AUBURN'S PROBLEM ISN'T MALZAHN

    The Auburn Athletic Director unceremoniously fired beleaguered head football coach Gus Malzahn after the Mississippi State game; History will note the Tigers won that game. The win moved Auburn's record to 6-4 for the season. Rather than allowing their Coach to finish the season and the recruits he was courting, AD Allen Greene showed him the door.

     The Tigers latest head coach joined the fraternity of failure at the Loveliest Villiage on the Plains. Auburn has a long list of coaching "failures ." I am not sure if the coaching failure is accurate. I think it Auburn itself. Shakespeare told us that "expectation is the root of all heartache."  The good folk of the Auburn family understands that all too well. It seems that seasons following seasons bear the truth of that statement. 

      Starting with Shug Jordan and ending with Gus Malzhan, the highest winning percentage of any AU coach is Terry Bowden. He won 73% of his games. Shug Jordan was the head coach at AU for 24 years and was the bedrock of AU Coaching, but won only 68% of his games. I could go on about the percentages, but suffice it to say that none won over three-quarters of their contests. It might be fair to say that Jordan and Malzhan coached against Bear Bryant and Nick Saban. That's true, but it would also be appropriate to note that AU hasn't been able to find anyone as good as Bryant and Saban.

    Let's go beyond the failure to hire a great coach. I think AU's problem is they cannot attract the number of players needed to build a championship program. That is something that isn't easy to reach. That's the problem that dozens of schools have. The Tigers have to recruit against Georgia, Alabama, Florida, and Florida State to get players. A program like Alabama can go nationwide to find players. Auburn is still the little brother to Alabama. I'm not sure Auburn will be able to change that status anytime soon. It certainly doesn't seem possible until Saban leaves. That could be several more seasons. I bet Saban has a plan in place for his replacement. I think Saban will tell Alabama who to hire.

     Wishing and hoping is a sure disaster to build a program. The power of Alabama football is just too great right now. I don't think AU can hire anyone who wants to take on Alabama and Saban. Who would? It seems to me that every AU coach has someone looking over his shoulder all the time. That cannot be conducive to winning.