FanHouse Jay Coulter

In the immortal words of the late, great Jim Fyffe, my time is up and I thank you for yours. This will be my final post for AOL's FanHouse. The company has decided to go another direction and cover college football with a wider net, doing away with the individual school writers.

In the future, FanHouse will continue to cover college football, but will do it with a smaller group of writers who will cover college football in general. You can be assured that if Auburn has breaking news, it will be covered here.

It was a business decision on AOL's part and you have to respect that. It has been an honor for me to be part of the FanHouse family this season. I want to thank Jamie Mottram, the mastermind behind the FanHouse concept. He has built an incredible gathering place for fans to visit and share their views. I wish him nothing but luck in the future. I'll continue to visit every day.

I also want to thank all the FanHouse writers I've gotten to know this year. It has been a blast sharing stories with you all season. AOL has some of the most talented writers around; and where they find some of these stories is beyond me. They just get better and better.

Finally, I want to thank all my readers. You made Auburn FanHouse one of the most visited (if not the most visited) college site on the FanHouse portal. Where many schools were measuring readers by the hundreds, you pushed our numbers to more than 40,000 just in the last month at Auburn FanHouse. Incredible.

Your comments were awesome. Your defense of Auburn was admirable. I'll miss all of my regular contributors. And yes, strangely enough, I'll even miss Jake. Anybody that loves SEC football enough to get punished on a daily basis is OK in my book. Keep your head up Jake. Your children may one day see Alabama beat Auburn.

While I may be leaving AOL, I'm not going anywhere. Just as I did before my FanHouse gig, I'll be returning to my blog in the Summer. I'm going to take a few months off and then resume with Football Saturday In The South. I hope you'll stop by as we get closer to the start of the season.

I'll close by talking about Auburn. For somebody who grew up loving Pat Dye, I have to say that Auburn is in its glory days now. Tommy Tuberville has a chance to be better than Shug and Pat. And that's obviously saying a lot. We are about to conclude the best recruiting class since Tuberville arrived.

Everything is in place. Next year will be a transition time. But look out in 2008. It has the potential to be very special. War Eagle and God Bless!

The Reggie Bush saga in Southern California is unraveling faster than a New England Patriots lead. The news out of Los Angeles is getting worse by the day. Recent news of audio tapes confirming that Bush and his family were "on the take" while still in college raises some very interesting questions.

Will Bush be stripped of his Heisman Trophy? Will USC lose its national championship? The likelihood of either happening is looking pretty good. The NCAA will certainly be pushed into action if these tapes are authenticated.

The results could be historic. What will the BCS do? If the NCAA takes away the Trojans victories from 2004, the BCS will have little option but to take back its championship. The same will hold true for the Associated Press. They will be left with two options. One would be to vacate the title and leave that way. The other would be to crown the second ranked team that season as its national champion.

That of course, is Auburn. Wouldn't it be ironic if Auburn, after being screwed by the BCS, ended up as national champions? There's no question that in hindsight, the 2004 squad would have given USC a run for its money and have had a good chance of winning (see Florida 2006).

Two months ago, I would have said this was a pipe dream. Today, I think it's very possible. Maybe we can get the BCS and AP to present the trophy during halftime of the Auburn-Alabama game at Jordan-Hare Stadium. Too little too late you say? Not me, I'll take it. Finders keepers.

How bad do you miss Auburn football? For me, it's gotten really bad. I actually watched today's practice session at the Senior Bowl carried by the NFL Network.

And you know what? I really enjoyed it. OK, so maybe I have issues. I think its called withdrawals. For the three of you who actually get that channel, the network will be carrying tomorrow and Thursday's practice sessions starting at 4:00 p.m. CT.

When the game kicks off Saturday, it will feature five former Auburn players, including running back Kenny Irons, defensive back David Irons, offensive linemen Ben Grubbs and Tim Duckworth and wide receiver Courtney Taylor.

Irons looked really good in practice today. He caught the eye of more than one NFL coach.

But the one they were talking about most was Grubbs. He's projected by many to be the first guard taken in April's NFL draft. They were also giving a lot of love to Duckworth. When you see both of them working out for scouts, it hits you just how bad they are going to be missed.

The Auburn offensive line has huge holes to fill. Thankfully, Hugh Nall has gone out and found some talented high school linemen. Unfortunately, it looks like too many of them will get a chance to play next year.

The South squad is coached this year by San Francisco 49ers head coach Mike Nolan and the North squad is led by Tampa Bay head coach Jon Gruden. Saturday's contest will be carried on the NFL Network and starts at 3:00 p.m. CT.

Here we go again. Another college coach has come out and said point blank that he's not interested in a head coaching job at another school. This time it comes from Auburn offensive line coach Hugh Nall.

Today, Nall said he had no interest in the vacant Georgia Southern head coaching job. It came open on Monday when Brian VanGorder left Statesboro to be the linebackers coach for the Atlanta Falcons.

"There is a rumor going around that I am interested in that job and it is just not true," said Nall. "I am not going to coach at Georgia Southern. I am not going anywhere. I am very happy at Auburn."

You may remember that Nall was a finalist for the job when VanGorder was hired. Nall was the starting center on the 1980 Georgia national championship team and had close ties to the late Erk Russell. It's unclear whether he still has connections with the athletic department at Georgia Southern.

Hugh, all we ask is that you please don't pull a Slick Nick Saban on us. Say what you mean and mean what you. We're begging you.

It seems like now would be the perfect time for Nall to leave if he was interested in a heading coaching position. Next season he must replace four starters on his offensive line, including All-American guard Ben Grubbs.

He may want to stay because of the group he's got coming in next year. He already has verbal commitments from four highly touted high school linemen and appears very close to getting one from Lee Ziemba, the talented tackle from Rogers, Arkansas.

