Where did Malzahn fail and get us where we are?

[AUCE05 369]

Please save the smart ass remarks for the other "Fire Gus" threads.   Gus had so much potential and momentum post 2013 season.  Seems he fell victim to the same mistake Chiz had in changing philosophy.    It is so mind numbing.  Saban said he changed his strategy specifically becuase of Gus' RPO play, yet Gus converted to Saban's "old man football" approach.    

[jAUSon 2,836]

Good luck with your thread.

[doug3020 842]

IMO, his failure is tied directly to his inability to recruit on the OL and the inability to properly assess talent at the qb position. Gus had Kellen Mond (TAMU) qb #1 on his board a few years back according to JGT and BM. Mond is serviceable but by no means a game changer. I’m not even going there with the other qb misses. It’s been beaten to death on this forum. 

[AUCE05 369]

Yeah, but is he not aware of his surroundings?  Or did he just luck up and had first movers advantage to his system?  Clearly he doesn't adapt well.  

[KolchakAU85 430]

6 minutes ago, doug3020 said:

IMO, his failure is tied directly to his inability to recruit on the OL and the inability to properly assess talent at the qb position. Gus had Kellen Mond (TAMU) qb #1 on his board a few years back according to JGT and BM. Mond is serviceable but by no means a game changer. I’m not even going there with the other qb misses. It’s been beaten to death on this forum. 

And he thought Jeremy Johnson was the next John Elway.

[AUCE05 369]

Just now, KolchakAU85 said:

And he thought Jeremy Johnson was the next John Elway.

JJ was a Chiz guy.   Can't blame that all on Gus.   That was a late recruiting cycle when Gus was hired.  

[cole256 17,043]

Recruiting. Running players to death instead of developing back ups and letting them play. Then they leave. Not being able to develop a QB. It takes once in generational talents for him to win

[doug3020 842]

3 minutes ago, AUCE05 said:

JJ was a Chiz guy.   Can't blame that all on Gus.   That was a late recruiting cycle when Gus was hired.  

Gus certainly didn’t try and recruit someone else. He practiced him everyday so surely he knew he would be a giant bust. Don’t you think?

[AURealist 2,185]

Gus fails in talent assessment, talent recruitment, and talent development.  He also exhibits a near total lack of situational awareness at all levels in immediate circumstances (game day) all the way to long term trends (advancements in offensive and defensive philosophy across all college football).

It actually began when he was made the head coach of a team in the toughest division in all college football before he was ready.  

[johnnyAU 3,630]

Main reason? Stubbornness  Every DC in the league, (and others) already know his tendencies. He'll occasionally get a trick play to work. See last 2 games for reference. TD passes by a WR and a RB. 

He just can't consistently either put a game plan together, or adjust to the D after the 1st Qtr.  

A big issue to me is missing on recruiting, whether it's the evaluation of the players or development afterwards. 

[NorthGATiger 1,801]

Gus' utmost failure is his stubbornness and his inability to trust any player or coach.  His second biggest failure that got us to where we are today is that outside of what he wrote in his book he has zero knowledge of anything offensively.  The man was taught how to build fast go karts, built fast go carts, and is now tasked with running the development team for Ferrari.  He knows nothing about a Ferrari.  He bought a BMW thinking it was a Ferrari. 

[AUCE05 369]

3 minutes ago, AURealist said:

Gus fails in talent assessment, talent recruitment, and talent development.  He also exhibits a near total lack of situational awareness at all levels in immediate circumstances (game day) all the way to long term trends (advancements in offensive and defensive philosophy across all college football).

It actually began when he was made the head coach of a team in the toughest division in all college football before he was ready.  

Very good points.  Moving forward, I hope the suits making decisions have more of a business mindset, and implement strategic goals and formal planning processes.  

[doverstutts 1,643]

6 minutes ago, AURealist said:

It actually began when he was made the head coach of a team in the toughest division in all college football before he was ready.  

100% undeniable fact....here is the answer...no background in college football to fall back on....he is clueless on how to adapt and adjust and re-invent himself as the game evolves....he is going to be fired as soon as he finally sucks all of the life out of the football program....this is on AU athletics, not malzahn.....he was not ready

[gr82b4au 5,568]

4 minutes ago, johnnyAU said:

Main reason? Stubbornness  Every DC in the league, (and others) already know his tendencies. He'll occasionally get a trick play to work. See last 2 games for reference. TD passes by a WR and a RB. 

He just can't consistently either put a game plan together, or adjust to the D after the 1st Qtr.  

A big issue to me is missing on recruiting, whether it's the evaluation of the players or development afterwards. 

Spot on. Recruiting misses at QB, OL, and RB did him in. One of the biggest recruiting threats to AU the last few years has been Clemson IMO. A good example would be when they took Watson who was the QB we really wanted. That would have changed everything for Gus. 

I could talk about this for hours. Short answer is recruiting (players), philosophy, coaching, and practice habits. Basically the entire program at this point is starting to turn. 

The sad thing is with the right players I still think his offense would still be lethal. Problem is that we no longer recruit those players or when we do, we can’t land those players. 

Years ago I Never thought I would see the day when scoring was our problem under Gus. Now it is common. 

