TLDR: I was wrong and all that stumping for reverend HEW on here was a gigantic waste of time and energy. I hope we GIT BETTA but it doesn’t look like that will happen under Hugh & Co.
Well, very little makes sense to me at this point in time, but I’m a man of my word. I still find it difficult to articulate why ole Hew hasn’t worked out up to this point and it doesn’t look like he will fair any better moving forward, but I’ve finally sat through enough abominations in JHS this season to reach that conclusion.
By almost data point, issue, or metric that could be considered secondary, tertiary, or tangential measurements of whether or not an AUFB has been successful, I would argue Hugh has been. Hugh has checked off almost every box we’ve clamored for a coach to do for years now. Create alignment, be honest with media, drop bags, bring in and develop top 10 HS recruiting talent, convince money people to open their checkbooks, offensive and defensive statistical production etc.
But at the end of the day the primary measure of success, and the only one that really matters, is wins and losses, and Hugh has performed horribly in this regard. I genuinely think he expected the results on the field this year to be drastically different and he is at a loss as to why wins are so difficult to come by, but ultimately it’s his job to figure it out and he’s failed to do so. I hope for Auburn’s sake the highly improbable occurs and it all comes together on the field next year for Hugh and co. Probably not though, and if not we’ll look back at this tenure as either an indictment of Hugh or Auburn football in general, hopefully it is the former.
Silver lining is that if Hugh does fail, he will undoubtably leave the next guy a full cupboard the likes of which no prior incoming Auburn coach has ever been lucky enough to inherit and possibly a legacy of stability and alignment at the administrative and institutional level. If such a hypothetical holds true amidst all the uncertainty of yet another change at head coach, then Hugh will have left Auburn in a better spot than when he inherited it, and I will be grateful to him for that.
WDE
@stutsman23 @Aurules @Uncle Baby Billy + anyone else I’ve given a hard time over this.