Friday, December 12, 2008

On The Hunt: Head Coaching Edition ep. 4

Jim Grobe, come on down!!! You're the next contestant on The Coach is Right!
According to The Birmingham News, Auburn will interview Grobe today.
Grobe is 53-44 in nine career seasons as head coach at Wake Forest.
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AuburnUndercover.com also reported that a former Auburn defensive coordinator interviewed for the job in Texas last night. No, not Will Muschamp. Instead, it was Iowa State coach Gene Chizik.
Chizik has not had much success in his first head-coaching stop. He is 5-19 in two seasons. If AUU is correct, let's chalk this one up to another courtesy interview...
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Lastly, congratulations to both WSFA TV-Montomgery and FOX 10 of Mobile for proving once again that TV stations are as credible as ever in their "scoops."
Let me start by saying I have some friends in the field. I know there are good journalists and there is good reporting in TV. "Professionals" acting as they did yesterday, however, gives everyone in the field a black eye.
WSFA reported during its evening newscast that Auburn may be close to offering the job to South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier. It cited a person within the coaching industry. That could have meant Steve Spurrier Jr. told WSFA that, but the truth is probably far closer to a PeeWee coach telling a reporter that Spurrier was coming to town. And "close" to offering the job? "Close?" Seriously? Great work, WSFA. You're really raising the bar for journalistic standards everywhere.
FOX 10's miscue, however, dwarfed those of WSFA. It's as if the two had a competition to see which one could lose more credibility in a single night. FOX 10 reported that Will Muschamp would be named Auburn's head coach on Friday -- much to Muschamp's surprise. Kudos to ESPN's SportsCenter for picking the story up and running with it.
Muschamp denied those reports late last night. He did so again to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution today.
Great work, guys and gals. Keep up the work and, again, congratulations on your ridiculously unprofessional shenanigans. You were the first to report those stories, and, APPARENTLY, that's all that matters.

EDIT: Thank you to AuburnSports.com's Bryan Mathews for passing along Muschamp's statement today.
Here it is:
"I have not interviewed for any jobs. I'm not interested in any jobs. I'm happy here, my family loves Austin and I'm going to be at Texas."

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