DALLAS (FWAA) – Auburn's Gus Malzahn has been named the winner of the 2013 FWAA/Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award that is sponsored by the Fiesta Bowl, becoming the third first-year head coach to take home the award during its 57-year history.Malzahn's Tigers posted a 12-1 record during the 2013 season and have earned a berth in the VIZIO BCS National Championship against Florida State on Jan. 6. He's only the third Southeastern Conference coach to win the football league title in the first season at his school and the first since Ole Miss' John Vaught in 1947. Previous to Malzahn, the last SEC coach to win the award was Alabama's Nick Saban in 2008.In 2012, Auburn finished 3-9 overall and 0-8 in the SEC. The current season's 8 1/2-game improvement is tied for the best in FBS history. Malzahn is only the second first-year, major-college coach to lead his new team to the national title game."This is a huge honor, and I'm very humbled to be named the recipient of the Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award," Malzahn said upon hearing the news. "I have always had a tremendous amount of respect for Coach Robinson and looked up to him as a coach and as an individual. I accept this award on behalf of our entire coaching staff and players, which have done an outstanding job this year getting our program turned around."Malzahn, Auburn's offensive coordinator from 2009-11, already has one national title under his belt when he claimed the Broyles Award as the nation's top assistant coach on Auburn's 2010 national title team. Malzahn went to Arkansas State in 2012 as the head coach, where he led that school to the Sun Belt Conference title before returning to Auburn."Certainly, the job Coach Malzahn has done this year warrants this award," said FWAA President Chris Dufresne of the Los Angeles Times. "It is one of the best turnarounds in college football history and to do it in the first year at a school even adds to the accomplishment.""In his first season at the helm at Auburn, Gus Malzahn authored one of the great turnarounds in college football history," Fiesta Bowl Executive Director Robert Shelton said. "It takes a special coach to lead a team to the BCS championship game one year after it failed to win a conference game. Coach Malzahn is a fitting recipient of the Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award."Auburn, which defeated Missouri, 59-42, in the 2013 SEC title game, leads the country in rushing with 335.7 yards per game and also tops the country with 215 rushing first downs. Auburn has scored 30-or-more points in nine straight games for the first time in school history.The other first-year coaches to win the FWAA Coaching Award are Ralph Friedgen of Maryland in 2001 and Tom Cahill of Army in 1966. Malzahn is the second Auburn coach to claim this award, following Terry Bowden in 1993. Wasn't Bowden's '93 season his first year?The Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award will be highlighted during a reception on Jan. 4, 2014, in Newport Beach, Calif., where Malzahn will accept the Eddie Robinson bust.The entire FWAA membership had the opportunity to vote on the winner of the association's Coach of the Year Award, which was narrowed to eight finalists earlier this month. The other finalists were Baylor's Art Briles, Duke's David Cutcliffe, Michigan State's Mark Dantonio, Florida State's Jimbo Fisher, Central Florida's George O'Leary, Missouri's Gary Pinkel and Stanford's David Shaw.The FWAA has honored a major-college coach with its Coach of the Year Award since 1957. Robinson, a coaching legend at Grambling State University, has been the award's namesake since 1997.The late Robinson is the winningest coach in Division I history (408 games). Robinson, who passed away on April 3, 2007, won 70.7 percent of his games during his illustrious career. Robinson's teams won or tied for 17 Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) championships after joining the league in 1959. His Tigers claimed nine Black College Football Championships during his career spent all at the same school.Robinson, who was named by the FWAA in 1966 as "The Coach Who Made the Biggest Contribution to College Football in the Past 25 Years," took his show often on the road to places such as the Louisiana Superdome, the Cotton Bowl, the Astrodome, Tiger Stadium and Yankee Stadium. And with his star-studded array of players, Robinson helped integrate professional