Props to Macon Telegraph Georgia beat writer David Hale for this story on Bulldogs assistant Rodney Garner, who interviewed for the vacant Auburn football job a few weeks ago.

Garner vehemently disagrees with outspoken Auburn alum Charles Barkley, who said he thinks race was the No. 1 factor in the Tigers hiring Gene Chizik.

"I definitely did not feel that my interview was a token interview," Garner said. "I thought that it was fair. I was in there two-and-a-half hours. I felt like they gave me a very fair opportunity to present my plan for the program.

"The process played out, and I think in the end, they hired who they thought was the best fit. Charles is entitled to his opinion, but the only people who know are the ones who make the decisions."

Many critics of college football's lack of minority head coaches have stumped for a similar version to the NFL's Rooney Rule, which requires teams to interview at least one minority candidate for a head coaching vacancy. (It should be noted that Auburn interviewed TWO minority coaches -- Garner and Buffalo's Turner Gill.) Garner didn't sound completely on board with that idea.

"You would like to see more diversity in the hiring practice, but I'm not sure that a Rooney rule would work in college," Garner said. "In the pros, you're dealing with management, ownership. You may be dealing with one person or a family. In college, you're dealing with a whole facet of people, and there are a lot of different factors that play into it. So I don't know if that rule will work, per se."