New internet reports (auburnundercover.com) have Wake Forest’s Jim Grobe and Iowa State’s Gene Chizik on Auburn’s “to interview” list.

That doesn’t surprise me.  Auburn has talked to just about everyone under the sun.  And they’ve let everyone know about it, too.

Brady Hoke, Todd Graham and Turner Gill. 

Patrick Nix, Rodney Garner and Gary Patterson.

Derek Dooley, Grobe and Chizik.

While Tennessee and Mississippi State ran their searches like CIA black ops, Auburn is right out there in the open with their comings and goings.

Why?

Here are some possible reasons:

1)  Maybe they learned during Jetgate in 2003 that their administraition simply isn’t very skilled in the art of subterfuge.

2)  Maybe they want to let their fanbase know that they’ve looked traveled to every state, scoured every town for the best and the brightest coach in the country.

3)  Maybe it’s an elaborate ruse designed to take the media’s eyes off the main candidate who’s being wooed in silence.  I doubt that one.  See possible reason #1.

4)  This one seems a bit more likely to me — maybe they like keeping the name “AUBURN” in the spotlight.  Maybe they want Alabama to have to take a backseat in the press for a while. 

Whatever the reason, it’s an interesting direction to take.

Everyone’s well aware of Jetgate. 

And you can bet that most coaches are also aware of the behind-closed-door politics involved in the Auburn job… where Jacobs, Jay Gogue and board members like Bobby Lowder always seem to have something up their sleeve.

So while most schools run quiet searches that allow un-chosen coaches to save face, Auburn stands out in the fact that they don’t seem to be too worried about their un-chosen candidates saving face. 

And when you’ve already got a reputation for mistreating coaches, that’s an odd message to be sending.

Will it matter?  Probably not to some of the guys that Auburn’s already talked to.  Money will outweigh politics.  And for a coach at Ball State or Tulsa, jumping to the SEC and making big bucks trumps all.

But it might hurt AU in landing some hidden “big-name” candidate.

I guess we’ll all know soon enough.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 12th, 2008 at 1:23 pm and is filed under Auburn, Homepage . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.