Scarbinsky: Is Gus Malzahn strong enough to change Auburn for the better?

[The Six]

http://www.al.com/auburnfootball/index.ssf/2012/12/scarbinsky_is_gus_malzahn_stro.html

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama - Nice guy. Man of faith. Ultra-successful coordinator. Outspoken wife.

On the surface, it would be easy to conclude that Auburn just made a coaching change without changing much of anything, that Gus Malzahn is Gene Chizik’s twin brother from another mother, his mirror image on the other side of the line.

Auburn believes that Chizik’s former offensive coordinator is so much more than that, and it better be right. Otherwise, this program won’t be able to climb out of the pit it’s in, not for long and certainly not for good.

Malzahn is known primarily for his innovative offensive mind, but people who really know him say there’s a lot more substance to him beneath the mad professor exterior.

They rave about his maniacal work ethic and his slavish attention to detail. They say he’s much tougher and far more demanding than his wire rims and visor would indicate. He’ll have to be tougher and more demanding than Chizik, but he’ll be challenged by this first impression:

Did Auburn hire him in large part because the decision-makers are comfortable with him - as was the case with Chizik in 2008 - because Malzahn will do little to shake up a status quo so desperately in need of change?

With Jay Jacobs remaining as athletics director, leading a second straight coaching search after the last one eventually blew up in everyone’s face, with Tim Jackson leaving his post as self-described football general manager but remaining in the athletics department, what really has changed?

The search committee was made up of good Auburn men in Bo Jackson, Pat Sullivan and Mac Crawford, but they’ll go their separate ways. Who remains? The usual suspects.

Malzahn will have to be the catalyst for change.

He’s a better football coach than Chizik - Malzahn won a Sun Belt title at Arkansas State in the one year he’s spent learning how to be a head coach - but can he be a better leader, a stronger disciplinarian, a tougher decision-maker?

His coddling of Mike Dyer, until he was forced to dismiss him in July as news of Dyer’s infamous traffic stop with a gun and marijuana in the car was about to go public, raises doubts.

One of the best things Malzahn has going for him from the start is that he won’t be labeled, as Chizik was, as Pat Dye’s guy. Because he wasn’t. Kirby Smart was.

Dye admitted Tuesday what insiders have told us all along, that Smart was his first choice for the job. No surprise there. Like Smart, Dye grew up playing for Georgia and coaching at Alabama on the defensive side of the ball. Like Dye, Smart is hard-nosed and strong-willed.

Those characteristics may have helped Smart with Dye, but they hurt him with the Auburn search committee. Smart asked for things during his interview that Auburn wasn’t willing to give him, according to people close to the process.

His demands included full disclosure of the state of the NCAA’s current look-see at the Auburn program, full control of hiring and firing staffers and the opportunity to coordinate the Alabama defense in the BCS Championship Game against Notre Dame.

Smart’s demands are perfectly understandable. So is Auburn’s unwillingness to grant them, which is part of the reason Auburn didn’t offer Smart the job and turned toward Malzahn.

That raises a question. Why would Auburn interview Smart in the first place? Did they not see that stalemate coming?

There was another coach on the radar that sparked strong emotions from Auburn supporters, pro and con, and make no mistake. People close to him said that Bobby Petrino wanted the job in the worst way, and they shared some interesting information.

The search committee did talk to Petrino on the phone Monday, but it wasn’t an interview. They never talked football.

It wasn’t a courtesy call, either. There wasn’t much courtesy involved.

The questions and comments from the committee members all revolved around Petrino’s personal life and why Arkansas fired him in April, after it came to light that he’d had an inappropriate relationship with a woman he’d hired to a job in the football program.

Petrino offered that he and his wife would meet with the committee in person, at the Petrinos’ expense, but the committee members didn’t respond to his offer. Petrino came away from the conversation hurt and angry and wondering why the committee even bothered to talk to him.

It’s a good question, and as Auburn goes back to the future with Malzahn, there are plenty more about him and his ability to compete with Nick Saban, Les Miles, Kevin Sumlin and new Arkansas coach Bret Bielema in the SEC West.

Remember when Auburn did more than compete by winning the BCS national championship two years ago? Malzahn deservedly received much of the credit.

Since he worked at Auburn for the first three of Chizik’s four years, and the cracks in the program’s foundation began to show before he left for Arkansas State, does he also share some responsibility there?

There will be no more shared responsibility. The offensive guru will have to find a defensive coordinator to trust and lean on, and a staff that can recruit and coach with the very best, but where Auburn goes from here is on Malzahn.

