Could Gus be a good CEO coach?

[auburntiger1987 759]

nope. We've been told more than once he's been told to let go etc and still had nothing change. The offense worked when he was willing to go fast, run multiple plays off each other, not sub after every play, and be smarter with his clock management. Auburn fast is a joke, he doesn't trust anyone, and wont adapt. He cant adjust and seems to disappear in the third quarter etc

[Auburn Kev 1,653]

Why did Chizik bring in Malzahn as OC in 2009? Was it because of the offense he ran in High School? At Arkansas? Or at Tulsa?

[Eagle Eye 7 2,535]

11 hours ago, bigbird said:

Exactly. Not only because he would still intrude but because basically he is a one trick pony. He thought up something outside the basic concept and it worked early on. Doesn’t last because someone builds a defense for it and he doesn’t have a counter. He is just no HC material . HC material is who looks at long term building not short term . Gus has no vision for what he wants AU to be 5 or 10 years down the road. Probably why his recruiting sucks, especially for OL and QB . If you need one for next year go JC but recruit long term for guys that can truely be built into a mold you want. 

[James Howell 80]

No because to be a CEO coach you have to have good assistant coaches and gus has demonstrated that he doesn't have the judgement or intelligence to select good assistants.

[Tiger 8,817]

I think Gus could be a good OC again but he's going to need a year or so between being shown the door at AU and his next stop to catch up on all the things that have passed him by in the last 5 years.

I don't think he has the personality type to be a great HC. And also his player evaluation is lacking big time so when your head man is a minus in the evaluation department it's going to really put your program at a disadvantage. He doesn't outwardly show good leadership qualities during games, it's not what you want out of your HC. He always looks like he's wearing sandpaper underwear on the sidelines. Poor body language to try to rally a group of 18-22 year old kids IMO.

[Tiger 8,817]

2 minutes ago, Eagle Eye 7 said:

Exactly. Not only because he would still intrude but because basically he is a one trick pony. He thought up something outside the basic concept and it worked early on. Doesn’t last because someone builds a defense for it and he doesn’t have a counter. He is just no HC material . HC material is who looks at long term building not short term . Gus has no vision for what he wants AU to be 5 or 10 years down the road. Probably why his recruiting sucks, especially for OL and QB . If you need one for next year go JC but recruit long term for guys that can truely be built into a mold you want. 

Man, this is so obvious with how recruiting goes and how he chooses to develop (or not develop) players that he signs. On defense, it seems like Steele has a plan and tries to fulfill those needs in recruiting on a yearly basis -- as well as letting the young guys get real, live game reps. On O it is one big clusterfork from who's calling the plays (have you seen a supposed HUNH team get as many delay of games or take as many playclock expiring timeouts as AU????), to our OL situation, to QBs not being developed, to not knowing who our best RBs are etc

Lol does anyone think that Devan Barrett, a stud RB out of HS that had offers from everywhere, would've been moved to WR then to DB 18 months into his college career at any other program?????? 

[Eagle Eye 7 2,535]

5 minutes ago, Auburn Kev said:

Why did Chizik bring in Malzahn as OC in 2009? Was it because of the offense he ran in High School? At Arkansas? Or at Tulsa?

Remember Chiz wasn’t a big name at the time he was limited who he could hire. Gus has some success at Arky and Tulsa ( more because of he had at QB remember he got a shot at Arky because of the 5 star QB he coached atbSpringdale and brought with him) that’s why by 2011 Chiz could see Gus offense meant to continuously change and Gus couldn’t do that. A lot of folks use versions of his NHHU ( which was and is a version of the 2 minute drill in the NFL with some running added) but they change them up every year.

[AUght2win 6,818]

5 hours ago, Mikey said:

So, a coach gets hired because he's a great offensive mind and play caller, then people want him to stop calling plays and turn that critical duty over to an understudy while the multi-million dollar man strolls the sidelines and plays CEO? That sounds insane to me.

Looking around the world of college football on TV Saturday, I saw head coaches from the extreme southeast (Mullen) to the extreme northwest (Leach) and many points in between calling their own plays. It appears that the norm is if a coach came up on the offensive side of the ball he calls his own plays. If he came up on the defensive side, he hires someone to call the plays. There are exceptions, but that's the norm.  Defensive play/set calling is harder to determine, but I did see where Tennessee fans were up in arms because Pruitt was calling his own defensive plays instead of playing CEO. I suppose that griping stopped after Kentucky scored only 7 points on the Vols Saturday.

Auburn's problem may be that people (the PTB) have been meddling with Gus's offense, not the other was around. In any case, I'd let the guy who was hired because he's a great offensive mind and play caller run his offense and call the plays. If he succeeds, great. If he fails, then fire him and try somebody else.

The idea of hiring a guy because he is a  great play caller then wanting him to not call plays but instead be a CEO and watch somebody else run the offense is madness.

