You made it sound as if Tulsa was hopeless and no coach could have success there, when in actuality the Golden Hurricane have a history of high powered offenses. They are 6th this year in total offense (Auburn is 7th). Shouldn't we hire Chad Morris instead? (Ah crap, Clemson beat us to the punch!) I'm not disputing Malzahn is a very good OC, but you are insane if you think he's ready for a HC job, much less a top-5 gig.
Uh, Auburn had their share of cliffhangers this year. Beat Miss St. by 3. Went to OT with Clemson before winning by 3. Beat Kentucky by 3. Required a furious comeback to beat Bama by 1 and only beat LSU by 7 even with the superman Heisman performance by Newton. Having Malzahn on board doesn't necessarily eliminate the possibility cliffhangers. But I know, they had a few blowouts also.
Most of it early on as the offense was still acclimating itself to this entirely new offensive scheme. And you really have to tip your cap to Chavis for what a job he did in limiting that team to just 24 points.
You know I have reveresed gears on this. IF Miles leaves I would O.K. brining in Malzahn. He can obviously recruit, and can fix what our biggest problem is. Sure its a risk, but in hey why not. Maybe we catch lightning in a Bottle. I still think he would go to the NFL if he had great success here and he wouldn't be "An LSU man" as they say. But it would be fun to watch how it turned out for sure.
I think Malzahn would be an interesting hire. I'm game to see how it would work out. Leave Pelini at Nebraska.
What does Cam newton have to do with it? It's the scheme. It's nearly impossible to stop. Obviously Cam was the perfect QB for his system but Malzahn is the one who wanted him and landed him. The year before, he took a god awful Auburn offense and had them ranked 16th in the nation without the necessary pieces in place. And TOP was not that bad at just over 28 minutes. Again, without the necessary pieces in play to be totally effective.
So here's what we know about Gus Malzahn ... when coaching a team which plays against the Rice and Houstons of the CFB landscape, he is a great OC. He's also a great OC when coaching the best player in America and an OL with 4 seniors. Clearly, he is a great offensive coordinator. But do we know he can be a good head coach? No, we don't. And LSU is in a position not to have to take that risk.