took the words right off my fingertips + **** mizzou and Auburn cheats like hell... so glad they won though.Cutcliffe - it's freakin duke.
I think its a tough call as they are all deserving. The 1 year tirnaround atauburn is pretty impressive.
All 3 did a tremendous job. And as much as I love the job Cutcliffe is doing, the year-to-year improvement at Auburn is maybe unprecedented.
But going to Rivals, I look at the recruiting ranks and see what Cutcliffe and Malzahn had to work with:
2010 Class: Auburn #4; Duke #72
2011 Class: Auburn #7; Duke #77
2012 Class: Auburn #10; Duke #52
2013 Class: Auburn #8; Duke #68
Auburn should be a Top 10 team with that talent.
Flip side is who did Duke beat? Losses to GT and Pitt. Best wins were VaTech, the U, and the tarheels.
Sure. But the talent gap for Duke is pretty large, even against teams that we don't think much of from the ACC. What I like the most about Cutcliffe's job is that he worked a plan, recruited character and system fits, developed a culture, and coached up a bunch of guys no one wanted to a 10-2 season. As a CU fan, that earns a special place in my heart over a guy taking a team with Top 10 talent that severely underperformed in recent years only to break through this year.
Gotta give it to Malzahn. Not that Cutcliffe doesn't deserve recognition for what he's done at Duke, it's nothing short of miraculous. While Duke is a great story, they didn't take a huge step up from last season. They've been steadily rising under Cutcliffe, and while most people only started paying attention this year, they were well on this path last year. If Cutcliffe gets it, it's a body of work award for the last 6 years and not a best coach this year award.
For Malzahn to take the steaming pile of crap he was handed last year and get them to #3 is a much better one year coaching job than Cutcliffe or Pinkel.
Auburn enters SEC Champ with an 8-game improvement from last year (3-9). The record for biggest improvement is 8.5 games by Hawaii in 1999.
Auburn is only 3 (or 4?) years removed from a MNC. It's not like the dumpster fire they had at Duke.