Marcello "not ruling out" coaching change at Auburn
ByAUSTIN NIVISON3 hrs
All is not well with the Auburn Tigers these days. After a loss to the floundering Tennessee Volunteers, the locker room isn’t in the greatest shape, and head coach Gus Malzahn’s seat is heating up.
On Monday night, Brandon Marcello of Auburn Undercover got a statement from the president of the university, Steven Leath, about the status of the football program. In that statement, there wasn’t exactly a ringing endorsement or vote of confidence for Malzahn. On Tuesday,
Marcello talked with Paul Finebaumabout that statement as well as Malzahn’s job security. In his discussion with Finebaum, Marcello attributed the lack of support from Leath to the mounting frustration among the boosters and fans.
“The reason you’re hearing that is because a lot of the boosters, a lot of the money pushers out there, are not happy with what’s going on over there,” Marcello said. “They have made that clear to the president and the athletic director. If things don’t start getting better, not only will the seat get hotter for Gus Malzahn. I’m not ruling out a change by the end of the season even though he’s got a $49 million contract that has at least $38 million guaranteed in buyout money.”
Paying a coach that much money to not come to work sounds utterly absurd to the average person. However, football at Auburn is no average situation. As hard as it may be to believe, Marcello emphasized that Malzahn’s job may be in jeopardy if things don’t turn around in a hurry.
“I know it sounds crazy,” Marcello said. “I know a lot of national guys have been going to me like, ‘Really? He’s the last coach to beat Alabama.’ But football in the state of Alabama is a little bit different. When you are at Auburn, where the boosters will make it known if they’re unhappy along with the fans, I’m saying that if he were to have a losing season this year even though he just signed a major contract, I think all bets are off. It is possible that Gus Malzahn would be talked to about giving him a buyout and letting him ride off into the sunset.”
There is still a long way to go before that happens, but the schedule doesn’t exactly get easier for the Tigers. Texas A&M, Georgia, and Alabama still loom later in the year. If Auburn ends the season with a losing record, it may be tough to convince the fan base that Malzahn should be the guy for the next half dozen years.
“That’s a long way to go — a lot of hypotheticals — but I’ll tell you this. From talking to people and listening to people, high profile folks around the program, they’re not very happy,” Marcello explained. “Folks that were in Gus Malzahn’s corner are no longer in that corner. That’s happened over the last week, and in fact the last several days. When that starts happening, in addition to the fan base seemingly turning against him week by week, it’s hard to sell Gus Malzahn being your coach for the next six seasons after this. Auburn might be willing to pay the money to move forward if he has a losing season and things just aren’t going great as far as attendance and also recruiting. There’s a lot that goes into it, but the big thing is the on the field product, and right now it is not living up to expectations.”
If Malzahn wants to avoid a losing season in 2018, beating Ole Miss this week will be critical. Marcello made no bones about it. If the Tigers don’t beat the Rebels on Saturday, Malzahn will be in a very bad spot.
“It’s the biggest game of Gus Malzahn’s career,” Marcello said. “If they lose this game, they’re going to have a losing record. I don’t see how they beat Texas A&M if they lose to Ole Miss this week.”
Once more, Finebaum asked Marcello about the money. From what he has been told, Marcello thinks the boosters would be willing to chip in, but the money wouldn’t come completely from them. Regardless of where it comes from, Auburn seems confident it could make the financial end of things work.
4COMMENTS
“From what I’ve been told, there’s not much concern there when it comes to money,” Marcello said. “They’ll have it. I don’t believe it’ll come necessarily completely from boosters or even half of it will come from boosters. I think some will be willing to help pay for it, but based off what I’ve heard the money issue would not be that big of a hurdle for them to climb. My belief is, based on reading the contract, is that within a couple of months or within a month, they would owe Gus Malzahn $15 million in one sum total, and then he would be paid over the next four years of the contract to spread it out. It isn’t like it’s some big $31 million sum they have to give him.”
This is far from the end of this saga. It will be a very interesting second half of the season in Auburn. Be sure to remain in the loop down the stretch with Auburn Undercover.
Comments (4)
247Sports
