Take Two: Should Gus Malzahn jump from Auburn to Arkansas?
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Take Two returns with a daily offering tackling an issue in the college football landscape. Rivals.com National Recruiting Analyst Adam Gorney lays out the situation and then receives takes from Rivals.com National Recruiting Director Mike Farrell and an expert from the Rivals.com network of team sites or a regional analyst.
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THE STORYLINE
Gus Malzahn seems to be on the perpetual hot seat at Auburn and his situation was not helped last weekend when the Tigers lost again to Georgia.
Auburn is now 7-3, though all three losses have come to teams ranked in the top 6 in the nation. However, the SEC West and that division is only getting tougher as LSU has emerged as arguably the nation’s best team and Jimbo Fisher could be building something big at Texas A&M. And, oh yeah, Alabama.
Malzahn has drawn his fair share of criticism over the years and it seems with every loss comes more talk of the fan base growing tired of him, wanting a fresh start. For the money he’s paying paid, maybe he’s not delivering on the goods: That means routinely beating Alabama, LSU and Georgia and putting Auburn in the playoff hunt on a regular basis.
He’s coming off another 8-5 season and worse, Malzahn’s record in the SEC is just 32-23.
Which brings us to the Arkansas opening. His name has been thrown around for that position before, and understandably so since he played there, coached high school ball there for many years and spent a short time coaching in Fayetteville as well.
It certainly makes sense. The Razorbacks are in desperate need of a new coaching regime after the Chad Morris experiment failed miserably, Malzahn has tremendous connections to the state and to the school and it seems like Auburn is growing increasingly tired of him. There is a massive buyout to consider in this whole web as well.
Would it make sense for Malzahn to jump from Auburn to Arkansas, which is in complete rebuilding mode? Or will Malzahn stick with the Tigers and continue to try to build them into a national power again, even if the powers that be are growing tired of him?
FIRST TAKE: BRYAN MATTHEWS, AUBURNSPORTS.COM
“There are a lot of factors to consider with Auburn, Arkansas and Malzahn right now. Auburn's power brokers have grown increasingly frustrated by Malzahn's record against AU's three biggest rivals - LSU, Georgia and Alabama - which currently stands at 6-15. Malzahn still has a huge buyout, however, which would cost Auburn about $27 million if it wanted to move on, half of which would be due within 30 days.
"There's the question of how much real interest Arkansas would have in Malzahn and if he'd prefer to stay and fight for his position at AU or move to Arkansas and potentially lock up his future as an SEC head coach for another four or more years. Going to make for an interesting couple of weeks in the coaching carousel.”
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SECOND TAKE: MIKE FARRELL, RIVALS.COM
“It makes sense. He loves Arkansas and he’s an Arkansas guy. That’s a state he knows well. He might consider it even more if the Tigers get killed by Alabama, especially because he’ll be on the hot seat again and he’ll get tired of it. Arkansas will throw everything they can at him. They’d love to have him. They would give him an impressive offer and a long time to turn that thing around. It all depends on what Malzahn wants to do and whether he’s getting tired of constantly being on the hot seat at Auburn. Arkansas would love to be 8-4 every year.”
