Why is Gus the worst at bowl games?

[GwillMac6 20,671]

Gus is 2-5 in bowl games. Chiz was 3-0. Tubs was 5-3 in Bowl games. Baby Bowden was 2-1 in Bowl games. Pat Dye was 6-2-1. None of these coaches with the obvious exception of Dye was a vastly superior coach than Malzahn. It just makes no freaking sense. I am tired of losing bowl games when the opponent has any kind of pulse.

[dyehardfanAU 2,117]

Opponent's have ample time to prep for the offense.

The 2 wins are against Purdue and Memphis who we completely out-talented.

[I_M4_AU 7,801]

In spite of what he says in his press conferences, he just doesn’t put the effort into the post season and that vibe is picked up by the team.  JMO of course.

[ToraGirl 5,498]

I am coming to believe our opponents have an easier time mastering whatever it is we do in their prep time.  I can't speak for what happens during ours.  Someone made an observation that when we beat Bama, we lose the bowl game.  Someone else can check and confirm/deny this, but if it's true, then it's as if Auburn stays on the emo high and believes itself to be invincible. 

We DON'T "act like we've been there before." We stay giddy. We go, "Phew!  Bragging rights for a year!"

And no matter now many press articles are out there, I am not sure there is a real understanding of not only what it takes to achieve the goals that should be expected, but how to.  You can't translate to those learning from you if you can't get it down/done yourself.

Case in point.  One year I was teaching K and the issue was the inability to recall letters when presented on a flashcard.  (It is rocket science for some children).  The mama said, "But he does it fine at home."  

To which I thought to reply, "Can you show me how you practice?"

She replies, "I take out the cards.  And then I say, 'Show me the N...show me the B...show me the...etc."

Bless her.  She was involved.  She was working with her child.  She THOUGHT that is how it's done.  😍

Everything seems normal until you are around a quality standard.  Then things shake out pretty quickly.

[auburn4ever 1,266]

Even Shug Jordan had a better bowl record than Malzahn. While Malahn is 2-5, Shug was 5-7. Chizik was 3-0. Tuberville was 5-3. Bowden was 2-1.

[abw0004 10,110]

I do agree Gus’ Bowl record leaves a lot to be desired so I have no answer or reasoning there.

One caveat to also add is Tuberville and Chizik also didn’t make it to a bowl game at all one season each.   

[nixtosanders94 2,180]

@GwillMac6 if you had 3 weeks to prepare for a pee wee offense wouldn’t you do well against it? 

[Carnell 592]

Because Barfield never got us to a bowl game.

[johnnyAU 3,630]

His offense is now easy to defend because he has been so predictable and too stubborn to change.  He has not evolved as a coach, and his offense has become stagnant as a result.

After 7 years in the books, he isn't going to change. He is who he is, and that's a run-of-the-mill, average 8-5 coach. It's apparently all he'll ever be.

[murpjf88 506]

4 hours ago, dyehardfanAU said:

Opponent's have ample time to prep for the offense.

The 2 wins are against Purdue and Memphis who we completely out-talented.

You don't need ample time to prepare for his offense. You just need game tape of one game and you pretty much have Malzahn's playbook. He's a one trick pony doing one trick pony things.

[murpjf88 506]

2 hours ago, abw0004 said:

I do agree Gus’ Bowl record leaves a lot to be desired so I have no answer or reasoning there.

One caveat to also add is Tuberville and Chizik also didn’t make it to a bowl game at all one season each.   

Chizik was sabotaged by Malzahn's recruitment of QB Frasier. To Chizik's credit, he did win a national championship 

[Maverick.AU 13,279]

Imagine if we had better regular seasons, he’d probably be 0-7 in bowl games

[Maverick.AU 13,279]

17 minutes ago, murpjf88 said:

Chizik was sabotaged by Malzahn's recruitment of QB Frasier. To Chizik's credit, he did win a national championship 

Remember back when we said chizik handcuffed Malzahn lol

[JDUBB4AU 5,112]

40 minutes ago, johnnyAU said:

His offense is now easy to defend because he has been so predictable and too stubborn to change.  He has not evolved as a coach, and his offense has become stagnant as a result.

After 7 years in the books, he isn't going to change. He is who he is, and that's a run-of-the-mill, average 8-5 coach. It's apparently all he'll ever be.

