From rock stars to the hot seat, these SEC coaches are suddenly under pressure
HOOVER, Ala. – They will take the podium this week, these battered SEC Western Division coaches, and try to explain how it got away from them. And how they’re going to get it back.
On Monday, the first day of SEC media days, it was Gus Malzahn of Auburn. You remember Gus – in 2013 he was the smartest offensive football coach in America, leading the Tigers to the last BCS championship game before falling in a thriller to Florida State. The future was limitless then for Malzahn and Auburn, nothing but continued glory on the horizon. But after that 12-2 debut season on The Plains, Malzahn stumbled to records of 8-5 and 7-6, just 6-10 in SEC play.
“We weren’t able to reach our goals,” Malzahn said. “That was very frustrating and it was very humbling to go through an experience like that. I think you got to evaluate everything.”
Tuesday, it will be Kevin Sumlin of Texas A&M in Evaluate Everything Mode. Like Malzahn, Sumlin arrived in the SEC with a rising profile and immediately struck gold, going 11-2 in 2012 and finishing the year in the top 10. Since then Sumlin has gone 9-4, 8-5, 8-5, with an SEC record of 11-13. He, too, was swiftly downgraded from the hot coach list to the hot seat list.
Thursday, it will be Les Miles of LSU. Miles has one thing neither Malzahn nor Sumlin possesses – a national title. But he’s also come closer to losing his job than either of those men, sweating out a surprising, 11th-hour administrative change of heart in the middle of the regular-season finale last year. The pressure will return this season. After finishing in the top two in the SEC West in seven of Miles’ first eight seasons, the Tigers haven’t finished higher than third in the past three. That trend likely must change for Miles to see a 12th season in Baton Rouge.
Three coaches who were on top of the world at some point in the past five years. Three coaches who have since discovered how hard it is to stay there. Especially when you share a division with Nick Saban.
All three have something in common: beating Alabama, and Saban helped establish their credibility. Malzahn and Auburn did it in ’13 in the most improbable and dramatic manner possible, the 109-yard Kick Six return to end the game and win the division in one fantastic swoop. Sumlin and A&M did it the year before, behind the verve and daring of eventual Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel. Miles’ last win over Alabama came the year before that, in 2011, in a 9-6 slugfest that – unfortunately for the Mad Hatter – was followed by a rematch for the national championship.
Since those plant-the-flag victories, Malzahn, Sumlin and Miles are a combined 0-10 against Alabama. All three were beaten by double digits last year. Getting over on Saban is the best way possible to increase your approval rating – ask Mississippi’s Hugh Freeze, currently riding a two-game winning streak over ‘Bama – but maintaining that edge is brutally difficult.
That makes the current situation toughest of all for Malzahn. Texas A&M wants to beat Alabama. LSU hungers to beat Alabama. Auburn needs to beat Alabama.
To do that, Auburn has to reignite the Malzahn machine that made the Tigers so difficult to defend. He talked a lot Monday about needing to win close games, and in order to do that they must return to putting stress on opposing defenses.
Their offensive output has diminished across the board in each of his three seasons: from 39.5 points to 35.5 to 27.5 per game; from 501 yards to 485 yards to 370 yards per game; from 6.9 yards to 6.7 yards to 5.4 yards per play; from 6.3 yards to 5.5 yards to 4.3 yards per rush.
Not coincidentally, Malzahn’s famed up-tempo offense has slowed down each season as well: from 72.4 plays per game to 72.2 to 68.6.
“One thing we have focused on in the spring and will in fall camp, getting back to playing with pace,” Malzahn said. “That’s the edge of ours in the past, and that’s got to be the same this coming year. Also executing at a high level. We always pride ourselves in executing at a high level. Last year we didn’t get that done. Those were the two focuses from my standpoint to get this thing turned around so we can play quality offense like we expect.”
Having a reliable quarterback would help. In a season of myriad offensive failings, Auburn’s biggest shortcoming in 2015 was at that most important position. In a conference that was rife with lousy passing attacks, the Tigers were near the bottom – 10th in efficiency and 12th in yardage per game.
Malzahn might have believed his own hype there, inserting unseasoned Jeremy Johnson as starting quarterback and expecting big things from him. Instead Johnson flailed miserably until being benched for equally unproductive Sean White. Those two will compete with junior-college transfer John Franklin III for the job in August, with Malzahn very much involved in their progress.
“At the end of the day, I’m a football coach,” he said. “That’s my strength, being on the field and coaching an offense. … One thing that really hit me pretty hard is that I got to be more active with the daily X’s and O’s and coaching that goes with that. And that’s what I look at as my strength. I’m looking forward to getting back in the middle of things and enjoying the actual coaching on the field.”
Three years ago, Gus Malzahn had all the answers. Now he’s searching for them. He’s not the only SEC West coach in this predicament, as Kevin Sumlin and Les Miles will attest here later this week.
