With the firing of head baseball coach John Pawlowski on Monday it raises the question: was this the right move?
Pawlowski finished the year on a high note by leading the team to series victories against Ole Miss, Florida and Texas A&M, all of which made the NCAA tournament.
With such a strong finish, shouldn't that have earned Pawlowski one more season to try to continue the success?
Maybe, but the loses to small schools like Troy and Jacksonville State are too much to ignore.
Throw in the eighth inning collapse to Alabama last Tuesday in Hoover in the SEC tournament, and Pawlowski's fate was sealed.
Auburn may not have a baseball program like South Carolina, but it does have a better tradition than a 13-17 record in the SEC, especially with the support that Auburn fans provide at Plainsman Park on a consistent basis during the season. Fans deserve to see a team that will compete for conference titles and not lose to inferior opponents at the end of the season.
That being said, Pawlowski did do good things while he was at Auburn, including leading the Tigers to a spot in the NCAA tournament during his first year as head coach and providing some exciting victories for fans throughout the years.
He also carried himself in a way that fans could be proud of. He was definitely a coach that you wanted to represent your baseball program, but at the end of the day it's about wins, losses and successes.
Auburn was also an inconsistent team. One weekend it wins a big conference series on the road, and three days later it loses 6-1 to JSU at home.
The Tigers even showed inconsistencies in the same day. In April, Auburn easily won game one of a double header against a struggling Georgia, but came back in game two looking like a totally different team and lost 7-1 to the Bulldogs.
These things cannot happen, and it was time Auburn made a change.
The next question is who will Auburn hire to replace Pawlowski? Who knows, but it will be up to Jay Jacobs to bring in a coach that will bring consistency and competitiveness to the baseball program.
While this will not be as big a task as finding a new football coach, it will be a decision that could decide Jacobs' future and if he is moving Auburn in the right direction.
Almost every sport at Auburn suffered this past season, but Jacobs has promised Auburn fans he will get all teams back on track.
He is off to a good start by firing Pawlowski. But will he find a replacement that will do a better job?
The answer to this question remains to be seen.
Not only does Jacobs need to hire a coach that will get Auburn baseball fans excited, he needs to hire one who is going to win games as well.
The promise has been made; now it's time for action.
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