I hope and pray Morris can break Gus and do what he needs to do . Morris is the key to the playoff 

[AuburnEagle79 2,165]

Our entire offense is predicated on doing about 5-6 things really well. We have a lot of smoke and mirrors, but not much variation in play-calling. That makes preparation on a months notice much easier.

When you pair that with the fact that we don't do those 5-6 things very well most of the time, the losses start to pile up. 

[weagl1 1,782]

Because his offense is offensive when they are up against a good team.  He broke his tendencies last year against a mediocre team and won big.  So he went back to the same old crap this year with the expected results.  Stuffed.

[NoALtiger 3,855]

I don’t have an answer to this but I can tell you it’s not solely because the other team has extra prep time for planning. If that were the case, quality teams like Oregon and Washington would have opened the season  1-0 instead of taking an L from us the past 2 years. 

[Farmer Brown 2,391]

3 hours ago, nixtosanders94 said:

@GwillMac6 if you had 3 weeks to prepare for a pee wee offense wouldn’t you do well against it? 

This is for those who leave reactions with the emoticons. Facepalm all you want, but that is the truth. Why do you read these threads? Just let us all drown our miseries, by complaining to each other. We release our frustrations that way. Start your threads on how great his Mickey Mouse offense is, that takes  first round draft choices to run. I promise, I will not comment in any of them. 

[nixtosanders94 2,180]

3 minutes ago, Farmer Brown said:

This is for those who leave reactions with the emoticons. Facepalm all you want, but that is the truth. Why do you read these threads? Just let us all drown our miseries, by complaining to each other. We release our frustrations that way. Start your threads on how great his Mickey Mouse offense is, that takes a first round draft choice to run it. I promise, I will not comment in any of them. 

Ummm what?

[Farmer Brown 2,391]

1 minute ago, nixtosanders94 said:

Ummm what?

You got a facepalm for telling the truth. Pay attention, son. I was sticking up for your comment.

[nixtosanders94 2,180]

Just now, Farmer Brown said:

You got a facepalm for telling the truth. 

Oh, lol I didn’t even notice. Thanks. I thought I had made you mad somehow 🤷‍♂️

[Farmer Brown 2,391]

2 minutes ago, nixtosanders94 said:

Oh, lol I didn’t even notice. Thanks. I thought I had made you mad somehow 🤷‍♂️

If Aufamily made me mad, I would be a very shallow individual. In the grand scheme of things, and with what I deal with at times, this is a relaxing place. 

[AUloggerhead 2,229]

8 hours ago, ToraGirl said:

I am coming to believe our opponents have an easier time mastering whatever it is we do in their prep time.  I can't speak for what happens during ours.  Someone made an observation that when we beat Bama, we lose the bowl game.  Someone else can check and confirm/deny this, but if it's true, then it's as if Auburn stays on the emo high and believes itself to be invincible. 

We DON'T "act like we've been there before." We stay giddy. We go, "Phew!  Bragging rights for a year!"

And no matter now many press articles are out there, I am not sure there is a real understanding of not only what it takes to achieve the goals that should be expected, but how to.  You can't translate to those learning from you if you can't get it down/done yourself.

Case in point.  One year I was teaching K and the issue was the inability to recall letters when presented on a flashcard.  (It is rocket science for some children).  The mama said, "But he does it fine at home."  

To which I thought to reply, "Can you show me how you practice?"

She replies, "I take out the cards.  And then I say, 'Show me the N...show me the B...show me the...etc."

Bless her.  She was involved.  She was working with her child.  She THOUGHT that is how it's done.  😍

Everything seems normal until you are around a quality standard.  Then things shake out pretty quickly.

I like your approach.  Before the next bowl game, we need you to get over to Gus’s office with a set of flash cards and say, “show me the crossing route, now show me the slant ... No, put that fake punt card on the bottom — you won’t be playing that one any time soon.  

[ToraGirl 5,498]

9 minutes ago, AUloggerhead said:

I like your approach.  Before the next bowl game, we need you to get over to Gus’s office with a set of flash cards and say, “show me the crossing route, now show me the slant ... No, put that fake punt card on the bottom — you won’t be playing that one any time soon.  

If you cut off his escape routes, I'll be happy to try!

This is assuming there is a next bowl game...or a next one that he coaches for Auburn...

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,662]

Did someone in this thread restate the various coaches' bowl records...that were already stated in the OP???