On the ‘hot seat,’ Auburn coach Gus Malzahn speaks out about firing rumors
It’s become almost a yearly news cycle at this point.
“Is Gus Malzahn on the hot seat at Auburn?”
It’s a question many have asked. But what’s forgotten amidst the television news coverage, ESPN College GameDay debates and the booster uprising is the man at the center of it all, and the effects of the annual “hot seat” debate.
“I’ve got a job that expects to win championships,” Mahlzahn said. “And I expect to win championships. I knew that when I signed up.”
The championships, though, have been few and far between.
The closest Malzahn came to a national championship was 2013, a season in which the Tigers won memorable games against Georgia and Alabama, won the SEC Championship over Missouri but lost in the BCS National Championship.
The Tigers rattled off wins against Georgia and Alabama again in 2017 but lost to the Bulldogs in the SEC Championship.
The Tigers slipped to an 8-5 record last season — including losses to Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama — which ramped up talks of Malzahn’s future leading the team.
“The years we don’t (win championships), it’s ‘hot seat this, hot seat that,’” Malzahn said. “It’s just part of the job description. ... That’s just part of being at a place that expects to win championships. Some places, they make it to eight wins and they celebrate. That’s just not Auburn.”
Auburn rewarded the head coach with a seven-year extension after the 2017 season, which saw the Tigers’ campaign end with a 34-27 loss to UCF in the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl. Malzahn’s buyout originally sat at around $32 million, but that number now remains unspecified after he reportedly accepted a buyout reduction to stay at Auburn.
There’s no telling on what it may take (or cost) for Auburn to move on from Malzahn. The expectation at Auburn to annually compete for championships against the likes of Alabama and Georgia, however, remains clear.
“Any coach in the SEC, if you’re not winning the SEC Championship in Year 1, or you’re not winning eight or nine games-a-year, everyone’s talking about falling to the dogs,” Tigers defensive lineman Derrick Brown said. “That’s politics, and that’s what’s expected of these coaches. At the end of the day, Coach Malzahn is there for us.”
Malzahn’s tenure at Auburn has a silver lining. With Kevin Sumlin gone from Texas A&M and Hugh Freeze no longer at Ole Miss, he’s the only coach in the SEC who has beaten Alabama coach Nick Saban.
But there’s been rocky times, too. After routing Georgia 40-17 at home in 2017, the Tigers only mustered seven points in the SEC Championship rematch. That season ended with an uninspiring loss to an American Athletic Conference team. The season before that, the Tigers lost the Allstate Sugar Bowl 35-19 to Oklahoma and went 0-2 against Alabama and Georgia.
This season, then, is shaping up to be a significant one. The Tigers’ opener against Oregon (August 31, ABC) will show just how improved they are from a season ago. It’s an even calendar year, so both the Bulldogs and Crimson Tide must visit Jordan-Hare Stadium this season.
If Malzahn wants to quell the hot-seat talk, he needs to walk the walk this season.
This story was originally published July 18, 2019 at 3:24 PM.
