Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Tuberville, Cutcliffe, Orgeron

I was a Sophomore at Auburn when Tuberville made the move from Ole Miss. At the time, I thought it was a poor choice hiring a coach that was barely over .500 at a school in the same conference. It was odd that Auburn would hire a coach who was 0-4 against the Tigers.

I remember how pissed off Ole Miss fans were after Tuberville left them for Auburn. They resented him for stabbing them in the back, and they resented Auburn for stealing their coach. Signs bashing Tuberville were seen all over Oxford his first trip back. Ole Miss fans booed during Auburn's alma mater.

Ten years after Tuberville's first year at Ole Miss, Orgeron coached his first game as a Rebel. I decided to compare what he's done so far to what Tuberville did his first two and a half years, well, because I was bored.

Both men took over a team that was 4-7 the previous year. The team Tuberville inherited was on probation and compiled a 2-6 SEC record. The team Orgeron inherited went 3-5 in SEC play under Cutcliff the year before his hiring. Even though Tuberville took over a team that was on probation, I think it's safe to say that both coaches took over comparable situations.

In his first two years and eight games into his third year, Tuberville went 16-14 overall and 8-14 in SEC play. So far, Orgeron is 9-22 overall and 3-18 in SEC play. It looks like Tuberville did a better job than Orgeron. You know who else did a better job than Orgeron? David Cutcliffe.
Cutcliffe was 21-11 overall and 11-10 in SEC play during the same time period of his career at Ole Miss...even better than Tuberville.

Of course, these kinds of comparisons are completely useless. Tuberville is an excelent recruiter and left Cutcliffe with some ponies in the stable. One of the alleged reasons Cutcliffe was let go was because he didn't meet recruiting expectations, so you could argue that Orgeron inherited a team that lacks a lot of talent.

So what's going to happen to Ole Miss? I don't follow recruiting that much, so I'm not sure where they're going in that respect. Will Orgeron get to hang around long enough to coach his own team? Only time will tell on that one. After all, Tuberville didn't turn out to be a poor choice after all.

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