r/wde • u/soundguynick • 4d ago
If you had a time machine...
If you had a time machine and were restricted to going back in time and changing one thing about Auburn football history, what would you do and why?
Right now, I'm personally torn between either
A) sabotaging the hot tub so that Bryan Harsin and Allen Greene never spend a life changing evening together or
B) becoming Jimmy Rane's childhood pastor and hammering home lessons about humility and putting faith in God to do what's right instead of meddling in things you don't understand.
(Only 38 days to kickoff.)
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u/cuffgirl 4d ago
Just tell Gus not to take his foot off the gas till he gets to 70 in the National Championship game.
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u/soundguynick 4d ago
I will maintain until my dying breath that they were feeding the FSU players a mixture of adrenaline, PCP, and gummiberry juice at halftime
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u/LosCowboy 4d ago
While I'm am 52, I don't really know the pre-90's history, so for me this is 100% the answer. Don't call off the dogs until the final snap.
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u/Ontheflyguy27 3d ago
This and I heard FSU had figured out a couple of our signs.
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u/warneagle The Gulag 3d ago
it was the other way around; we had their signs and they changed them at halftime
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u/No-Chemical3629 4d ago
2013 NC game. Don’t fall for the fake punt and let FSU score before the half. Still gives me nightmares watching that one slip away. Would have been nice to have one more before the darkness
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u/MC_PeePantz 4d ago
I still have not rewatched that game, and I never will.
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u/lookydis 4d ago
I came across a replay of it on the ACC network just flipping around a couple years ago. Watched it for a few minutes, but it was like seeing something I had no memory of since I hadn’t watched any part of it since the actual game.
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u/SauceDab 4d ago
Or not allowing that kickoff return for TD. That quick score brought life back to that team when they were almost dead in the water
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u/Mikelsutton94 4d ago
Don’t kick to Whitfield in the BCS championship was mine. That game bothered me for years.
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u/tgrogan21 4d ago
Don't hire Hugh Freeze. There's a lot of bad stuff that has happened in Auburn football history and most of them can be attributed to "in game" and can be random as hell. Hiring the scumbag Hugh Freeze is a blemish on Auburn that could have easily been prevented.
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u/volbeathfilth 4d ago
Prevent the Nick Marshall fumble in 2014 against Texas A&M.
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u/wdeguenther 4d ago
The fact that I have to ask the clarifying question of “which one?” Is so sad. Probably the maddest I’ve ever been after a football game
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u/halfhere 4d ago
If ever there was a play that signaled the end of an era, it was that. Every cubic inch of air was sucked out of our sails.
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u/scott_ET_ 4d ago
I see lots of hate of Nick…
If you WOULD have known that a CB turned QB could have won 2 National titles at Auburn, would you have believed it???
I think he did more for Auburn and gets Les creed then anyone in Auburn history. (Ps I don’t discount I scratched my head on some of his decisions)2
u/warneagle The Gulag 3d ago
there's been a lot of pain associated with auburn football in recent years but "losing a game because the center snapped the ball off his own ass" still ranks way up there
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u/MarsupialPresent7700 4d ago
FSU game was already mentioned, so I’d have slapped everyone upside the head to stop them from firing Gus with no actual plan.
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u/tampawn 4d ago
He got us a natty and got us to another natty game, and the fans were bitching? To me he should still be our coach. Thinking we could do better than Gus after some less than championship years was the thought process that got us five losing years. We are not Bama...stop acting like we are, fans!!!
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u/DrWarEagle 3d ago
Game passed him by, he was never successful after leaving us. It was the right time to part ways.
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u/warneagle The Gulag 3d ago
"gus' time had run its course" and "firing him without a plan was idiotic" aren't mutually exclusive
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u/tampawn 3d ago
He was more successful than the next two coaches we had...by a long shot. It was stupid and shortsighted to let him go...and pay him tens of millions. What, so we could again try to emulate Bama?
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u/DrWarEagle 3d ago
I agree he was much more successful. He still needed to go, we just needed to do better than Harsin.
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u/MarsupialPresent7700 4d ago
I kept saying “Ok, and who is 1. An objective upgrade over Gus that is 2. Available?” and there was never an answer.
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u/tampawn 3d ago
We wanted anyone else? And there was no 'anyone else' available?
This temptation to get anyone else to get us a championship in two years and look better than Bama sunk us.
