There are too many different T-shirts worn by Auburn students to try to keep up with.
In fact it’s quite dizzying the number of Auburn related apparel worn around campus.
Just considering all the Auburn Greek apparel is enough to shake your head at.
(Really, why do they feel it’s necessary to make a shirt for every party they’ve ever thrown? It makes about as much sense as me saving all the beer cans and liquor bottles I’ve ever finished … oh wait I think that’s caught on too.)
But with all the Greek shirts, game day shirts and Under Armour aside, there is always one shirt that never fails to catch my eye.
It’s worn proudly in the beginning of November by many Auburn students, and then around January it begins to find its way to the back of students’ closets never to be seen again.
The shirts I’m writing about are the “Lebo’s Lunatics” shirts worn in support of Auburn men’s basketball head coach Jeff Lebo.
After being bombarded with yet another new “Lebo’s Lunatics” shirt to look at around campus in early November, I spent all of last week looking for just a glimpse of one floating around Haley or anywhere for that matter.
In all my hours spent ignoring my professors and being late to class last week looking for the one student brave enough to show their support for Lebo, I found none.
My question to you is: Where are all of “Lebo’s Lunatics?”
Where are the fans of Auburn’s fourth-year head coach?
And if they’re out there, why are they so crazed over him?
If there are such “Lunatics” for the man there must be a reason, but I can’t think of any.
It might be harsh to call Lebo’s time at Auburn a failure, but it surely can’t be viewed as a success.
In the past four years, Auburn has had one winning season and put up a paltry .475 winning percentage.
Auburn has won fewer than half of its games overall, and it only gets worse in conference play.
Sure, the Southeastern Conference is a solid basketball conference, but we’re not talking about the gridiron here.
Going 4-12 in conference this year and winning fewer than 30 percent of SEC games in the past four years has seemed to have gone unnoticed by Auburn fans.
I don’t expect to see Auburn fans create sites like firejefflebo.com, but the Tigers’ poor play has to be considered and, right or wrong, the responsibility lies with the head coach.
Alabama fans and sports writers don’t seem to have a problem questioning the coaching of Mark Gottfried.
Gottfried head has been on the proverbial chopping block for several months, while Lebo’s head seems to be free from reproach, despite finishing behind Alabama in the standings.
No team in the SEC had a worse record than Auburn in 2008, while Lebo’s Tigers finished the season with four straight losses.
Column after column in Alabama, newspapers have criticized Gottfried’s coaching, while the subject of Auburn coaching seems to hide in the shadow of Jordan-Hare.
Maybe that’s it. Maybe basketball will never get out of the shadow of Auburn’s football program.
Maybe people just don’t care about what goes on in Beard-Eaves.
Maybe they just got the “Lebo’s Lunatics” shirts for the discount at Loco’s.
Can you blame them?
It’s free chips and salsa we’re talking about here.
That’s worth writing about.
