Bear with me just a little, ok? I've been through this garbage for a long time. I'm seeing the second Death Star up and running after I thought it had been blown up for good. Having endured it twice, I'm going to have to make some controversial statements.
Back in the 70s when the Crimpson Cheating Machine was in full swing, those hillbilly bastards used to lecture us uppity Aubs about knowing our "place."
Remember Battlestar Galactica? All this has happened before, and all of it will happen again. It's true. In my lifetime I've watched this evil, vile empire of morons rise from the ashes, reassert itself and once again perpetuate a rampant cycle of cheating, graft and corruption the likes of which I honestly thought could never again happen.
Back in the 70s, we never tried to be anything other than what we were. We didn't follow them down the cheating path -- despite the fact that Bryant repeatedly threw us under the NCAA bus for minor infractions just to maintain his superiority.
It's always been known, and it's forever true that when the playing field is level, when we are playing by the same rules, we will whip their ass more often than not in every conceivable measure -- NOT just on the football field. But yes, that too.
In the 70s, though, we just accepted what was, endured the gloating, the crowing, the hillbilly hoedowns and media weiner rubs that were part and parcel of who and what THEY were. That was never us and never going to be us.
Then Pat Dye. God love the man. He helped us level the playing field and maybe, just maybe he started using some of their own tactics against them. The 80s were fun, but it changed who we thought we were a little bit. We competed for SEC titles, were in the NC conversation. All the things they'd been and had were now coming to us.
That begot Jay Jacobs. He was an AU fan. He was born in LaFayette but grew up in Florida where he mostly missed the awful 70s. Not living here, he didn't bear the brunt of what it meant in that day and time. Yes, I'm saying it is like being the veteran of a war. A different kind of war. He wanted to play at AU so bad he walked on. But he walked on to a different AU team. One that was on the upswing.
He came there and except for a very short stint as a football coach at a small AISA school, he's never left. Sometimes when you're in the forest too long, you can't see the trees.
Over the past 20 years or so, he's tried to create a very different Auburn -- one that plays in the same park as Alabama, but tries to do so without breaking the same rules. It's created a situation that isn't -- in my opinion -- sustainable. It will constantly implode on itself in trying to be something NOW as opposed to making the right decisions for the long term.
I've long advocated fighting them. I've always been one who wanted to bring that empire crashing down and leave nothing but smoldering rubble in Tuscaloosa. But I don't think it's possible. Their long game (whether on purpose or by accident) is a master work. The defenses are almost impenetrable. They have their people in virtually every major media market. They have a coach who got control of the boosters, set up an organized system to cheat at the highest levels and is bastard enough to maintain it. They got leverage on the NCAA (as Bryant had) because there are things that Emmert doesn't want to see the light of day from his time at Washington and LSU. He won't cross Saban.
Maybe it's better to pretend that UA is just Snots the dog and he's latched on to the leg. Just let him finish.
It won't last forever and the fall when Saban leaves will be spectacular. The problem in my mind, is what's going to be left of the Auburn I grew up loving when that happens?
There's already far too much of that Auburn that's little more than a faded memory now. It's been sanitized, corporatized, glossied up in a mad scramble for more and more dollars so we can keep up with the rest of the cheating fucks out there.
Maybe the hillbillies in the 70s were right. Maybe our "place" isn't trying to keep up with them. We're never going to be the sort of cheating machine that they are. So we make sacrifices and do other things to try to keep up. Maybe we shouldn't.
It makes me sad. And I'm not sure that if I had it to do all over again if I wouldn't go to David Housel's house in 2003 and physically stop him from getting on that jet to Louisville.
This is all Jay Jacobs' fault. Just saying.
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