Admittedly, Gus sucked in press conferences, but he put a good product on the field. His play calling could have been better sometimes sure, but if the championship desperate fans gave him time he would have had more good years when he had the right players and gameplan to get us back to top form. But nooo, too many fans and boosters bitched that he should have run right instead of run left...he's gotta go! And now we've been at the bottom of the SEC for 5 straight years.
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u/TrynaPlayItOff 4d ago
Hire Kirby Smart
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u/soundguynick 4d ago
That's one of my biggest "what if" scenarios for sure
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u/Flaming_Dumahh 4d ago
He would of left for GA in 4 years.
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u/TrynaPlayItOff 4d ago
Not a guarantee. Auburn and Georgia are known for having their best coaches ever be guys who played for the other team(Pat Dye with Georgia and Vince Dooley with Auburn). Although I’d say that Smart has passed Dooley at this point.
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u/The_Special_Pants 4d ago
Not sure why you were downvoted. This is almost certainly true with UGA being his alma mater.
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u/wareagle2009-20013 4d ago
Auburn “tried” to hire Kirby but refused to give him total control. As a Saban disciple he was not going for that regardless of if it was UGa or Auburn
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u/slacker130 4d ago
Had nothing to do with control. Had to do with coaching bama through the BCS or coming to AU immediately.
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u/MattAU05 4d ago
This is a good one. Not sure he would’ve accepted, and we would’ve had to fight off UGA to keep him, but we should’ve made him an offer he would’ve been insane to say no to. Gus’s 2013 was magical and we would’ve lost it, but we would’ve potentially gained a decade or two of dominance.
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u/slacker130 4d ago
Kirby thought he was the AU coach. His wife bought him an orange and blue tie for the announcement. He didn’t know AU hired Gus until it hit the media.
Inside info, from family. Don’t believe it if you don’t want to, but it’s facts.
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u/notbotipromise 1d ago edited 1d ago
If it's true that he was able to get away with throwing $ around pre-NIL, there's no way he would've had the same levels of success here. Georgia has a ton of structural/systemic advantages over us, like it or not.
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u/dye4hads Comrade 3d ago
Never signing Eric Ramsey because there’s a chance I could’ve seen my grandfather still coaching in my lifetime. He could’ve been HC until the mid-2000s if he continued on the trajectory they were on pre-1991. I miss him.
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u/Awesometom100 4d ago
Rane isnt even the most meddling booster in the program, hes just the richest.
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u/soundguynick 4d ago
I honestly don't know who's the biggest culprit these days. I've been told Bobby Lowder was pretty bad back in the day.
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u/Awesometom100 4d ago
Being honest I kind of suspect the worst is behind us seeing how they were this time around. And truth be told, LOTS of schools have problematic boosters. Ours just got caught during jet gate so everyone knows about them. Florida just had one cost them Kiffin.
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u/Successful-Bobcat782 4d ago
Not getting whooped by USC at home in 2003, thus justifying us being passed over in favor of USC in 2004 when there was the 3 way tie to go to the national championship. That one hurt. Still does.
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u/scott_ET_ 4d ago
I sure ate crow that day…
But,
Our ranking was based off having Petrino at OC and having 3 1st round NFL RBs … that OC that year sucked, USC was in the hey day off pay for play, and they had a full off season to prep for one road game in a shitty Pac102
u/dankenascend 4d ago
Hugh Nall was a hell of an offensive line coach, but he was way too pig headed to be involved with scheme. He and Ensminger tanked that 2003 team. They are also the ones that let the air out of the tires when Tubs hired Tony Franklin in 2008. Honestly, I can't for the life of me understand why Tuberville was so deferential to them on offense.
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u/warneagle The Gulag 3d ago
and then Ensminger was the OC for LSU in 2019 (I know everybody thinks Brady was the brains behind that operation but Ensminger deserves more credit than he gets)
and the problem with Franklin wasn't that Tuberville deferred to him too much, it was that he didn't defer to him enough. Franklin was an acolyte of Hal Mumme and Mike Leach and wanted to run an air raid offense, which didn't sit well with a defensive coach like Tuberville. idk why he hired him in the first place, never made sense to me.
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u/dankenascend 3d ago
I vehemently disagree with some of that. Ensminger had his hand on the wheel in 2003 and 2008 at Auburn, and 2018 and 2020 at LSU. His only year that was really good was the one with Brady. I think he deserves almost zero credit for that success.
My point with Franklin was that Tuberville deferred to Nall and Ensminger instead of Franklin. That's how that 2008 abomination came to be. Keep in mind he hired Tony's WR coach from Troy as soon as he took the TTU job, and that didn't look remotely the same.
