassing beatdown to a conference rival this season against the Georgia Bulldogs, the Auburn Tigers fans and media want Head Coach Gene Chizik to fire defensive coordinator Ted Roof. In each of Roof's three seasons as the DC at Auburn, the Tigers defense has progressively gotten worse. Often the players on the field look unprepared and lost. Auburn has a lot of talent on their team, and therefore there is no excuse for their defense to be ranked 86th in Total Defense, 97th in Rushing Defense, and 87th in Pass Efficiency Defense. 

Auburn Fans

June 24, 2011

Vote Here for ESPY Awards

AUBURN-- The Auburn football program has been nominated for five ESPY Awards, including Best Team, Best Coach/Manager (Gene Chizik), Best Game (Auburn defeats Alabama), Best Breakthrough Athlete (Cam Newton), and Best Male College Athlete (Cam Newton). The ESPYS will air live on ESPN on Wed., July 13 at 8 p.m. CT.

Fans can vote on the ESPY Awards online or by mobile device at espn.com/espys or on the ESPN facebook page: facebook.com/espn. Voting ends on July 9 at 10:59 p.m. CT.

The ESPYS, now in their 20th year, will be at the Nokia Theater in downtown Los Angeles and will be hosted by Seth Meyers.

Jeff Evans

Last December, Urban Meyer resigned from Florida, this time for good, the victim of apparent burnout.

On Memorial Day, the Ohio State scandal finally pierced Jim Tressel. He was forced to resign.

All national championship coaches. All seemingly made men. Yet uneasy lie the heads who have worn the crown.

“I think the business of college sports has been tough for a long time,” said Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione.

Joe C. is lucky. No, not lucky. Castiglione made his own luck. He hired Bob Stoops in December 1998. Castiglione still has his football coach. Still has his national-title winning coach.

Only six coaches remain at schools where they have won titles: Stoops, Texas' Mack Brown, Penn State's ageless Joe Paterno and three Southeastern Conference coaches who have won in the last four years: Auburn's Gene Chizik, Alabama's Nick Saban and LSU's Les Miles.

Only seven current major-college coaches were hired for their post in the 1900s: Stoops, Brown, Iowa's Kirk Ferentz (1999), Fresno State's Pat Hill (1997), Troy's Larry Blakeney (1991), Virginia Tech's Frank Beamer (1987) and Paterno (1966).

College football coaching provides power, fame and untold riches. It also will spit you up and chew you out.

“I don't know what to say about that,” Stoops said when asked about the demise of some of his championship colleagues. “Other than I think it's fair to say, how difficult it is to manage everything that comes our way.

“To manage it the right way, to manage it successfully, to manage it whatever way you want to put it.”

Coaches have to win at a high level, or they're out the door, as elite coaches like Phil Fulmer, Larry Coker and Tommy Tuberville learned. Plus, coaches must stay one step ahead of scandal that can descend like locusts. Cast out the plague quickly, or at least don't cover it up. Such failures eventually cost Carroll and Tressel.

“It's just become more and more challenging,” Castiglione said. “The idea that this is a tough business is correct. Becoming more difficult all the time. It's a challenge for all involved. It's really tough right now.”

More parity among teams. More scrutiny, with the Internet and social networking providing a labyrinth of information that can derail a program. More outside influences as the money associated with college and pro football grows and grows.

“It's hard,” Stoops said of running a program. “And there are a lot of obstacles in your way to have success, to manage it appropriately, to keep it going.”

Stoops has kept it going. Seven Big 12 championships in 12 years. One NCAA rules skirmish, which was dealt with promptly (Rhett Bomar) and looking back was but a blip on Sooner radar.

Stoops stands now with Saban as college football's most successful coaches. Two years ago, they comprised a top five along with Tressel, Meyer and Carroll.

Now only Stoops and Saban are left.

“Any individual, each may have their own story, their own approach that leads to longevity,” Castiglione said. “I can't think of anybody I know gets caught up in assuming too much. As much as trying to have longevity, doing the right thing, we know we're in a very volatile business.”

Nothing is assured this side of Penn State's Happy Valley. Slumps and scandal can come. Coaches grow restless. Fan bases do the same. Breaking up is hard to do but not impossible.

No assurances that Stoops will be at the Sooner helm another dozen years. But he's there now, standing atop his profession.

Berry Tramel: Berry can be reached at (405) 760-8080 or at btramel@opubco.com. He can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1. You can also view his personality page at newsok.com/berrytramel.