THAT sounds insane to you? Everything about Auburn football right now is insane. We have a head coach who forgot how to call offense and is going to be rewarded $32 million for his amnesia. 

[AUght2win 6,818]

3 hours ago, Swamp Eagle said:

If a dirt-dobber had a square behind it would lay blocks. In other words, it ain't happenin'.

This is the country-assiest thing I've ever read and I can't decide if I love or hate it. 

[Swamp Eagle 5,128]

1 minute ago, AUght2win said:

This is the country-assiest thing I've ever read and I can't decide if I love or hate it. 

Stands to reason...I'm a country-ass individurl....

[alexava 6,973]

Horrible ceo. He’s pure offense and damn good at it. The more he tried to step away the worse we got. The offensive line has been under recruited and underdeveloped. QBs and rbs too. We really can’t fix it unless we leave him alone and hope he changes something or fire him. Firing him doesn’t seem to smart either as there are not any obvious replacements. 

[AUght2win 6,818]

2 minutes ago, Swamp Eagle said:

Stands to reason...I'm a country-ass individurl....

Hey me too! Proud of it!

[AUght2win 6,818]

1 minute ago, alexava said:

Horrible ceo. He’s pure offense and damn good at it. The more he tried to step away the worse we got. The offensive line has been under recruited and underdeveloped. QBs and rbs too. We really can’t fix it unless we leave him alone and hope he changes something or fire him. Firing him doesn’t seem to smart either as there are not any obvious replacements. 

See this I find completely unbelievable. Gus has surrounded himself with nothing but his former players and former coaches. There is virtually NO resistance for him to do things EXACTLY the way he wants on offense. "Leave him alone"? Gus is super paranoid, stubborn and closed off. He is alone as it gets, by his own design. The burden of proof is on you to show that our downfall has been Gus' LACK of involvement.

It's pretty clear based on what we see on the field and what we know about the program, Gus' front-seat drives the offense while only pretending to back-seat drive it. And the result is not good. 

[AUght2win 6,818]

I don't disagree with most of what people are posting. But at least try to participate, for the sake of message board conversation, other than just giving a "HELL NO". 

One thing nobody has yet to respond to from my original post is the fact that Gus' guys play really hard. Every Saturday. It's the only reason I could see any potential in him as a CEO coach. This quality cannot be undervalued in college football, where motivating 18-22 year olds from week to week is a nearly impossible task.

Tubs couldn't get his guys to play hard every week. Chizik may have been the worst of all time at it. When they don't play hard, you get performances like Kentucky's at Tennessee this past weekend or Florida's letdown against Mizzou two weeks ago. Lou Holtz said it best, that college football is unique "because you coach a different team each week". I don't know how Malzahn does it, but his ability to get his guys to play hard through these countless tough times is impressive.  

[kevon67 2,368]

22 minutes ago, AUght2win said:

This is the country-assiest thing I've ever read and I can't decide if I love or hate it. 

Ever been to Marengo County.........father was from Chatom, Al.🤣......trust me Marengo is twice a bit rock n roll in comparison👍

[James Howell 80]

1 hour ago, Auburn Kev said:

Why did Chizik bring in Malzahn as OC in 2009? Was it because of the offense he ran in High School? At Arkansas? Or at Tulsa?

High school he ran the zone read in high school.  At arkansas he was OC in name only the line coach al woods ran the offense.  The quarterback was still under center 80% of the time.  In Tulsa it was spread but using a pocket passer.

However, DCs in sec have caught up with the zone read.  

 

 

[Swamp Eagle 5,128]

38 minutes ago, kevon67 said:

Ever been to Marengo County.........father was from Chatom, Al.🤣......trust me Marengo is twice a bit rock n roll in comparison👍

LOL!! I'm from Marengo County! Chatom is close to Frankville, huh? Someone told me the family tree down there don't got a fork in it...

[McLoofus 35,182]

45 minutes ago, AUght2win said:

One thing nobody has yet to respond to from my original post is the fact that Gus' guys play really hard. Every Saturday.

I'm not sure I entirely agree with this anymore. 

[AUsince72 11,084]

18 minutes ago, McLoofus said:

1 hour ago, AUght2win said:

One thing nobody has yet to respond to from my original post is the fact that Gus' guys play really hard. Every Saturday.

I'm not sure I entirely agree with this anymore. 

Agree with Loof here.

The defense is not regressing due to fired up and inspired play.  They're getting worse every week.  That's not a sign of continuing to play your best.

FTR, I don't blame them either.  As I've said before, it's gotta be SO hard to maintain top level defensive play when the other side of the ball can't even wash your laundry.

[AUght2win 6,818]

5 minutes ago, AUsince72 said:

Agree with Loof here.

The defense is not regressing due to fired up and inspired play.  They're getting worse every week.  That's not a sign of continuing to play your best.