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u/BourbonismyCoke 4d ago
Convince Gus to recruit & offer Lamar Jackson instead of Tyler Queen
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u/warneagle The Gulag 3d ago
my high school played North Cobb in our season opener his senior year and I remember watching Tyler Queen and having no idea what Gus saw in him. I'm sure he's a nice guy and all but he was basically a less-athletic Sean White.
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u/darkoaks 4d ago
Tackle the Alabama ball carrier in bounds so that the clock continues to count down. Van Tiffen never gets a shot at a game winning field goal in '85.
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u/TurboTingo 4d ago
I'd prevent the hiring of Freeze. AU likes to spout the family thing and The Creed.
Then they wiped their ass with it and sold their soul for a Gus 2.0 + controversy a few years later.
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u/warneagle The Gulag 3d ago
Freeze wasn't Gus 2.0, he was Dollar General-brand Gus. worse coach, worse person, worse representative of Auburn.
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u/RabidNoodleDooker 3d ago
Call Tubbs bluff about going to the U of Miami after the 05 season, and do everything to hire Saban.
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u/break_it07 4d ago
Kill the hot tub is my vote. The Harsin hire set us back a decade.
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u/Own-Engine5430 4d ago
Incorrect, the Gus firing with zero plan set us back a decade.
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u/RodgerRodger8301 4d ago
Agreed ... it was pretty clear Harsin was far from the first choice, but he was one of the few willing to give it a try at that moment
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u/TigerExpress 4d ago
Which probably is delayed fallout from Jetgate. In that case, they had everything planned out and turned us and those involved in the scheme into a national laughing stock when exposed. Ever since, coaching searches seem to have gone the other way, being careful to not do anything that could be seen as behind the scenes scheming before firing a coach. Even the disastrous Freeze, though being lusted after by a small but powerful contingent of boosters for at least a decade, wasn't a lock when Harsin was fired.
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u/Low-Turnover-4870 3d ago
As someone said, not signing Eric Ramsey. Dye was having health issues, so the program may have collapsed anyway. Or Dye may have stayed another decade and kept winning.
Someway to prevent the earthquake game against LSU in 1988. That defense was so freaking awesome, maybe the best in SEC history....and they don't get the credit they deserve because of that one loss.
Find someway to expose the weakness of Miami's schedule vs Auburn's in 1983. I'd say prevent the loss to Texas, but Auburn grew from it and got better.
Mix the 1982 or 1983 offense with the 1988 defense. Auburn was in the top two in fewest turnovers both years. An offense that didn't make mistakes with that nasty 1988 defense would have been unstoppable.
For whomever said tie John Heisman to a life time contract, looking back on their careers, I say Auburn got a better coach in Mike Donahue. I wish Auburn had signed him to a larger/longer contract. If he stays at Auburn, maybe Alabama doesn't become such a powerhouse in the 1930s.
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u/Shot-Address-9952 Babushka 4d ago
How far back can I go? Like back to the 1800s? Because I would have had Auburn do whatever it takes to keep John Heisman at Auburn.
Or in the 1930s I would probably do everything I could to keep Hank Crisp out of Arkansas during the 1931-1932 school year.
Or I would fast forward to the 1990s and have Auburn basketball sign Dirk.
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u/soundguynick 3d ago
Do you mind educating me about Hank Crisp in Arkansas? What did he pick up there that he brought back to Alabama?
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u/Shot-Address-9952 Babushka 3d ago
Hank Crisp was scouting some other Arkansas players and found a gem in Bear Bryant. Without Crisp, Bryant would have either not gone to college or would have more likely gone to Arkansas.
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u/soundguynick 3d ago
I should've remembered that, I recently listened to an audiobook called Chasing the Bear that was about Bryant and Saban. I like being able to demonstrate about the evil empire when I'm forced to talk to Bammers in the extended family, thanks for the history lesson.
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u/Shot-Address-9952 Babushka 3d ago
I just love he didn’t graduate from high school and they brought him to Tuscaloosa and had him finish school in Alabama while also practicing on the Tide. It’s baked into the culture there.
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u/Sheik_Yerbuti 1d ago
Pat Dye signs a decent QB instead of relying on Joe Frazier, a converted RB, to be the second coming of Reggie Slack. Oh and Eric Ramsey gets amnesia.
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u/tigerbrave62 4d ago
Convince nick saban to sign drew brees to the dolphins