football.In 1949, Grambling standout Tank Younger was the first player from a Historically Black College to sign with an NFL Team (Los Angeles Rams). By 1963, Buck Buchanan became the first player from a Historically Black College to be selected first overall in the professional draft (American Football League by the Kansas City Chiefs). Over the years, Robinson produced a Who's Who of professional football players, with more than 200 of his former players doting professional rosters.In 1975, with one of his greatest teams quarterbacked by eventual All-Pro Doug Williams, Robinson's Grambling team and Alcorn State became the first college teams to play a game in the Louisiana Superdome. The next season, Robinson's Tigers, along with Morgan State became the first American college football teams to play in Japan.A member of the College Football Hall of Fame, Robinson has the keys to cities all over the planet, has been awarded in every form and fashion and has honorary degrees from many schools. The Eddie Robinson Museum is now open in his honor in Grambling, where numerous memorabilia now reside, including a bust of the Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award.The Football Writers Association of America, a non-profit organization founded in 1941, consists of more than 1,200 men and women who cover college football for a living. The membership includes journalists, broadcasters and publicists, as well as key executives in all the areas that involve the game. The FWAA works to govern areas that include gameday operations, major awards and its annual All-America team. For more information about the FWAA and its award programs, contact Steve Richardson at tiger@fwaa.com or 972-713-6198.The Fiesta Bowl is committed to fostering a culture of community involvement and giving. Through elite bowl games and related events, we serve as welcoming hosts, create lifelong memories, promote Arizona and enable meaningful contributions to society.The Eddie Robinson Award is a member of the National College Football Awards Association (NCFAA). The NCFAA encompasses the most prestigious awards in college football. The 21 awards boast 678 years of tradition-selection excellence. Visit ncfaa.org to learn more about our story.
CBSSports.com Coach of the Year: Auburn's Gus MalzahnDecember 17, 2013 8:26 am ETGus Malzahn took an Auburn team that was 3-9 last year to a 13-1 mark and berth in the BCS title game. (USATSI) Gus Malzahn took an Auburn team that was 3-9 last year to 13-1 and a berth in the BCS title game. (USATSI)Don't look down.That's what it has become now for those of us in the press box. That is, if you like to keep score. And I like to keep score -- writing down play-by-play in my notebook.It reveals trends, numbers, etc. It's a trail of bread crumbs -- leading me back through the game -- for the college football soul. Keeping play-by-play is also getting damn distracting if you actually want to follow the game.Gus Malzahn has seen to it.Actually, Malzahn and his up-tempo peers. They don't allow us time to look down -- to our notebooks, to keep score. As you may have noticed, their offenses move too fast.It hit me on Nov. 30 at Auburn. Alabama led Auburn 21-7 late in the first half. The Tigers had been playing fast but on that series they came out in some sort of hyper drive. They scored in seven plays, covering 81 yards. The drive took slightly more than two minutes.The Tigers snapped the ball that drive, on average, once every 18.2 seconds. The team that ran the most plays this season -- Texas Tech -- averaged a play every 19.16 seconds.Yeah, hyper drive.Shoving the Kick Six aside, it may have been the biggest moment in Auburn's season. Malzahn didn't let Alabama get comfortable, didn't let the Tide seal the deal.Malzahn pushed his innovative offense into a new gear.I barely had time to look down.It gave the crowd and his team confidence. We all know the epic result. So if I can't spare a few seconds to scribble down a few numbers, how can a major-college defense with 11 players keep track?No doubt, Gus Malzahn has thought of this. So have his peers. Malzahn just does it better. Malzahn just does it faster. So much so that he is CBSSports.com's 2013 coach of the year -- in only his second year as a head coach.Don't look down. It's been fast.Malzahn not only has changed the game but also created a new mode of transportation. Yes, there is the Gus Bus. You're either on it or under it.Malzahn is a 