[BHDAU1 240]

The basic job description of a coach is where he fails.  I mean honestly can ANYONE point out another program that does less with the talent Auburn gets on a regular basis? The lack of player development and retention is amazing.  Quite simply this is where highly recruited players go to flame out. It isnt a giant coincidence that we have former running backs playing db and highly recruited high school dbs transferring out.  Not to mention 5 star olineman that cant get on the field despite the line being subpar this year. Combine the lack of coaching to make these kids see their potential with terrible game planning and this is the result.  Was anyone surprised that with two minutes to go and the game completely lost that Stidham and the first string offense was put back in the game??

[weagl1 1,782]

OL recruiting and development plus not really having a strategy of where he wanted to take the offense and recruiting to fit that strategy is where he shat the bed.  What we have is just a hodgepodge of crap thrown together.  Defense would be fine if we had an offense.  When we have 20 minutes of posession time and the other team has 40 no defense can’t hold up to that.  

[I_M4_AU 7,801]

21 minutes ago, doverstutts said:

100% undeniable fact....here is the answer...no background in college football to fall back on....he is clueless on how to adapt and adjust and re-invent himself as the game evolves....he is going to be fired as soon as he finally sucks all of the life out of the football program....this is on AU athletics, not malzahn.....he was not ready

Respectfully disagree on it’s not Malzahn. I do agree he was not ready, but AU athletics knew he was an up and comer and paid him as such hoping he would learn on the job.  Learning on the job requires the learnee to adjust and adapt to the HC position as he progresses through the transition from OC to HC.  Malzahn’s first year was his down fall, he convinced himself he was the second coming of Knute Rockne.  The smartest man in the room.

Auburn Athletics needs to do a little more research into potential HCs and just not go with the “gut feeling” approach they have used in the past. After last night I think Auburn Athletics will get their chance.

[NoALtiger 3,850]

Gus was the easy hire to begin with and that’s what the athletic dept went with. His innovation has ceased as he tried to learn the HC aspect on the job and it’s been a slow descent into mediocrity or worse. Not recruiting to fit what he wants to do on O has been a killer for me.  That and the obvious non development that seems to plague many of our once promising recruits. 

[kevon67 2,368]

1 hour ago, KolchakAU85 said:

And he thought Jeremy Johnson was the next John Elway.

To be honest many thought he was going to be a star and based on his mop up play had no reason to think other wise..........I have to admit I have never been more aggravated with a coach's failure to make adjustments and position changes when it seems obvious and necessary.

Last night he made what I consider an average and somewhat overrated coach look like a genius.......we have done more with less talented teams per position in the past.......we have entirely too much talent for the record we possess........only team worse FSU......and we have more talent across the board per position with an equal OL.

[AU-HANDLEY-TIGER 205]

I think we appeared to recruit well at QB and RB but a lot of misses when it was game time, Frazier and Roc Thomas come to mind, and we had a few early departures from the OL as well.

In short it’s nothing two top 5 recruiting classes couldn’t fix 😂 where’s our bagman

[cole256 17,043]

Thomas wasn't a miss though. He doesn't know how to delegate. One of the first occupations of a leader

6 minutes ago, AU-HANDLEY-TIGER said:

I think we appeared to recruit well at QB and RB but a lot of misses when it was game time, Frazier and Roc Thomas come to mind, and we had a few early departures from the OL as well.

In short it’s nothing two top 5 recruiting classes couldn’t fix 😂 where’s our bagman

 

[CodeRocket 410]

Everyone has an opinion on this subject and there is probably some truth to a lot of them.

I think the biggest problem has been recruiting or the lack thereof. I thought when Kirby Smart was hired at Georgia

he would really hurt our recruiting and I think that he has. The ramifications of that have manifested themselves 

much faster than I expected. The reality now is that GCM finds himself geographically between two of the best recruiters in all

of college football.  I don't think he can match up with either of them so I don't see how the "future is very bright".

[aubiefifty 16,760]

1 hour ago, AUCE05 said:

Please save the smart ass remarks for the other "Fire Gus" threads.   Gus had so much potential and momentum post 2013 season.  Seems he fell victim to the same mistake Chiz had in changing philosophy.    It is so mind numbing.  Saban said he changed his strategy specifically becuase of Gus' RPO play, yet Gus converted to Saban's "old man football" approach.    

this is a sad time for me. i respect gus as a man and he wants to win as bad as anyone. he loves auburn and i was reminded in a different thread he wanted auburn folks to love him. i would love to see gus get it all together and be the coach we all thought he could be. if he gets the next year i hope people that love auburn would maybe help him correct the things he is doing wrong. at this point i just have too many doubts so i would be shocked if things worked out. but i agree with what dag said in another thread about us being too soft. i agree with that and it hurts my soul.

[bigbird 60,499]

There are a few areas. For me, the biggest is the lack of an ability to evovle his scheme, adjust to personnel, and the insistence that certain players can only do certain things. Next would be the insistence on hiring "his" coaches.  This aspect eliminates any potential outside growth or crticism which, in turn, exacerbates problem 1.  Another glaring mistake was the retention of Horton and the hiring of Hand and Grimes. All three of those compounded the issues of recruiting and development in the primary position groups Gus needs for his offense to be successful.  Another major issue for me was the lack of accountability that the previous AD placed and demanded from Gus. This allowed Gus to become more entrenched and stubborn. 

[Swamp Eagle 5,134]

Gus didn't fail. He never was SEC caliber HC-worthy. This is all on Auburn..