Auburn fires Gus Malzahn after 8 seasons | Yahoo Sports College Podcast
Yahoo Sports’ Dan Wetzel and Sports Illustrated’s Pat Forde discuss Auburn’s decision to fire head coach Gus Malzahn after 8 seasons with the Tigers.
Video Transcript
DAN WETZEL: Auburn has fired Gus Malzahn, something we've been kind of waiting for for like seven years. Talk about a rocky marriage, this thing was. It's like, no! Khloe Kardashian and Tristan Thompson broke up? I didn't see it coming! Like what? On the rocks, in love, on the rocks, in love. Yeah, back, forth. Everyone flirting with each other.
I thought Gus should have taken that Arkansas job two guys ago, and gone home to Arkansas where I think the expectations are a little better. I'm not here to tell you that Gus deserved to keep his job, he just was sort of doing it. But I mean, I'm looking at this year [INAUDIBLE] day. They're 6-4. They lost to Georgia, they lost to Alabama, they lost to Texas A&M. That's, and then they, that, those three, which I think are all, I mean--
PAT FORDE: Top 10 teams.
DAN WETZEL: Yeah. And they lost to South Carolina by eight in October. So that, like, was that the game that did it? And they just were sitting around waiting? Like, I don't know. But he's getting $21 point something million. Four million or something? I mean, you know, it's just the .4, I mean, who even cares about that? They owe him over 10 in the first 30 days. So it's going to be a flush Christmas at the Malzahn household. All the sweater vests and Waffle House you want. Pat, your thoughts on Gus finally getting got?
PAT FORDE: You know, I guess that it was doomed to happen at some point in time, but I didn't think this would be the point in time. But this is Auburn, man. The mercenary school of all mercenary schools. The "just win, baby" of college football, and college sports, really, if you look at the basketball program as well. There is only one mortal sin at Auburn, and that is losing.
But you know, this, financially, is, I find it, like, absolutely impossible to swallow without a little bit of bile in the back of the throat. I mean, this is a $21 million deal, as you mentioned. $10.5 million within 30 days? And yeah, they've got the boosters to throw the money around. But eventually that comes back, because the boosters, then, are not giving money for other reasons. This is a pandemic. Schools are losing millions and millions of dollars, and at Auburn, it's just basically, we don't care. We're tired of Gus and we want to win more. We want to do better than the 6-4 that we were this year.
You know, winning in football, and in basketball, again, since Bruce Pearl remains employed there, is extremely important to them. So we'll see if they get Hugh Freeze, or Mario Cristobal, or Billy Napier, or even, hey, Lane Kiffin. Come on down and take on Nick. We'll see who's next.
DAN WETZEL: Ooh. Ooh.
