Catching up with former Auburn Coach Pat Dye

By JeromeFromDecatur

Recently, JeromeFromDecatur had the opportunity to sit down with ex-Auburn coach Pat Dye. In a rare one-on-one interview Dye bore his soul, reflected on his glory years at Auburn, and the price of short-lived fame.

(Photo: Ex-Auburn Coach Pat Dye…a Jihadist at heart?)

Jerome: Coach Dye, thank you so much for taking this time with us. Recently Auburn officials named the blend of dwarf tall fescue and perennial ryegrass grass after you. How does that make you feel?

Dye: Well. I’ll tell you. It feels good. Real good. Especially considering some of the mistakes that were made.

Jerome: Mistakes?

Dye: We did some things at Auburn that looking back now that you could say…well, I’m not exactly proud of.

Jerome: Are you talking about Auburn University’s recent institutional probation and it’s near loss of accreditation?

Coach Dye: Nah. Lowder and Jimmy Rayne sorted through that.

(Photo: This is Auburn Football)

Jerome: Are you referring letting Jeff Burger back onto the team back in 1987 after he plagiarized a paper and you overturned the ruling of the student judiciary to let him play football?

Coach Dye: Not exactly.

Jerome: Coach, talking about these mistakes, maybe we can identify what it is you feel uneasy about. Let’s just play some word association real quick. I’ll say a word and you tell me what first comes to your mind. Ok?

Dye: Ok.

Jerome: Eric Ramsey.

Dye: Short term, bargain. Long term, legacy breaker.

Jerome: Money men in Birmingham.

Dye: Cheap.

Jerome: Money men in Rome, Georgia.

Dye: Expensive.

Jerome: Glad bags.

Dye: Good containers for fall leaves and unmarked one-hundred dollars bills.

Jerome: Good music.

Dye: Welcome to the Jungle.

Jerome: Yellow Wood.

Dye: Auburn’s Football Success.

Jerome: Colonial Bank.

Dye: Auburn’s Football Success.

Jerome: War Eagle.

Dye: Tigers.

Jerome: Tigers.

Dye: War Eagles.

(Photo: Happier, Amoral Times)

Jerome: Aundray Bruce.

Dye: Pizza Boy.

Jerome: Florida State Part One.

Dye: Sugar Bowl defeat.

Jerome: Florida State Part Two.

Dye: $500,000 defeat.

Jerome: Coach, could it be that maybe there is no one single thing you feel guilty about. Maybe it’s a number of things. Maybe you are trying to say that your win at all costs attitude created the conditions in which Auburn’s inferiority, little brother complex, manifested itself into a Jihadist-like zeal among its fanbase and eventually led to Auburn’s probation? That the negatives of your program far outweigh the positives? That your legacy as a college football coach won’t be your three SEC titles, but the ethical bounds you broke to get there?

Dye: Yep. You nailed it. That’s what I’m saying. Mistakes were made. And I guess you could say that I’m sorry.

Jerome: So, what you are saying Coach is that you are sorry?

Dye: Yeah. That pretty much sums it up. I am sorry.

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