The Bodda Getta

A lot of the Petrinoites of the world have been talking Fisher down pretty heavily since his name came up a few weeks ago... People seem to be convinced that he's a terrible coach and a bad hire for Auburn and that we can do much better... Well, Jimbo isn't my top choice for our next coach, but here are the facts on why he's not as bad as he's made out to be:

* Auburn went undefeated his first season as QB coach. We had a 2,000 yard passer. In 1994 Nix threw for 2,200 as a first year starter. In 1995 he threw for 2,500 yards. Dameyune Craig threw for 2,300 yards as a first year starter in 1996 and threw for over 3,200 yards in 1997. Do you see a progression of successful QB's there? I do.

* LSU hadn't been a top 10 team since 1987, but in Fisher's second year as OC they were. Sure, Saban was part of this too, but so was Fisher as QB Rohan Davey set an LSU passing yards record, throwing for over 3,200 yards.

* He turned Matt Mauck into a good QB. If Mauck hadn't broken his foot in 2002 LSU would have been a much better team, as they showed in 2003 when they went 11-1 and won the BCS national Championship while Mauck set a school throwing TD record. I'm seeing a pattern of LSU QB's setting records with Fisher as their Offensive Coordinator.

* His offense made freaking Jamarcus Russell look like a future NFL superstar. JAMARCUS %$@ING RUSSELL.

* In addition to the much improved QB play at LSU, he utilized multiple running backs in a system that had great success on the ground. He didn't have any superstar RB's, but he worked them in and out in a way that defenses couldn't handle.

* He has a winning percentage over .750 as a head coach. ACC or not, that's far better than almost everyone else we're legitimately looking at that doesn't lie, cheat, and hide things.

To add to that, let's look at Florida State's team total offensive yards ranks:

2006: 60th
2007: 74th (Fisher's first year as OC)
2008: 46th
2009: 23rd
2010: 34th (Fisher's first year as HC)
2011: 64th
2012: 12th

Other than a disappointing 2011, Fisher's offenses have been pretty good. Not elite, no, but very good.

Also, LSU's offensive ranks under Fisher as OC:

2000 - 53rd
2001 - 11th
2002 - 18th
2003 - 31st
2004 - 30th
2005 - 34th
2006 - 14th

I've heard many people comment that LSU's offense was terrible under Fisher. If consistently finishing in the top 30 is terrible, a lot of offenses are terrible.

I keep hearing unsubstantiated claims about Fisher not being a good coach, about his offenses at LSU not being good, and about his 19 wins in his first two years as a head coach not meaning anything. But you know what? The stats say that LSU's offense set tons of records while he was their offensive coordinator. The stats say that QB's that really weren't very good at all became stars in his system, looking good enough to get drafted high in NFL drafts where they then failed because they weren't actually good at all. Fisher helped them succeed even though they sucked.

Stats > Unsubstantiated claims any day.

I feel like there's going to be a huge rush of negativity no matter who we hire as coach and that's completely unnecessary. We are acting like we should have a top ten coach, and maybe we should, but how many top ten coaches can anyone think of that would want to come to Auburn badly enough to leave a good job that they already have? Fisher has a reason to leave FSU and the ACC, so he's got a reasonable chance of coming here. If he does, it's not going to destroy our program and he does have the ability to get us back on track if we let him.