The 2010 Championship: A Great Auburn Painkiller But Its Effectiveness Is Waning
By Dutch Dixon
Auburn’s perfect season and 2010 championship has provided the Tigers’ faithful a lot of fan-aid in the years since.
In 2011, 2012, 2014, and 2015, Auburn football had, by all measures, disappointing seasons. But the joy gained from looking back at Cam Newton, his Heisman Trophy win, and Auburn’s SEC and BCS championships helped deal with those, at times, massive misfires in meeting preseason expectations.
Even 2013, as great as that team was and as fun as it was to watch — not to mention the SEC championship it fought so hard to win — came to a painful end, coming so close but so far from scoring a second national crown for Auburn in just four seasons.
But 2010 got us through it all.
Imagine those seasons had Auburn not defeated Oregon in the Arizona desert.
Imagine if we were still waiting for our first recognized national championship since 1957.
(Auburn could and should claim more, but that’s another story for another day.)
Imagine, without 2010, how much more dismayed you would have felt watching Gene Chizik and his Auburn staff drive downhill before accelerating off a cliff with a 3-9 season in 2012.
Imagine snatching victory away from Florida State in the 2013 national title game only to lose it in the final seconds (and still not having a national title since ‘57).
Imagine, still title-less for four-plus decades, being projected to compete for the title we were still so desperately desiring in 2014 and 2015 only to put together two mediocre — at best — seasons.
We would be feeling like we were never going to get there.
But 2010 got us through it all.
Look outside ourselves even.
Imagine being Clemson last season, they themselves without the sport’s top prize since 1981, falling short in the championship game. As much of a roll as they appear to be on right now, their fans have no recent title to get them through the current disappointment. Even as expectations have placed them with likely having another shot to accomplish the feat in 2016, their fans, perhaps more than any other, know how easy it is to drop an unexpected game and have plans derailed.
Imagine, even worse, being Oregon — a team with no national championship at all, not in 1981 and not in 1957. Imagine getting to the national title game not once but twice in five seasons and missing out on both. The Ducks have great overall success during that time to soften those blows, but it’s doing little to quell the pain that those two losses provided.
I can easily remember the 2011 Auburn season and how, for the first time, a discouraging season didn’t bother me way more than it should.
That was because of 2010, Cam Newton, and Nick Fairley.
Even 2012, arguably the worst season in Auburn history, could be dealt with due to 2010 (and the excitement of a new coaching regime taking over in 2013).
Coming so close in 2013 was devastating as a fan, even with 2010’s medicine, but it would have been much worse.
The last two seasons, though, have seen fan frustrations start to bubble a little more easily. The personnel problems and the puzzling play-calling are no longer glossed over — ever.
Why was our quarterback situation what it was last season? Why, with multiple recruiting classes, was there no dual-threat option at quarterback at all?
How could it not be obvious to the coaching staff that Jeremy Johnson was not even close to ready for prime time?
How come our defenses have been atrocious more than average?
Why do we outright refuse to do a play-action pass on first- or second-and-goal seemingly ever, instead choosing to run it right up the middle twice — to no one’s surprise and with no true running threat at quarterback to stress the defense — for little to no gain and then forcing struggling signal-callers to instead throw when everybody knows it’s coming?
Why do we do the Statue of Liberty play-action on 3rd-and-25?
These are the types of questions that go from being asked to being demanded to be answered — at least in a fan’s mind — when the 2010 painkiller is finally losing its effectiveness.
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A national championship should be the goal every year at Auburn, but it’s not what is required by Tigers fans to calm their concerns.
We want championships, but consistency is what we crave.
We are tired of the roller coaster. We want off.
We will never forget 2010, but it’s not going to provide us the relief we will need should disappointing seasons continue to pile up. Not any longer.
It’s time for Gus Malzahn and his staff to right the ship.
More importantly, it’s time for them to steady it.