Ever since he announced his retirement from coaching after three-plus decades, I have gone back and forth on how to begin a tribute to Gus Malzahn. Do you begin with how he changed college football? Or do you start with the fact that he was one of the few coaches who put fear in Nick Saban?
Should I go another route, mentioning how he single-handedly brought back the sweater vest industry in the 334 area code, or that he made chewing gum look like an Olympic sport?
No, I’m going to start with what many people might not know: he’s an expert trash talker, and he can cut you with a knife when you least expect it. While I have seen that side of him in the last several years, forming a friendship with him that, much like with the late Mike Leach, was highly unlikely, I’ve realized something: that passion to win and stomp all over me on the golf course is what opposing coaches and their teams feared for so long.
Gus Malzahn wants to win, and he wants to win big
The Mr. Nice Guy beneath the visor and glasses wanted to beat you, and beat you badly, and for a large part of his career, he did it proficiently. Without Malzahn, there is no 2010 national championship at Auburn. There is no 2013 run to the title game, that epic storybook season that almost had the movie ending. We don’t get Saban complaining about the lack of safety that comes with a hurry-up offense, only to go and install it the very next season with the Crimson Tide.
Do we even have the hurry-up offense at all? I highly doubt it. That is how Malzahn made his name known from the beginning at the high school ranks before being given a shot to bring it to the collegiate level. We saw how effective it was all the way back in 2006, as he made the duo of Darren McFadden and Felix Jones into a machine at Arkansas.
His time at Auburn will always be enshrined in the history of college football with the Kick Six and The Prayer at Jordan-Hare, his ability to stare Saban in the face and, let’s be fair, how it ended: with a 6-4 shortened season and being fired, only to see Auburn hire a guy who likely still needed Waze to find his office a year later.
On the final episode of The Office, Andy Bernard delivers one of the more touching lines in television history, stating, “I wish there was a way to know you're in the good old days, before you've actually left them.”
After five straight losing seasons, Auburn fans might be feeling the same way about the Malzahn era. It was a time when everything seemed possible, good or bad.
One more thing: he is forgiving. As he loves to mention, I wasn’t precisely easy on him when he was the head coach at Auburn when things were going badly, but luckily, we’ve talked past that. He still brings it up to either humor me, or try and get into my head. Either way, it sometimes works.
Now, when he isn’t spending time with Kristi, their children and grandchildren, he will likely be on the driving range trying to shore up his golf game, remembering that latest defeat when yours truly bested him by at least 10 shots.
Congrats, Gus, on being a great coach and even better person. Now, we have some scores to settle. I’ll give you honors.