And where Malzahn goes from here is on Jacobs. And on and on it goes.

The more things haven’t changed at Auburn, the more it falls on Malzahn to make them change. How strong he is there may make the difference between competing with Saban and Alabama for championships or rivaling Alabama, pre-Saban, in coaching changes.

[AUChizad]

Those characteristics may have helped Smart with Dye, but they hurt him with the Auburn search committee. Smart asked for things during his interview that Auburn wasn’t willing to give him, according to people close to the process.

His demands included full disclosure of the state of the NCAA’s current look-see at the Auburn program, full control of hiring and firing staffers and the opportunity to coordinate the Alabama defense in the BCS Championship Game against Notre Dame.

 

And basically trolling Petrino, when he was practically begging and obviously would have taken the job for way way way under his market value, probably cheaper than Gus...

Fuck me the Jays have just destroyed this athletic program...

[AUJarhead]

This just depresses me.

Fuck, we are our own worst enemy.

[AUChizad]

From one of his tweets:

@KevinScarbinsky: Chizik buyout: $200k-plus a month. Gus salary: $2.3 mil, just under $200k a month. So AU paying Chizik more not to coach than Gus to coach.

[AUJarhead]

From one of his tweets:

That doesn't bother me as much as the fact that we basically told Petrino to fuck off.

And not being upfront with Smart about the NCAA Investigation...  Maybe there is something more there than just a slap on the hand. 

[WiregrassTiger]

His demands included full disclosure of the state of the NCAA’s current look-see at the Auburn program, full control of hiring and firing staffers and the opportunity to coordinate the Alabama defense in the BCS Championship Game against Notre Dame.

So, it sounds like Smart was demanding full control of the football program before he would take the job. Where in the hell did he think he was interviewing?

[The Six]

His demands included full disclosure of the state of the NCAA’s current look-see at the Auburn program, full control of hiring and firing staffers and the opportunity to coordinate the Alabama defense in the BCS Championship Game against Notre Dame.

So, it sounds like Smart was demanding full control of the football program before he would take the job. Where in the hell did he think he was interviewing?

If it's true that he said that, it answers every question I had about him being ready for this level of a job or not. He's ready and probably deserved it. Total control is EXACTLY what you demand. Our people don't get that. We're too bush offering benevolence calls to Bobby Petrino. 

[RWS]

That doesn't bother me as much as the fact that we basically told Petrino to fuck off.

And not being upfront with Smart about the NCAA Investigation...  Maybe there is something more there than just a slap on the hand.

I can kind of see it from Auburn's side though.  What if Smart was simply trolling and ended up not taking the job?  Then you just aired all of your dirty little secrets to a coach at a rival in-state school.  I don't understand the Petrino thing.  AU basically called to taunt him.  What was the point in that?

Also, I think that Scarbinsky's article supports the notion that AU (probably JJ specifically) wanted a yes-man.  Just like they wanted when Chizik was hired.  That didn't work out too well last time.  They really needed to hand it over to somebody who would take full control and un-fuck the program.

[The Six]

I can kind of see it from Auburn's side though.  What if Smart was simply trolling and ended up not taking the job?  Then you just aired all of your dirty little secrets to a coach at a rival in-state school.  I don't understand the Petrino thing.  AU basically called to taunt him.  What was the point in that?

Trolling is something one of the sidewalk fans would do, man. Smart's a professional. He was asking because he wanted to know and telling them it was gonna be his way. I see why that flew all over our PTB. They like their control.

The Petrino thing was low. I can't stand high-and-mighty attitudes. It's the most UN-Christian thing I see "Christians" do and really bugs me.

[RWS]

Trolling is something one of the sidewalk fans would do, man. Smart's a professional. He was asking because he wanted to know and telling them it was gonna be his way. I see why that flew all over our PTB. They like their control.

The Petrino thing was low. I can't stand high-and-mighty attitudes. It's the most UN-Christian thing I see "Christians" do and really bugs me.

I agree that Smart wouldn't troll them.  A high profile Alabama coordinator doesn't interview for the HC position at Auburn for shits and giggles.  He wanted the job.  Just looking at it from the tinfoil wearing perspective.

The thing about the Petrino diss is, I don't even think that they did it because of a holier than thou thing, or being Christians.  I think they did it out of pure spite, which speaks volumes of JJ's character imo.

