re: Auburn Program in a decline

"They are going to have to earn this on the field before I agree with you. Until then Auburn is superior."

I will agree with you there, I guess. At least right now. I just think that trends certainly support LSU and Bama being the top two programs in the West because of vastly superior talent levels. Remember, last year was arguably our weakest in recruiting in the last 5 years and it was STILL better than Auburn's. Bama will be looking at another top 5 class this year, as well. In two years, Bama's roster will look like ours, if not better. I just don't think Auburn will keep up over time.

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auburn has had a serious decline in talent recently and it only appears to be getting worse with their current recruiting class

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Since I started really keeping up with recruiting, Auburn always seemed to range in the 11-25 rank. With that "bad" recruiting he has been doing, he has played us the toughest of any opponent. Year in, year out, the Auburn game is a "white knuckle" experience. I don't think AU is going anywhere. It's all cyclical. They may go down for awhile but you better believe they'll come back.

Oh and another thing, AU's lifetime win total is close to ours. I grew up in the 80's and AU was always in the top 10. I don't believe Bama will overtake them because of the suffocating control the boosters have on that program. They will always have a coaching carousel.

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Since I started really keeping up with recruiting, Auburn always seemed to range in the 11-25 rank. With that "bad" recruiting he has been doing, he has played us the toughest of any opponent. Year in, year out, the Auburn game is a "white knuckle" experience. I don't think AU is going anywhere. It's all cyclical. They may go down for awhile but you better believe they'll come back.

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people keep saying this, but their talent level has obviously declined regardless of rivals rankings. where are their offensive playmakers now? they have been in a period of decline since they lost the campbell/caddy/brown trio and it seems to get worse yearly. they don't have one player on that offense that's capable of breaking a game open even like kenny irons was

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It's obviously not the struggle of having a legitimate in-state contender that has enshrined the mediocrity that is a hallmark of Ole Miss football

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I didn't say it was the ONLY reason, but until some coach manages to establish a dominant recruiting position in the state like Vaught did, nothing will change.

Orgeron was hired on the theory that he could break the recruiting logjam--which he almost did; the only problem was that he was an idiot as a coach, so he lost credibility with prospects quickly and therefore was not able to recruit us out of our mess.

Hiring Nutt basically constitutes going to the opposite extreme. He can coach, but can't recruit, so we will probably have a few good seasons and then fall off again.

If Ole Miss ever found a coach who was the whole package and could both establish a dominant recruiting position in the state AND coach well, then it could take the other steps that would come with winning, like building a bigger stadium.

Some of you seem to have short memories: LSU was drowning in mediocrity for nearly a quarter of a century until Saban came along.....but he at least had the built-in advantage of not having in-state competition to deal with in turning things around....

It is much easier said than done to fix a program that has not been successful for a long time--ESPECIALLY when you have in-state competition in the same conference. It can be done, but it takes a very special, committed coach to do that....

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They are currently ranked 15th, BUT they already have 22 commits.....which means the class is nearly full. When other schools start to fill out their classes, that ranking will most likely drop considerably--probably outside the top 20, unless they have some really big late coups.....

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We also have 3 JUCO commits who are currently unranked and will all be 4+ stars (with at least one being a 5-star IMO) and several current commits who I would be shocked if they aren't upgraded by the end of the year. McCallebb the RB we signed last year is tearing it up at Hargrave, add a few more uncommitted guys like Montez Robinson, Johnnie Farms, etc....the class will finish no lower than Top 20, and if it does then whoever is doing the rating has no idea.

Tuberville and company are simply too good at evaluating talent, I'm sorry. Your typical Auburn "mid tier" recruiting class ends up containing several lightly recruited players that end up playing at All SEC levels, that is a given. All this talk of recruiting rankings...look at who the best players at Auburn are, our success rate with the highly rated recruits isn't even that good...instead its guys like Sen'Derrick Marks, Antonio Coleman, Zac Etheridge, that turn out every year.

You guys better worry about your own gaps at QB!!!!!!!!! With Beckwith I like ya'll, without I like the Barn.

We're going to have to play a great game tomorrow to win. Auburn has faced tougher competition than us, they may have Lester and Burns to go along with Tate, they have a great defense, they're playing at home and they want to avenge last year's last second humiliation. I imagine they can't wait to get on the field against our inexperienced QBs. So whether or not the program is in decline over the long-term (I ain't seeing it), the fact remains: tomrrow's going to be a war and a 3-TD LSU win is highly unlikely.

17-13 LSU. Herm, Ciron, Scottie, RD—take over the game and punish the Chickens. Beat the tar out of 'em.

There is a decent chance Auburn's program will decline in future years. Hopefully LSU can put an arse whipping on them like we did to Miami, VT, and ND, so we can claim that we were the ones that ruined Auburn's program.

Regardless of who wins this weekend, I'll be impressed with Tuberville if Auburn's program doesn't struggle more and more in upcoming years, now that you have Saban at Bama and Petrino at Arkansas.