Besides the well publicized Miami stories—which I don't hold against him considering the pressure...but do think he handled it wrong in the end—what instances are you referring to?
You know Bran well enough, and follow college football well enough to know, that a lot of the players we've seen in the program and transfer did so legitimately.
What gets on my nerves? I mentioned it earlier.
I know you like Auburn and I don't hold that against you because you are a fan of football...not just a football fan. It's Auburn leading the SEC in oversigning. Hell, we've got five SEC schools with more signees than Bama over the last eight years.
The Miami issue is a big one, he did the same thing at MSU and LSU before leaving them. There were instances at Miami where he was called out by the press for disseminating information that he knew was incorrect. I softened on my personal stance about coaches being honest, because the profession simply doesn't reward honesty. And I have no doubts that he is an honest man with friends and family in reality. The perception based on how he has left jobs and dealt with the media in the past is that he is not above lying outright, which makes it difficult to trust his word at face value, unless you are a fan.
As for oversigning, I really don't have a strong feeling towards it. It's a clear advantage for the teams that do it but it's up to the other teams to close that loophole. I do think it allows for the potential of dishonesty from coaches, and if you don't think there are some/many coaches who would fudge the facts to get rid of a player just because they wanted to then you are kidding yourself. Saban remains the poster child for over signing because of how he chooses to handle it. He's far from the worst offender, if it's considered an offense. Refusing to entertain questions about oversigning to the point of snapping at reporters and blaming "the media" makes him seem like he's hiding something to many people.
As for Auburn, Tubs loved over signing. And he was terrible at it his last 2 seasons. Fairly and McCaleb were each signed to two consecutive recruiting classes and I think about 40% of the players CTT signed his last 2 seasons never set foot on campus. That left a lot of slots open for Chizik. Hell we signed 32 last year and 31 were on our roster this year because we had the space to invite 7 early entries (Shon Coleman was the exception due to his battle with leukemia, though there was a spot for him also.)
I think we have 2 open scholarships currently, maybe 3.
I will say that the day Auburn takes a scholarship away from a player, or forces a gray shirt on them, I'll be a little upset.
And as for "the pine box from Ole Miss..." Like all others that have done the same thing, it could have, and should have, been handled better. But 1 time is a mistake. 3+ times is a pattern.