Going back to the tinfoil perspective for a minute.  If there really is something going on with the NCAA, Malzahn more than likely knows where the bodies are buried.  He was there for 4 years.  I doubt that he would walk right back into that, so the whole NCAA thing may just be message board fodder.  Maybe that's exactly why they wanted him, though.  But if it was just rumor, why wouldn't they just tell Smart that it was BS?  Maybe Scarbinsky's information about the non-disclosure to Smart is inaccurate.  There are alot of ways you could look at it I suppose.  Really, I guess none of them make alot of sense.

[GH2001]

If it's true that he said that, it answers every question I had about him being ready for this level of a job or not. He's ready and probably deserved it. Total control is EXACTLY what you demand. Our people don't get that. We're too bush offering benevolence calls to Bobby Petrino. 

Good point. I agree. In hindsight, I would have rather had smart. I see no issues with his demands.

[Godfather]

This article is so dead on and makes me completely nauseous.  Stupidest fucking AD in the history of fucking AD's.   ARrrrrghhhhhhhh

[War Eagle!!!]

I don't think the NCAA thing was the issue...and I hope that the "full control" thing wasn't a big issue. I would imagine that those two can probably be worked out and that an agreement can be made.

I would imagine that the deal breaker was being the HC at Auburn while trying to win Alabama another national title. That shit would sit well at all with people. It wouldn't sit well with me.

I think the other shit was thrown in to make Auburn look like a clusterfuck...

We don't need the help god damnit...

[JR4AU]

If it's true that he said that, it answers every question I had about him being ready for this level of a job or not. He's ready and probably deserved it. Total control is EXACTLY what you demand. Our people don't get that. We're too bush offering benevolence calls to Bobby Petrino. 

I think asking to coach bammer in the BCSNCG was a big mistake.

[Snaggletiger]

Just logging on.  I haven't trolled around yet to see if there are quotes from Smart.  Until I see them, my question is how does Skarbinski know what Smart's demands were in that much detail?   

[War Eagle!!!]

I think asking to coach bammer in the BCSNCG was a big mistake.

Yep.

Fuck. That.

[RWS]

I would imagine that the deal breaker was being the HC at Auburn while trying to win Alabama another national title. That shit would sit well at all with people. It wouldn't sit well with me.

I can see where you're coming from with that, and I get it.  But at the same time, you want to be a professional, and you don't want to make it look like you're willing to fuck over who brought you to the dance for the prettier girl.  If he got HC at AU and you guys made it to the NCG, would you be cool with him saying "Eh, fuck you guys, Georgia just offered me.  Good luck in that game."?  I doubt it.  I understand that coordinators leaving are somewhat different than a HC leaving, but you get my drift. 

At this point, Alabama winning this year's NC has absolutely no bearing on Auburn.  The team's performance this year and the whole Chizik situation is way more damage to the program than Alabama winning another NC.

[JR4AU]

I don't think the NCAA thing was the issue...and I hope that the "full control" thing wasn't a big issue. I would imagine that those two can probably be worked out and that an agreement can be made.

I would imagine that the deal breaker was being the HC at Auburn while trying to win Alabama another national title. That shit would sit well at all with people. It wouldn't sit well with me.

I think the other shit was thrown in to make Auburn look like a clusterfuck...

We don't need the help god damnit...

I see I was late to the party again.

[War Eagle!!!]

I can see where you're coming from with that, and I get it.  But at the same time, you want to be a professional, and you don't want to make it look like you're willing to fuck over who brought you to the dance for the prettier girl.  If he got HC at AU and you guys made it to the NCG, would you be cool with him saying "Eh, fuck you guys, Georgia just offered me.  Good luck in that game."?  I doubt it.  I understand that coordinators leaving are somewhat different than a HC leaving, but you get my drift. 

At this point, Alabama winning this year's NC has absolutely no bearing on Auburn.  The team's performance this year and the whole Chizik situation is way more damage to the program than Alabama winning another NC.

I understand where you and him may be coming from, but at the same time, you can't be an Auburn man and an Alabama guy at the same time. Just can't happen. We go head to head in to much shit for there to be 30 something days of fence riding.

It would not have been a good deal for anyone.

So...timing may just not have been right and timing is everything. Just ask Alabama with the Saban hire...

[Buzz Killington]

I don't think the NCAA thing was the issue...and I hope that the "full control" thing wasn't a big issue. I would imagine that those two can probably be worked out and that an agreement can be made.

I would imagine that the deal breaker was being the HC at Auburn while trying to win Alabama another national title. That shit would sit well at all with people. It wouldn't sit well with me.

I think the other shit was thrown in to make Auburn look like a clusterfuck...

We don't need the help god damnit...

^^^This^^^  All of it!