I wrote this prior to the season. It never went anywhere. Two games in, (not tooting my own ass trumpet, but...) it feels important to restate.
The Malzahn Identity
Who is Gus Malzahn?
When you look at the prospects for the 2017 football season, that's the question that begs an answer. How that question is answered may go a long way in determining not just the future of Malzahn, but the future of Auburn football as well.
Is Malzahn a hands-off CEO who gives his assistants free rein to implement individual strategies while he oversees the big picture? Is Malzahn an offensive guru who must be focused on the intricate details in order for his offensive concepts to function at maximum efficiency? Is he a meddler, jumping in when things don't go the way he thinks they should? Is he a cerebral coach who sometimes outthinks himself in devising strategies before and during games? Is he stubbornly married to the offensive system he helped create?
Yes. To all. To a degree. And that's the problem.
At one point or another during his tenure at Auburn, Malzahn has tried on or worn all of those hats, discarding them at will as he searches for the one that best fits.
Malzahn arrived at Auburn in 2013 with minimal expectations and a basket full of hope. In his first season he defied the odds, guiding the Tigers to the SEC Championship and the BCS title game on the strength of an offense that seemed capable of scoring at will.
That same scoring propensity carried over to his second season until the wheels fell off against Texas A&M in the season's ninth game.
Auburn, ranked third in the country and seemingly headed for a showdown against Alabama with the SEC West on the line, stumbled against the Aggies. The Tigers had the ball at the Aggie 41, down by three with just over a minute to play. Time after time in similar situations, Malzhan's offense had delivered. A field goal and overtime seemed the worst possible case. A minute on the clock was ample time to score and win the game in regulation.
Twenty seconds later, Auburn had glided to a first down the A&M 28. Then it happened.
An errant snap, a fumble, an Aggie recovery. Game over. Dreams of a repeat championship appearance were dashed.
To be brutally honest? Neither Auburn nor Malzahn have been the same since.
The following week the Tigers were thrashed by Georgia. A loss to Alabama followed. An overtime bowl loss to a Wisconsin team that should have been overmatched by Auburn's speed closed the season.
There appears to be a clear breaking point, a loss of mojo, an erosion of confidence.
Prior to the A&M loss, Malzahn was confident, he was focused, he was engaged. That same person does not seem to have existed, except in rare flashes, since. Did the A&M loss cause Malzahn to question his methods? Did he take it so personally hard that he altered his preparation or his thought processes?
Before the A&M loss, Auburn was 19-3 under Malzahn. Since? 16-15.
Has Auburn won a 'big game' since the 2013 Kick Six miracle? Many would say no.
Over the course of the last 31 games, Malzahn has at times appeared lost on the sidelines. At others he's appeared to panic. Then there are the occasions where the average fan views Malzahn as stubbornly sticking to something that doesn't work and having no true backup plan.
The 2016 season was a microcosm of the schizoid nature Malzahn's identity.
The season started with Malzahn stating he intended to exert more control over the offense because that's where he excelled.
A disastrous opener against Clemson which included a bizarre quarterback rotation and a series of ill-conceived dipsy doodles was followed by a lackluster performance against Texas A&M. Malzahn reversed course. He declared himself better at game management and vowed to turn the offensive reins over to then-coordinator Rhett Lashlee.
Auburn responded with a trio of outings that more closely resembled the 2013 offensive juggernaut. Thrashings of Ole Miss, Arkansas and Mississippi State were punctuated by a punishing ground game and just enough aerial attack to keep defenses honest.
That could not be sustained. When starting running back Kamryn Pettway was injured and with starting QB Sean White also ailing, the Auburn offense was anemic against Vanderbilt, non-existent against Georgia and flat against Alabama.
The Tigers morphed from a team that rushed for 543 yards and scored 56 points against the Razorbacks to one that scraped out just 164 yards and 13 points against an anemic Georgia team.
That an offense was so reliant on those two players, key players yes, but still two cogs in the overall wheel brings up another question in regard to Malzahn.
How well can he evaluate and develop talent? Neither White nor Pettway were starters in the season opener.
In fairness, it should be noted that Malzahn is still a relative newcomer. Prior to him taking over the reins at one of the premier football programs in the best conference in the nation, he had a grand total of one year's experience as a head coach.
If the full realization of time-drain and exhaustion the position demands caught up with Malzahn in 2014, that is understandable and perhaps even excusable.
If the realities of managing an enormous staff and the logistics of keeping the entire process running smoothly kept Malzahn from being able to focus on the minutiae of offensive preparation in 2015, that is also understandable. He was, after all, tasked with running the equivalent of a Fortune 500 company after serving as CEO of Sling Blade Lawn Service for a year.
If Malzahn struggled to find his fit, to settle into the job and all it entails, that would make perfect sense.
The struggles to find the right balance may be normal. Normal or not, Malzahn's compensation doesn't reflect that normalcy. That Malzahn was handed the reins with so little experience while being paid as much as seasoned, tested veteran coaches is a completely different topic and not Malzahn's fault.
Where ever that blame lies, Malzahn isn't being paid like the former CEO of Sling Blade who is learning as he goes. His pay is among the highest in the country. He's being paid to develop players, to put the best product on the field, to compete. He's not being paid to look befuddled, to dipsy-doo, to equivocate about his role.
Simply put, Malzahn must settle on an identity. He must decide who he is going to be, have the confidence and commitment to follow through and become the head coach he was hired to be.
The time for learning on the job has passed.
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