In Gus they trust (again)

This past summer, one of the world's great mysteries I was trying to solve was:

"Why are Auburn fans so giddy that Gus Malzahn is gone?"

It was strange, and it illustrated the bizarre phenomenon of a fan base conveniently heaping all of the program's problems on the shoulders of a coach who ... actually made them formidable.

They were stoked that he was gone. Now they're stoked he's back. Huh?

The year before Cam Newton took the college football world by storm, Auburn made major gains on offense in Malzahn's first year with two nobodies at quarterback. Auburn was up 14-0 on Alabama before the Tide recovered and sweated out a 26-21 win on the way to the BCS title.

No idea what made Malzahn fall into such disfavor. Maybe the whole wife thing had something to do with it. And surely Alabama had something to do with it. Let's call it Tide Envy. That's the only way to explain why Auburn suddenly thought it could win the way Alabama was winning, with a conventional, smashmouth offense.

Over the summer, we did a Q&A with folks who cover Auburn and asked them this question:

What’s your explanation for the sudden decline of Gus Malzahn? It doesn’t seem like too many people are shedding any tears over his departure, and that’s a surprise from this corner given the genius status he enjoyed in 2010. Were Auburn’s problems last year really his fault?

Here was the response from Auburn Rivals guy Justin Hokanson:

"Minus the Cam Newton season, Auburn struggled to run the football consistently in 2009 and 2011 against the top-tier competition. I think that's why most Auburn fans aren't too upset about his departure. I think most fans also felt like that offense wasn't complementing the defense. An up-tempo offense that isn't successful means your defense is back on the field quicker, and the struggling defensive numbers caused some concern.

“But last year wasn't all Malzahn's fault at all. The Tigers never had a consistent quarterback, the offensive line was up and down, Emory Blake missed games late in the season, there were a number of issues the offense had to deal with last season. But Auburn fans want to be able to run the football consistently, and in two of Malzahn's three seasons that wasn't the case."

All seems hunky dory now, with the exception of influential Auburn legend Pat Dye apparently ticked that Kirby Smart wasn't hired.

Interesting details on that from Birmingham columnist Kevin Scarbinsky:

Dye admitted Tuesday what insiders have told us all along, that Smart was his first choice for the job. No surprise there. Like Smart, Dye grew up playing for Georgia and coaching at Alabama on the defensive side of the ball. Like Dye, Smart is hard-nosed and strong-willed.

Those characteristics may have helped Smart with Dye, but they hurt him with the Auburn search committee. Smart asked for things during his interview that Auburn wasn’t willing to give him, according to people close to the process.

His demands included full disclosure of the state of the NCAA’s current look-see at the Auburn program, full control of hiring and firing staffers and the opportunity to coordinate the Alabama defense in the BCS Championship Game against Notre Dame.

What of Bobby Petrino? Well there's this:

The search committee did talk to Petrino on the phone Monday, but it wasn’t an interview. They never talked football.

It wasn’t a courtesy call, either. There wasn’t much courtesy involved.

The questions and comments from the committee members all revolved around Petrino’s personal life and why Arkansas fired him in April, after it came to light that he’d had an inappropriate relationship with a woman he’d hired to a job in the football program.

Petrino offered that he and his wife would meet with the committee in person, at the Petrinos’ expense, but the committee members didn’t respond to his offer. Petrino came away from the conversation hurt and angry and wondering why the committee even bothered to talk to him.

Good stuff from Stewart Mandel, who pretty much nails the essence of the situation at Auburn:

Normally, when a program implodes to the degree Chizik's did in 2012, it cuts all ties to the old regime. In this case, Auburn is apparently acknowledging that the implosion was directly tied to Malzahn's departure.

LW