You’ve heard the old cliché: “I’ve got good news and I’ve got bad news.” Well, if you’re an Auburn fan and, more than that, a Will Muschamp fan, I’ve got good news and bad news.

Title/Alt Text

The bad news first:

We could be a week away, maybe a little longer, from Auburn announcing its next defensive coordinator.

And now the good news:

Barring some unexpected turn of events, I fully expect that, when the new coordinator is introduced, it will be the man affectionately known as “Coach Boom.” It will be Will Muschamp.

You might hear all sorts of things between now and then – that another school or schools is pursuing Muschamp, that Auburn head coach Gus Malzahn has interest in talking to another candidate. And those things might be true, because until a deal is done, it’s not done. But that won’t change anything.

Obviously, neither I nor anyone else can say anything that hasn’t happened yet is 100 percent certain to happen. But I will say again: I will be very surprised if Muschamp is not Auburn’s next defensive coordinator.

***

Would the hiring of Muschamp signal more coaching changes? Almost certainly. No defensive coordinator of Muschamp’s caliber would take a new job without being able to bring in assistants of his choosing.

Who would go and who would stay? Could there be a shuffling of responsibilities? Only time will tell.

It is by no means certain, by the way, that former All-SEC Auburn safety Travaris Robinson, who has been with Muschamp at Florida for the past four seasons, would come to Auburn with him. Robinson loves Auburn, but he’s also been very happy at Florida.

***

Moving on:

I was sitting in the stands with friends on the day in 1969 Pat Sullivan threw his first Auburn varsity pass against Wake Forest. It was a go route to Terry Beasley that was overthrown and incomplete. Auburn fans at what was then Cliff Hare Stadium stood and cheered.

Auburn beat Wake Forest 57-0 that day in the first game of Sullivan’s sophomore season. Two weeks later, I moved from Birmingham to go to work for the Huntsville News in my first job as a sports writer.

Over the next two years, I got to know Pat Sullivan and his wife, Jean, well.

It was a different day in the sports journalism business. I was the same age as many of Auburn’s players, including Pat, and spent significant time with them away from the cheering crowds. We’ve both gotten old now. I’ll be 65 on Christmas Day. He’ll be 65 on Jan. 18. But it’s been my honor to call him a friend for all these years.

To his teammates, Pat was almost bigger than life. They were convinced, always, that he would make a play when it mattered most. And he almost always did. I’ve never been around a stronger leader, and that strength of character carried over into his coaching career and his life away from football.

What a career Pat had as a player and as a coach. More important than the games he won as a coach or the plays he made as a player is the impact he has had on the lives of young men.

I was there to see Pat throw his first college pass and I was there to see him coach his last college game. Both were at Jordan-Hare Stadium.

I think that’s pretty neat.

