Auburn’s Gus Malzahn, Chad Morris share long friendship. Will it change how they run offense?

To grasp the challenge that Gus Malzahn faces every season — every day, really — as head football coach at Auburn, consider this past week. The Tigers hauled in another splendid class of recruits Wednesday when the early signing period began.

But so did Alabama. So did Georgia. And do did LSU, all of whom the Tigers have to face each season. In fact, consider some numbers. Malzahn’s record is 62-30. Exactly half of those losses (15) have come against those three teams (Georgia six, LSU five, Alabama four).

It goes much deeper than that. Twenty-one of those 30 losses came to teams that won at least 10 games that seasons. Dating back to the loss to Florida State in the BCS national championship game, the Tigers have lost nine games to teams in the national championship picture.

This might not be breaking news. But all of the hand-wringing over the plateau that Auburn seems to have hit under Malzahn, it’s important to step back and put it in perspective. The brutal schedule that the Tigers faced this season was not an isolated case. No coach has faced a more treacherous schedule in that time than Malzahn.

Enter Chad Morris.

Malzahn and Morris go back to the early 2000s. Malzahn’s team was playing in the high school state championship game. Morris was also a high school coach, and his team had struggled that season. He could see that the game was evolving, namely the spread offense.

Morris called Malzahn out of the blue one day and asked to meet him. Malzahn agreed. More than just a friendship was born.

Morris quickly excelled and landed the job as offensive coordinator at Tulsa in 2010. That same year, Clemson slumped to a 6-7 season in Dabo Swinney’s second full season as head coach. Swinney knew he needed to change his offense and brought in Morris to run the spread offense. Under Morris’s direction, Tajh Boyd passed for 3,828 yards and 33 touchdowns as a sophomore.

Four years later, Morris was the head coach at SMU, which finished 1-11 the year before. Four years later, the Mustangs were back in a bowl game.

Morris was seen as a hot commodity. So after Arkansas was unable to pry Malzahn away from Auburn, the Razorbacks hired Morris before somebody else could scoop him up. But Morris won just four games in two seasons and was fired with two games left to play this season.

There was some speculation that Arkansas might make another attempt to hire Malzahn. But that crazy win over Alabama secured Malzahn’s job once again.

When Kenny Dillingham left Auburn for Florida State, that opened the door for Morris.

Malzahn said this of Morris last July at SEC Football Media Days:

“Chad is one of the smarter coaches I’ve ever been around. He’s one of the hardest workers that I’ve ever been around. I consider him a true friend.”

Exactly how this relationship will play out is not clear just yet. Malzahn has struggled giving the keys to his offense to someone else. But he’s never had an offensive coordinator that he trusts as much as he does Morris. For his part, Morris’s first order of business is developing quarterback Bo Nix.

But Morris knows Auburn’s success ultimately will be determined by players, not schemes or play-calling.

So that brings us full circle back to signing day. The Tigers added four receivers and multi-purpose athlete Ladarius Tennison.

While Morris had little to do with this signing class, he did endorse the Tigers’ strategy.

“You continue to sign speed. I’ve said it forever: You either have speed or you’re chasing it.”

We know that individual recruiting rankings aren’t then end-all, be-all. But there’s a strong correlation between team rankings and team success.

We won’t know the final numbers until February. But so far, this has been a big year for Auburn. The Tigers’ class carries a national ranking of No. 8 by Rivals and No. 7 by 247/Sports.

If that holds, it would be the first time since 2016 that Auburn finished in the top 10 in the two major recruiting analytical services.

How much does that matter? Here’s another stat to consider. Of those 30 losses, 16 were decided by eight or fewer points. Two or three players could make a huge difference.

In his early years, Malzahn won by simply out-scoring teams. When he hired Kevin Steele to revamp the defense, then the offense started struggling. Just imagine what Auburn could be if Morris does the same for the offense what Steele did for the defense.