FTR, I don't blame them either.  As I've said before, it's gotta be SO hard to maintain top level defensive play when the other side of the ball can't even wash your laundry.

We played well at UGA until the 4th down play to end the half. That broke our back. 

[AUsince72 11,084]

1 minute ago, AUght2win said:

We played well at UGA until the 4th down play to end the half. That broke our back. 

Sure, maybe.  But the entire MSU & UT games were poorly played disasters and if not for a very well timed pick by Iggy in the aTm game, so was that one.

I'm sorry but nothing about the 2018 version of the Auburn Football Team screams "playing lights out for 4 quarters every game."

I'm not saying anybody has quit.  Not saying that at all.  But to say they're playing their hardest/best is obviously false too.

[IronMan70 3,277]

When I look around the league I see some very successful head coaches that might never call an offensive play all year long. Obviously you don't have to be an offensive 'genius' to be a very good head coach. We don't need an OC or a DC that is also trying to be a HC. The qualities to be successful at each position are totally different. What we need is a true HC. Can Gus make that transition ? I use to think so but I'm not so sure anymore. 

[Tiger 8,817]

3 minutes ago, IronMan70 said:

When I look around the league I see some very successful head coaches that might never call an offensive play all year long. Obviously you don't have to be an offensive 'genius' to be a very good head coach. We don't need an OC or a DC that is also trying to be a HC. The qualities to be successful at each position are totally different. What we need is a true HC. Can Gus make that transition ? I use to think so but I'm not so sure anymore. 

YES. Exactly! It has nothing to do with how good of a play caller they are because a HC doesn't have the cold, hard time to put into preparing a side of the ball to the level that they could when they were a coordinator. It's a significantly more hands off job than being a OC or DC

[alexava 6,973]

15 hours ago, Tiger said:

YES. Exactly! It has nothing to do with how good of a play caller they are because a HC doesn't have the cold, hard time to put into preparing a side of the ball to the level that they could when they were a coordinator. It's a significantly more hands off job than being a OC or DC

That’s the point I was making earlier. Gus is great when that’s his job and only job. If he’s building and calling an offense 100% of the time he’s hard to beat. If he’s running an entire program he’s splitting the offensive part to others and losing value. He spreads himself too thin. When he was OC or even HC in 13&14 you rarely if ever saw a delay of game penalty or that dumbfounded look of lost while trying to get a play called. He was confident almost cocky. Cranking the right hand demanding hurry up with the play being called or already known. Even in 09 before he ran the zone read, which is why I maintain other coaches didn’t all the sudden “ figure him out”. He was a step ahead of almost every defense he played. 

I’m not excusing his lack of continuous success. It’s on him. We are obviously not equipped at the two main positions he needs to run his system. That’s on him. He has been slow to adjust the game plan but when he does it isn’t enough for most people. He’s backed himself into a corner to where he needs players from transfers rather than high school youth. We need a minimum of two starting offensive linemen to transfer in to stop the bleeding next year. 

I don’t believe he’ll be fired this year. 

[AURealist 2,185]

10 minutes ago, alexava said:

That’s the point I was making earlier. Gus is great when that’s his job and only job. If he’s building and calling an offense 100% of the time he’s hard to beat. If he’s running an entire program he’s splitting the offensive part to others and losing value. He spreads himself too thin. When he was OC or even HC in 13&14 you rarely if ever saw a delay of game penalty or that dumbfounded look of lost while trying to get a play called. He was confident almost cocky. Cranking the right hand demanding hurry up with the play being called or already known. Even in 09 before he ran the zone read, which is why I maintain other coaches didn’t all the sudden “ figure him out”. He was a step ahead of almost every defense he played. 

I’m not excusing his lack of continuous success. It’s on him. We are obviously not equipped at the two main positions he needs to run his system. That’s on him. He has been slow to adjust the game plan but when he does it isn’t enough for most people. He’s backed himself into a corner to where he needs players from transfers rather than high school youth. We need a minimum of two starting offensive linemen to transfer in to stop the bleeding next year. 

I don’t believe he’ll be fired this year. 

That was then.  This is now.

For a while there, Gus was running his own sidelines ZR and getting away with it.  He'd read the defensive set and quickly call in the play.  Opposing defenses eventually caught on.  Despite this, I think Gus is still trying to do the sideline Zone Read, even though it requires the added step of the Chip the Monkey picking a Gus-approved play from the short list - which results in the delay of game penalties.  Smart opposing coaches now disguise their defensive intentions to take away his ability to read the D and even bait him into calling plays they can defend.  At the very least, they can certainly read our personnel and calculate the probabilities on Gus' play calling.

I applaud your loyalty, though.  Looks like it will take you and some others another season to give up your Gustav the Great fantasy and accept the truth.  So maybe it's a good thing he'll be here at least another season to drive the point home.