Former Auburn Tigers head coach Gus Malzahn retired from coaching in February when he stepped down as the Florida State Seminoles' offensive coordinator. Clearly, though, Malzahn is not truly retired from the game.
Malzahn has been present at Alex Golesh's practices of late. Additionally, per AL.com's Peter Rauterkus, "Malzahn also doesn’t seem to harbor any resentment toward Auburn despite being fired in 2020. Exactly what his contributions toward the program will look like moving forward remains to be seen, but now that he’s retired, Malzahn is back in the place where his college coaching career took off."
Some have speculated about Malzahn moving into an AD role at some point, with John Cohen's future under question given the football program's stagnation, basketball taking a step back after he and Bruce Pearl handed Steven Pearl the job without an interview process, and, most recently, Jeff Graba being removed as the head gymnastics coach. Malzahn joining the CFP selection committee lends some credence to that idea.
Perhaps there's another job that could work in the meantime.
Gus Malzahn could be a great assistant GM for Auburn football
One thing we know Malzahn could do is recruit well. He brought Cam Newton, Bo Nix, Tank Bigsby, Derrick Brown, Noah Igbinoghene, Braden Smith, and countless others to the Plains. He has the chops to acquire talent.
An assistant GM role, with the potential to advance to a full-time GM role if Andrew Warsaw were to move on at any point, would suit Malzahn well. Certainly, Golesh doesn't seem threatened by his presence. If anything, Golesh knows the value in hearing about how to get the job done from guys who've gotten the job done.
At worst, an ambassador role like Bruce Pearl has would be a good role for Malzahn. Clearly, he wants to remain around AU and is still a Tiger at heart. Why not put pen to paper and make it official.
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