The Auburn Tigers should draw inspiration from a trend that was continued on Tuesday night when the LSU Tigers hired Ed Orgeron as the special assistant to recruiting and defense on Lane Kiffin's inaugural coaching staff in Baton Rouge.
With Orgeron back at LSU five years after the Tigers fired him, which follows Brent Pry becoming the Virginia Tech Hokies defensive coordinator just months after being fired in Blacksburg, Auburn must next hire back one of their own hired coaches.
No, it's not Hugh Freeze, even if the man was a great recruiter on the Plains. We don't need to hear that the program is "close" to anything ever again. Imagine getting recruiting updates from this man with similar verbiage to his press conferences? No thanks.
Hell no, it's not Bryan Harsin. While he was a strong X's and O's guy, he burned practically every bridge in East Central Alabama. He and his family will not want to be back after the two-way hatred that simmered between the Harsins and the Auburn family.
Keep going back. As in, the man who had the Tigers back at a consistent level of winning for seven years before his firing at the end of the COVID-19-stricken 2020 season: Gus Malzahn.
Malzahn, of course, is the championship offensive coordinator who oversaw Cam Newton's all-time great season in East Central Alabama back in 2010. While the game plans were sometimes criticized for being bland, Malzahn's work on the recruiting trail was never questioned. Not only did Malzahn recruit consistent top-10 classes, but he also produced over 30 NFL draft picks during his time as a head coach. He helped others become pros before that during his OC stint, including the aforementioned Newton, who went No. 1 overall after working with Malzahn.
A recruiting role on Alex Golesh's staff feels natural. Especially since Golesh already draws inspiration from Malzahn, and the retired head coach may be looking to contribute to the program in some form.
Gus Malzahn and Alex Golesh share enough synergies to make partnership work
Malzahn recruiting for Golesh is natural, since the two run similar schemes and Golesh was inspired by Gus. Malzahn recruited the Deep South for many years and helped establish the brand in modern College Football, which should only help Golesh's efforts on the trail. Not only that, but Malzahn is established in Texas and Arkansas, where he spent much of his young life and the formative years of his coaching career.
Other than football purposes, bringing Malzahn back would be a shot in the arm of feel-good nostalgia, just like Orgeron's return in Baton Rouge. Sometimes, you need to remind people of the good times. Like Coach O with the Bayou Bengals, Malzahn won it all as a coach/coordinator for AU. Reminding people of how they felt during those better times could bring good memories to the front of the mind and bury the past five years of program mismanagement by coaches who were never worthy Malzahn replacements in the first place.
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