A few days ago, we discussed whether the current average losses per year under head Coach Gus Malzahn were acceptable. Auburn has historically been an 8-win per season team with a sprinkling in of a few great years. This has been the case under every great Auburn coach and is one of the reasons that so many Auburn fans cling to Gus Malzahn.

To be fair, Gus has done what few Auburn coaches have done. He’s played for a National Championship. He’s had two ten-win seasons. He’s never had a losing season.  He has beaten Nick Saban and the Tide three times, something that no one in college football has done and while many may say that the 2013 win was “flukey” or a “miracle,” the last two wins have been anything but. Auburn dominated the Tide in 2017 and the 2019 Iron Bowl was one of the most masterful jobs, on both side of the ball, that Malzahn has ever put on display.

The knock on Malzahn has been the filler along the way. Start with the Iron Bowl wins, which have always preceded a bowl game loss. The National Championship in 2013 is hard to look as total failure. But what has been a total failure is Auburn’s inability to look motivated or prepared in bowl games. Malzahn-led teams are now 2-5 coming off a loss to Minnesota while the rest of the SEC (not, you Mississippi State) has been absolutely stellar in this post-season.

Yet, the coaching carousel turned as it always does and while many Auburn fans kept saying “who would we get that is better than what we already have,” that didn’t stop other SEC teams from making changes. Let’s be clear Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Arkansas, and Missouri aren’t Auburn. Only Missouri can say they’ve been to Atlanta and in both of those consecutive years, they were bum rushed by Auburn and then Alabama. 

The point is, these teams were not willing to let their traditional place in the conference define them any longer and while firing coaches in just their second year may turn out disastrous, it couldn’t have gone too much worse and, at best, it gives them a chance to buck their own historical trends. The point, here, is that some of the very names that some Auburn people mentioned as candidates to be “better than Gus” ended up in the same conference, even some in the same division. In looking at them, it becomes pretty obvious that Auburn could have, once again, waited too late to pull the trigger and thus remain right back where they were, asking “who could be better” when it comes to available coaches. Along the way, the nature of some of these hires, most of them proven winners, cast doubts as to Gus’ place in the hierarchy of coaching, further polarizing him with the salary he makes. 

Let’s take a look at the schools that have made changes and the impact they have or may have on those programs as well as on competing against Auburn.

LSU

While LSU made their coaching change two years ago, it’s still relevent to this discussion because Gus Malzahn has a dreadful record against the Bengals including an 0-2 record against Ed Orgeron who has somehow completely reinvented himself. At the time he was elevated to head coach he seemed to be the punching bag of the pundits. Orgeron had been a colossal failure in his first stint as a head coach at Ole Miss and skipped over at USC. Yet, LSU gave him a shot and he responded with back-to-back ten-win seasons and now last night’s National Championship win over Clemson.

So Coach O has done the unthinkable, especially in context with his past. Could he fall into Gus’ own mold of having a player that makes his career? I guess we will see next season. At $4 million a year, LSU is paying him about $325,000 per win. 

Ole Miss

The Rebels made the splash hire of the year when they hired Lane Kiffin. Obviously, Kiffin has baggage, but the things that most people hold against him, such as the Tennesee/USC job switch, were over a decade ago. After transforming Alabama’s archaic offense, Alabama has fielded one of the most potent offenses in the country. Kiffin then took over Florida Atlantic, winning two conference championships in three years.

He takes over a program at Ole Miss that may suit his strengths of a high powered offense. Kiffin can recruit, but can he pull in the talent to be competitive in the SEC West? Most importantly, how does he compare to Gus Malzahn? The edge has to go to Kiffin, whose offenses have never been stale and continues to evolve. Of course, Auburn didn’t want his baggage, but in terms of Xs and Os, you have to appreciate his ability to develop players and score points. He will reportedly make almost $4 Million a year, well under Malzahn. 

Arkansas

The Razorbacks booted now-Auburn OC Chad Morris after just two years. That alone is astounding, as Arkansas has been an afterthought since Bobby Petrino left town. The hook came early for Morris and Sam Pittman now steps in to take over the struggling program. It was easily the boring-est hire of the lot, coming from Georgia as the offensive line coach. This has all the makings of Brett Bielema V2.0 as Pittman has only been an offensive line coach. He hasn’t put a coaching staff in place, so it remains to be seen just what he will do to become relevant on offense.

It is interesting that what Pittman does well, developing offensive lines, is one of the things that Auburn has been unable to accomplish. Auburn’s offensive lines have been almost like a sieve for most of Gus’ career. Pittman could at least show what a good coach can do with the big Hogs up front. 

Missouri

Perhaps no new coach in the SEC will polarize Gus Malzahn more than Eliah Drinkwitz. He coached with Malzahn in Arkansas at the high school level and then under him at both Arkansas State and Auburn. He takes over a floundering Missouri program. Drinkwitz coached one year at Appalachian State, taking them to a 12-1 record after serving as the 2018 offensive coordinator at NC State. Drinkwitz turned Ryan Finley from a 3500-17-7 QB to a 3900-25-11 who is now with the Cincinatti Bengals.

His contract details aren’t hammered out and while Missouri and Auburn may never play with these two head coaches, it will be interesting to see how the Missouri offense is transformed under him. The SEC East doesn’t have the defenses of the SEC West, but they are good enough to provide a real litmus test on just who is the better offensive mind. 

Mississippi State

At the end of the day, the move of Mike Leach from Washington State to Mississippi State will be the defining moment in judging Gus Malzahn’s ability to coach an offense, despite the differences in their styles. A Hal Mumme disciple, Leach has no need for a run game, preferring to air it out every down. His offenses have been record-setting at every stop he’s made.

There are two important differences. First, he will have access to better quality players than he’s likely ever had. Not that his players at Texas Tech or Washington State weren’t good, because they were and he has put a lot of talent in the NFL. There’s simply more physically gifted players in the SEC, period. Second, he has never faced the defenses he will have to face every week. While no one has consistently stopped his offenses, he’s never regularly played against this level of opponent.The real discussion, here, is that a lot of Auburn fans used Leach as one of the obtainable coaches that could realistically come to Auburn and make a difference. Instead, they get to see him every year on the opposite sideline.

Gus Malzahn’s run-first, tempo attack is almost completely opposite of what Leach will bring. Yet, one has consistently performed for 20 years and the other has continued to put up “career worst” for its coach. It may not happen in Leach’s first year, but his success, or lack of, will paint a pretty clear picture of what Auburn could have done when everyone else was making moves while the administration had to weigh a really bad contract with mixed on-field results. 

It is fascinating how in just a few years, the entire landscape of SEC coaches can change. For the most part, this new crop is offensive-minded and highly respected, just as Gus Malzahn has been. The difference is, none of these guys have been figured out yet, which is incredible for some of them like Kiffin and Leach, who have been around the block. Even those coaches that are still hanging around, Jimbo Fisher, for example, are clearly more complete in being offensive coaches. The coming seasons may just reveal who was right in “who could Auburn get that’s better.” 

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