Like It Is

Malzahn remains in a pretty good position

NCAA college football head coach Gus Malzahn of Auburn speaks during the Southeastern Conference Media Days at the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta, Thursday, July 19, 2018. (AP Photo/John Amis)

ATLANTA -- It has been more than seven months since Gus Malzahn flirted with the Razorbacks.

It was a ploy, that went back and forth. Super Agent Jimmy Sexton didn't invent it, he just perfected it.

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He once got Houston Nutt's name mentioned for the Auburn job. No one had contacted Nutt, but Ole Miss took the bait, opened their checkbook and made Nutt wealthy.

So Sexton dangled Malzahn in front of Arkansas, probably spoke of a great homecoming, and the Razorback powers pow-wowed and scraped up as much money as they felt they could pay, which was more than the Fort Smith native was making at Auburn, but not as much as Auburn was willing to pay, at least for now.

Malzahn got a raise to $7.5 million -- he can now buy a Waffle House, his favorite place to eat -- and the truth is he was never coming to Arkansas.

Even as the second program in the state of Alabama, Auburn is in better shape than the Razorbacks. Definitely right now after six hard years of mostly disappointment and frustration.

Malzahn wants to win a national championship and believes he has a better chance of that on The Plains than in the mountains. It is about recruiting territory.

The upside for Malzahn today is he soundly beat arch-rival Alabama last year, 26-14 and he has 13 starters back including quarterback junior Jarrett Stidham and three receivers. In a Spread offense those are really good things to have back.

Yet, after beating the Crimson Tide the Tigers lost to Georgia soundly, 28-7, in the SEC Championship Game and that put Alabama back on the College Football Playoff radar where the Tide won it all.

The Tigers then lost to really talented and self-proclaimed national champions, Central Florida 34-27.

Grumblings among the fans picked up again, but that's the way Auburn is. Like Malzahn, they don't just want to beat Alabama, although that is the No. 1 priority every second of every day, they want to win it all.

Alabama has won five in the last 11 years, Auburn has one.

Gene Chizik led the Tigers to the title in 2010 and was fired two years later. His last season was when Malzahn was the head coach of the Arkansas State Red Wolves.

Malzahn slid into Chizik's office in December of 2012 and has been there ever since, leading Auburn to a 45-22 record including 12-2 his first season when he took the Tigers to the BCS Championship Game and ran out of time, losing the final BCS game before the playoffs were adopted to Florida State 34-31.

He's 2-3 against Nick Saban.

It doesn't seem to bother Malzahn that he's second to Saban, who reportedly makes more than $10 million a year, in Alabama. Malzahn likes money, but his ego is more about winning than who has the biggest lake house.

In some ways Malzahn seems like a perfect fit at Auburn. It's a very religious area and he's a very religious man.

He is competitive, although the 2015 season almost finished him when the Tigers went 2-6 in SEC play and 7-6 overall. A trip to the Birmingham Bowl is not what the Tigers Nation considers success.

Last season all he had to do was beat Georgia for the SEC title and the losses to Clemson, who beats a lot of teams on a regular basis these days, and LSU would have been forgotten and the Tigers would have made the playoffs.

That's what Malzahn needs to do to keep the SEC's most fickle fans happy. He needs to be in the hunt more years than not and that is why he advocates nine SEC games. Change is coming in the playoffs and Malzahn is prepared.

Sports on 07/20/2018