48-year-old, nerdy savant of sorts who doesn't have time for small talk, but can eviscerate your defense. Ask Missouri. They had given up 11 rushing touchdowns all season. Auburn ran for seven alone in the SEC title game.Or ask the master himself, Nick Saban. The case can be made that Malzahn outcoached and out-strategized Saban for stretches of Auburn's upset of the then-No. 1 Tide.It's hard, then, to deny Malzahn this honor or this moment -- playing for a second national championship in three years.Becoming the No. 1 coach with a bullet, though, has been years in the making. I was cleaning out some drawers the other day and stumbled upon a VHS video called Hurry-Up, No-Huddle -- An Offensive Philosophy. It was from 2004, from Malzahn when he coached at Springdale (Ark.) High.The man turned 40 in 2005 having spent 15 years as a high school coach. He looked like a lifer. Then he spent one turbulent season (2006) as Houston Nutt's offensive coordinator at Arkansas. The "Springdale Five" recruiting spawn who followed him were supposed to turn around the Hogs. They didn't. It's complicated, but don't blame it on Malzahn.He refined his skills as an assistant under Todd Graham at Tulsa (2007-08). Gene Chizik hired Malzahn as his offensive coordinator in 2009 at Auburn. Enter one Cam Newton. The juco transfer set the SEC total offense record (since broken) in helping the Tigers to the national championship.Still, Malzahn had never been a college head coach until last year. A one-season apprenticeship at Arkansas State was enough to earn him a return to Auburn to replace the man who had hired him.In his first two seasons as a head coach, Nick Saban was 15-7-1. Urban Meyer was 17-6. Malzahn is 21-4 with an SEC title and a monstrous role in a Heisman Trophy.The man has built his reputation waving wands over quarterbacks. His Auburn offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee has been with him essentially since playing quarterback for Malzahn in the seventh grade. Despite a rocky college career, Mitch Mustain was a record-setting quarterback at Springdale (Ark.) High.There may be a Next One on the way. In the offseason, Malzahn landed another juco quarterback with off-field issues, returning him to the SEC. Former Georgia defensive back Nick Marshall came out of Garden City (Kan.) Community College and everything changed.The Tigers went from 3-9 to 12-1. A victory against Florida State in the BCS title game would mark the biggest one-year turnaround in the history of major-college football. (Beating Hawaii's 8 1/2-game turnaround from 1998 to 1999.)"That's my high school background," Malzahn said. "Each year you lose something. The foundation of our offense is always going to be the same. But once you choose you're quarterback you build around his strengths."Marshall, suspended at Georgia after theft allegations, had to wipe clean his reputation. A year at desolate Garden City was the answer. Nobody said, though, it was altogether fun. During a 14-hour van ride to Kansas, Marshall bared his soul to Garden City coach Jeff Tatum."We talked about it almost weekly. "You've got to clear your name. You can't get in any trouble,' " Tatum said.Malzahn already had been recruiting Marshall at Arkansas State. Bigger stage, brighter lights at Auburn. Marshall flourished and commanded the nation's top rushing offense, but that wasn't the end of it.The pride of Pineview, Ga., has this feel. Once the ball is snapped, it's hard to tell where it's going. Under Malzahn this season, Marshall developed into a true triple-option quarterback reminiscent of the greats who ran 1970s wishbones.It has been only a couple of weeks since that late second-quarter series during the Iron Bowl but already it has hit home: If those of us who like to leave bread crumbs in notebooks can't afford to look down, what hope is there for any defense?Or maybe that's the point.
Were 13-1?
Marshall, suspended at Georgia after theft allegations, had to wipe clean his reputation.
First time I have ever seen what it was that got Marshall kicked out of Georgia.
Yes, there is the Gus Bus. You're either on it or under it.
Under Malzahn this season, Marshall developed into a true triple-option quarterback reminiscent of the greats who ran 1970s wishbones.
This isn't true...Snaggle is sucking on the tailpipe.
Where you been?A big part of the Cam comparisons when he committed.
We will be on January 7th
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