People have suspected it for a long time. Now it has been printed in black and white. The talking heads that host ESPN's College GameDay Show do indeed have agendas. And apparently, they don't mind you knowing.

When the final Associated Press poll was released last week, Auburn finished ninth in the poll with an 11-2 record. However, GameDay's Kirk Herbstreit voted Auburn 18th in his final poll. Chris Fowler didn't do much better, putting the Tigers 14th. How can you justify that ranking?

That's nothing more than a blatant dislike of Auburn and its program. How do you put an 11-win team with victories over the number one and number three teams in the country at the bottom of your poll? In comparison, Herbstreit ranked Notre Dame 16th in his poll, two spots ahead of Auburn. You will recall that the Irish lost to LSU 41-14 in the Sugar Bowl, a team Auburn beat in the regular season.

ESPN officials should do the right thing and fire Herbstreit and replace him with former GameDay analyst Craig James, who's now back working at the network. The Associated Press should ask Herbstreit to resign from voting in the poll. Yes, public trust is that important. He gives everyone who votes a bad name.

Christa Turner of the Columbus (Ga.) Ledger-Enquirer wrote an interesting article this morning about the struggles of the Auburn Athletic Department in its search for two more opponents for the 2007 football season. I can't remember a time when Auburn had two openings on its upcoming schedule this close to the season (kickoff is less than nine months away).

If you haven't had a chance to look ahead to next year's home schedule believe me, it's ugly. In fact, I'm not sure it has ever been more ugly. How's this for a home schedule: South Florida, New Mexico State, Vanderbilt, Mississippi, Mississippi State and Alabama. You better hurry, that line is getting longer by the hour at Tigers Unlimited. .

The question is, how much money are Auburn fans willing to pay to have a ticket to one marque game? Sure, your lower level patrons will renew because they have priority seating to protect. But what about those in the end zones and upper decks? Are they going to make a $900 donation to Tigers Unlimited and then buy season tickets, when they know they can be had for half price outside the stadium?

Auburn is still looking for two more home opponents. Their hope is to land another school like Washington State for the opener and then a homecoming type opponent for its November date. Will Auburn sell out its season packages to fans who are willing to pay the freight for an Alabama ticket? I'm not sure. It wouldn't shock me. I hope they can.

No matter how you look at it, this has been a very good week for Auburn head coach Tommy Tuberville. First, Alabama goes out and hires former LSU coach Nick Saban to a $4 million annual contract. Then tonight, the Atlanta Falcons announce they have hired Louisville coach Bobby Petrino to a $5 million a year deal. You will remember that Petrino cut his teeth as offensive coordinator under Tuberville a few years back.

So why has this been a good week for Tuberville? There are several reasons. First, he dodged a bullet when Alabama hired Saban over Petrino. Ask any coach in America and they will tell you they fear Petrino far more than Saban. Why Alabama didn't go after Petrino is anyone's guess. His offense is second to none and he's a tremendous recruiter. It would have been scary to see what he could have done in Tuscaloosa.

Don't get me wrong, ethics aside, Saban can coach and recruit. There's no doubt he will achieve some level of success at Alabama. Winning an SEC championship will be possible, a national championship is probably doubtful. Predicting any coach to win a national championship in the SEC is moronic. It takes a lot of luck to even get a shot at it.

Auburn Athletics Director Jay Jacobs has started doing something really cool. Periodically, he will send out emails to Auburn alumni and fans and talk about the state of the Tiger athletics department. The letters are always interesting and shed light on exactly how things are viewed by the Auburn administration.

I thought I would share with you his most letter. In it, he talks about how the bowl payouts work and what Auburn's cut is from the bowl season. It's a very interesting read. Enjoy...

Dear Auburn Family,

The Auburn Tigers made history on New Year's Day. They became the first Auburn football team to defeat Nebraska in our first-ever AT&T Cotton Bowl victory. This year's outstanding seniors also set a new school record with 41 wins over four years.

Of course they will also be remembered for never having lost to Alabama. A hard-fought victory against Nebraska was a fitting finish for this team, led by a memorable group of seniors who will leave a great legacy of success on and off the field.

Consider this when reflecting on this year and where we are as a football program: Auburn is 33-5 over the past three seasons. That is third best in the country behind the past two national champions, Texas and USC.

Rafael Palmeiro. Bill Clinton. Nick Saban. The names are interchangeable. All publicly lied. All were caught. When Saban was introduced as coach at Alabama a few hours ago, he said all the right things.

"If I knew that my heart was someplace else in what I wanted to do, I don't think it would be fair to the organization if I stayed," said Saban.

"What I realized in the last two years is that we love college coaching because of the ability that it gives you to affect people, young people," he said.

If you're an Alabama fan how can you be sure he's telling the truth? Do parents really want their kids playing for a guy who only a week ago said, "I'm not going to be the Alabama coach." Is this what you want your university to stand for?

It won't be a game that shows up on ESPN Classic anytime soon, but Auburn fans are all smiles tonight after a 17-14 win over Nebraska. Auburn shook off some first half rust and overcame the worst officiating of the bowl season to squeak out a win on a cold day at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.

The win gives the Tigers their second 11+ win season in the last three years and all but guarantees a finish in the top 10. "That was typical Auburn, win and win ugly," said Auburn head coach Tommy Tuberville. "That's how this team has done it all year. They scrap and claw."

Call it what you will coach, but it was mighty satisfying. How fitting that the game was won on big plays made by Auburn seniors. Karibi Dede's interception in the first half was the game changer. And how about Cotton Bowl Offensive MVP Courtney Taylor? Needing four catches to become Auburn's career receiving leader, Taylor finished the game with 6 catches for 70 yards. He ends his career with 153 catches, two more than previous record holder Karsten Bailey.