Kevin Scrababinski-inator speaks of contracts. Those in charge of such things have a long history of doing painfully stupid things when it comes to our corch's contracts. David Housel said openly before one season that this program had better make significant improvement or the current coach would no longer be the current coach. In the last game of the regular season, Terry Bowden's job was saved by one of the dumbest play calls in sports history. In the infinite wisdom of our BOT, he was given a raise. How'd that work out? Tommy Tuberville played them like a fiddle every year and padded his account time and time again while duck hunting in Arky. Nice parting gift that boy got. Chizik wins the MNC and they add his name to the Auburn checking account.
I'm all for rewarding success but we've always acted like the sky would fall and the earth would tremble if someone stole our coach away from us. Obviously, I love what Malzahn has done to this point. Who wouldn't? But IF...he wins 10 or 11 games...I'm just sweating UT right now...will Jacobs and our BOT go ape shit like always? coppage to the pasta al. I am a gay twerker that has no balls!!!! I also have no idea how to use the quote function to post stories, so I annoy the piss out of others. I like male genatalia in and around my mouth.
How good a job has Gus Malzahn done in his first season as the Auburn head coach?
We’re one week into November, and every single one of his football-based performance bonuses is still in play - except one. It’s not mathematically possible for Auburn to win 14 games.
Otherwise:
Auburn still can and should win 10 games, which would earn Malzahn a $75,000 bonus. The Tigers still can win 11, 12 or 13 games, which would earn Malzahn $100,000, $125,000 or $150,000.
They can play in the SEC Championship Game (bonus: $100,000) or win it ($150,000). They can play in the BCS Championship Game ($150,000) or win it ($500,000). Or they can play in another BCS bowl ($100,000).
There’s a good chance Malzahn could be named SEC coach of the year ($100,000) and national coach of the year ($100,000), especially if Auburn finishes in the top five ($100,000).
It’s not likely that Auburn will go 13-1 and experience a confetti shower Jan. 6 in the Rose Bowl, but when the season began, it wasn’t likely that the Tigers would take an 8-1 record to Knoxville this weekend, either.
Here’s what is likely and potentially thorny for Auburn: Malzahn is working his way toward a nice, fat raise. How nice and how fat? It may depend on how much the Auburn administration is still smarting after overreacting to Gene Chizik’s national championship.
Judging by the market, Malzahn is underpaid by SEC standards at $2.3 million a year. If the latest USA Today database is correct, he ranks No. 11 among the SEC's 14 head coaches in annual compensation.
He’s closer to No. 1 in performance this season.
According to the newspaper, only Mississippi’s Hugh Freeze, Kentucky’s Mark Stoops and Vanderbilt’s James Franklin make less than Malzahn.
The bottom line on Malzahn’s bottom line is this: Auburn got him on the cheap after his successful college head coaching debut at Arkansas State, and at some point, Auburn is going to have to bump him to a level matching his accomplishments.
In a vacuum, this would be no problem. SEC schools are practically printing money these days, and they don’t mind throwing lots of it at their football coaches.
The sticking point in giving Malzahn too big a raise is that it would be based on too small a sample size. Auburn’s still paying for the last time it went down that road too quickly.
After the Tigers won the BCS title in Chizik’s second season in 2010, Auburn raised him from $2.2 million to $3.5 million in annual salary. The school also gave him a massive buyout that started at $10 million.
By firing Chizik just two years later, Auburn owed him about $7.5 million, which it’s still paying in chunks of about $208,000 a month.
Malzahn isn’t Chizik, even though he worked for him for three years as offensive coordinator. Malzahn, because of his well-known expertise on that side of the ball, is more likely to be a hot commodity on the coaching carousel than Chizik ever was.
So what are Auburn President Jay Gogue and AD Jay Jacobs to do? The more games the Tigers win from here, especially as the competition improves, the hotter Malzahn’s name will become.
Should they make a huge investment and hope that this time they’ve got the right guy, or should they be more cautious and fiscally responsible? The market tends to err on the side of overreaction, both in paying coaches too much and firing them too soon.
Given recent history, it’s an especially tough call for Auburn, but this terrific season is running straight toward that potentially dangerous intersection.
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