Jeff Evans

Recently, two studies on Alzheimer’s Disease uncovered five important genes, which could hold the key to finding a cure.  Findings show that the carriers of these genes could be more likely to develop Alzheimer-related dementia in seniors.  Although this study does not get scientists any closer to discovering a cure for Alzheimer’s, it could potentially help scientists uncover the mysteries behind how this disease develops.

What do you think about this research?  Do you believe it’s possible to curb the development of Alzheimer’s by eliminating these genes?  Could the elimination of these genes actually suppress the symptoms of Alzheimer’s?  Tell us what you think!

Material from CBS News Miami.

Megan Boyer

In the last two weeks against the USC Gamecocks and Arkansas Razorbacks, the Auburn Tigers struggled to get in rhythm on offense. The Tigers offense was made one dimensional. They were able to run the ball, but were completely incapable of moving the ball down the field through the air to keep the opposing defenses honest. 

Auburn Fans

On August 3, 2011, the Auburn Tigers entered fall training camp without having named their starting quarterback, leaving Offensive Coordinator Coach Gus Malzhan only one month to decide before we play our first game. We currently have three quarterbacks battling to become the next quarterback of the Auburn Tigers. Coach Malzhan claims "[t]here's a process you've got to go through," continuing, "[w]e've got so many young guys and so many inexperienced guys. We need to get to a point where we feel very good about everything around him so we can properly evaluate him. So as soon as possible. We're trying to give all three of them reps and hopefully we can figure that out in the near future."

Auburn Fans

Posted by Jerry HinnenWhen it comes to the SEC and coaching turnover, there's reputation, and there's reality.

The reputation is that with a heaping help of pressure from the nation's most rabid fanbases, the nation's most cutthroat conference hires and fires head coaches on the slightest of whims, for the most gentle of disappointments. And certainly, there have been some head-scratchers over the years, like David Cutcliffe's sudden dismissal from Ole Miss or Houston Nutt's tumultuous departure from Arkansas despite years of success.

But as illustrated by Dennis Dodd's CBS Hot Seat Ratings, since the 2008 season -- and the surprising exits of long-tenured Auburn and Tennessee head coaches Tommy Tuberville and Phillip Fulmer, as well as Mississippi State's Sylvester Croom -- the league that supposedly sees its head coaches change with the wind has in fact become a model of relative stability. Collectively, the SEC has fired just a single coach the past two seasons--Vanderbilt's Robbie Caldwell, himself only hired as a last-minute replacement following Bobby Johnson's retirement.

Four other coaches have left the league in that span, but all of them -- Urban Meyer at Florida, Lane Kiffin at Tennessee, Rich Brooks at Kentucky and Johnson -- did so voluntarily, and in Brooks's case the seamless transition to coach-in-waiting Joker Phillips barely even qualifies as a "coaching change."

That newfound reticence to put coaches on the firing line is reflected in Dodd's ratings, which show just one current SEC coach rated above the median "on the bubble" 3. You get one guess who:

Assuming we don't have some unforeseen three-win meltdown with Nutt in Oxford, there's a very real possibility the SEC enters 2012 with the same 11 head coaches listed above. Richt is -- without question -- the SEC coach in the most trouble, but he's also a coach with an extremely favorable 2011 schedule, a wealth of talent on hand, and perhaps the most patient administration in the conference.

And if Richt's still here, who won't be? The Spurrier retirement rumors have been securely put to bed with the arrival of recruits like Marcus Lattimore and Jadeveon Clowney. A big 2010 has Miles back on (mostly) firm footing; it'll take multiple down years (or a grass overdose) for him to earn a pink slip. Dooley has at least another couple of seasons with the benefit of the doubt (if we may quibble with Dodd's "3"). And while the aforementioned meltdown might do the trick for Nutt with the Rebels, between his track record and the back-to-back Cotton Bowls -- not something that happens on the regular in Oxford -- he almost certainly has another season of rope.

The most likely coach to keep the SEC from going 12-for-12 in the retention department isn't likely to be fired at all, in fact; it's Dan Mullen, who could be one more sterling season in Starkville away from getting the kind of megabucks, keystone program offer the Bulldogs just can't quite match.

But the guess here is that Dodd, overall, is entirely correct--if Mullen stays put and Richt can salvage eight or nine wins, there's not enough heat under the SEC seats to expect a coaching change anywhere in the league's 12 head coaching positions.

Jeff Evans