2014 State of the Program

First, my standard intro to this post...  "It has become standard here at STR to do a "State of the Program" post following national signing day.  The national "state of the union" is always around this time as well and it just seems like the perfect time to do it for a college football team. It is the end of a complete cycle of college football starting with spring practice through the regular season and then the all important recruiting season. You really have a good pretty good feel as to where the program is since most big fans have been into it almost daily for six months. You have seen your team play an entire season and know the latest batch of recruits coming in."

I tell you as I have also previously stated, being an Auburn fan is a roller coaster ride of epic proportions.  Over a 25 year period it is obvious Auburn cannot stand failure... or success for very long.  It is maddening.  The peak of the Pat Dye era was in 1989 as Bama came to Auburn and Auburn won that game and a third straight SEC title.  Auburn then descended into misery topped off by Coach Dye's resignation and Bama's 1992 national championship.  In comes Terry Bowden and out of nowhere Auburn goes 20-0 from 1993 into 1994.  Auburn then falls off slightly and then gets to Atlanta in 1997.  The bottom falls out completely in 1998 and Bowden is gone.

In comes Tommy Tuberville and the ride just gets more crazy... Tubs rallies Auburn to win the West in 2000 and then ends 2001 badly and ends 2002 great.  The much ballyhooed 2003 team pretty much goes completely down the tubes ending in Jetgate and then possibly Auburn's greatest team ever rises in 2004.  Auburn then has four good seasons in a row from 2005 through 2008 and wins six in a row over Bama but critical losses prevent any championships.  The bottom then falls out again in 2008 and Tuberville is gone. 

Gene Chizik comes in under a hailstorm of criticism and turns in a mediocre 2009 before leading Auburn to an undefeated season and the BCS national championship.  The bottom then falls out AGAIN in unprecedented style and just two years later Auburn turns in the worst season ever in it's long and storied history going 0-8 in the SEC.  Out goes Chizik and in comes Malzahn and Auburn goes 12-2 winning the Iron Bowl, winning the SEC Championship and comes within a hair of winning another BCS national championship...  It is simply unbelievable.

In that time Auburn turns in three undefeated seasons in 1993, 2004 and 2010 but also turns in three of it's worst seasons in 1998, 2008 and 2012 .  This last season though as has been well chronicled might be the most amazing season of all.  So with all that said it is HARD to really know the state of the program as huge program-altering changes appear to happen at Auburn every other year.  (more after the jump).