Guerry Clegg: Auburn’s Gus Malzahn for SEC Coach of the Year? It is not a far-fetched idea

Let’s say you have a vote for SEC coach of the year. You are to put down three names, in whatever order you choose (although preferably objectively). Based on the first half of the season, two names are almost inarguable, Alabama's Nick Saban and Texas A&M's Kevin Sumlin.

Now, who is your third choice?

Let's start by elimination.

Derek Mason, Vanderbilt? No. Will Muschamp, South Carolina? No. Mark Stoops, Kentucky? No. Dan Mullen, Mississippi State? No. Bret Bielema, Arkansas? No. Barry Odom, Missouri? No.

Ed Orgeron, LSU? Not unless the Tigers sweep Ole Miss, Alabama and Texas A&M. So highly unlikely.

That leaves five names and really four because the Georgia-Florida loser knocks out Kirby Smart or Jim McElwain. That’s not to say either has a strong case any way, but both are still in the running, whereas the aforementioned are not.

So, here we are roughly halfway through the season. The short list of candidates for SEC Coach of the Year includes one name that probably no one would have ever guessed would have made it: Auburn's Gus Malzahn.

Yeah, the guy who just two weeks ago was said to be on the hot seat. The guy who was supposedly coaching for his job in back-to-back games against Texas A&M and Clemson. The guy whose gimmick offense had supposedly had been figured out.

That Gus Malzahn.

Sure, there is still much football to be played in many things will happen between now and December. The Tigers are still staring in the face of an 8-4 season. They’ve lost twice already and still have to play Ole Miss and Alabama, two teams that seem to be clearly superior to the Tigers.

Two other games, Arkansas and Georgia, are too close to call, but if they played now Auburn would be favored. If Auburn wins those games, and avoids tripping up against Vanderbilt and Alabama A&M, a strong case could be made for Malzahn to at least be considered. If the Tigers finish the regular season 9-3 — which would mean beating Ole Miss or Alabama — then Malzahn could leap to the top of the list.

After rolling over Mississippi State 38-14 last week in Starkville, Auburn has resurfaced in the national rankings, 23rd in the AP poll. Inexplicably, the Tigers fell a few votes short of LSU for the final spot in the coaches’ poll. Remember that next time a coach touts the value of head-to-head competition. The other two teams that beat Auburn, Clemson and Texas A&M, are both ranked ahead of Wisconsin, the other team to beat LSU.

So how much credit does Malzahn deserve for Auburn’s resurgence? Well, if he deserved to shoulder most of the blame for the Tigers’ slip to mediocrity, then it seems fair and logical to give him credit for the turnaround. Yes, Kevin Steele has done a nice job with the defense. But who hired Steele? That would be Malzahn. Perhaps more impressive, though, is Malzahn’s handling of the offense. That has always been his baby. But he finally recognized that running the team was more important than running the offense. So he turned the play-calling over to Rhett Lashlee, his offensive coordinator and protégé.

Now Auburn’s offense is finally finding some traction. You might ask, “If Malzahn is supposed to be an offensive genius, isn’t the offense’s improvement an indictment of his play-calling?” If might be if Malzahn didn’t have a track record of success. But the offensive struggles of 2015 and early ’16 are the exception, not the rule. And before anyone says, “Yeah, and he had Cam Newton and Nick Marshall playing quarterback,” remember Malzahn built those offenses around Newton’s and Marshall’s skills.

Now Malzahn and Lashlee have tailored the offense again to suit Sean White’s abilities, much like Nick Saban has adapted his defense to spread offenses.

Malzahn is neither a genius nor a dunce. He’s just a good football coach who is learning to adapt. Maybe that contract extension and raise he received four months ago wasn’t so foolish after all.

This story was originally published October 11, 2016 at 5:59 PM with the headline "Guerry Clegg: Auburn’s Gus Malzahn for SEC Coach of the Year? It is not a far-fetched idea."