McElwain, Malzahn embrace risk that comes with reward in SEC
The Southeastern Conference’s coach of the year award might as well be renamed “Welcome to the Hot Seat.” Unless you’re Nick Saban, it just doesn’t buy as much job security as it used to.
Two years ago, Auburn’s Gus Malzahn came to SEC media days as the toast of the conference, a revolutionary offensive figure and the coach most likely to knock Saban and the Alabama program out of dynasty mode. Monday, he was talking about what needed to change for Auburn to contend again and perhaps keep his job beyond this season.
It was a striking bit of irony that Malzahn was followed at the podium by Florida’s Jim McElwain, another coach who inherited low expectations in his first season and shattered them by winning the SEC East right out of the gate.
But McElwain understands the way things are in the SEC. No matter how close you get to a conference title or even a national championship, you’re only one bad year away from a restless fan base and talk of a coaching change.
“There’s no doubt,” McElwain said. “This league like no other is, ‘What have you done for me lately?’ ”
It’s quite remarkable, actually, how fast SEC coaches in the past 15 years have gone from being celebrated at the highest level of their profession to unemployed.
David Cutcliffe (2003), Houston Nutt (2006) and Sylvester Croom (2007) were fired just one season after being named SEC coach of the year. Gene Chizik only lasted two after Auburn’s unbeaten national title in 2010. Tommy Tuberville won the award in 2004, put up three more top-15 finishes in a row and then was out of a job after one bad season.
In 2012, Kevin Sumlin and Will Muschamp shared the award. The latter was fired at Florida two years later, and the former is under significant pressure at Texas A&M after two disappointing 8-5 seasons.
That trend doesn’t portend well for Malzahn turning it around at Auburn. Likewise, if McElwain never finds himself on the hot seat, he’ll have beaten the coaching odds.
“I don’t think it’s ever good feelings at a place like the University of Florida (after going 10-4). The expectations are we should have been better than that,” McElwain said.
The way Malzahn sees it, it’s all about living on the margins. Monday, he repeatedly referenced Auburn’s performance in close games as the reason his team went from preseason SEC favorite to the Birmingham Bowl.
“In this league, you’re going to have a lot of close games,” Malzahn said. “The two previous years, we were one of the best in the country at winning close games. And we had opportunities. And usually it comes down in this league to two or three plays in these close games, and you’ve got to find a way to make them and you’ve got to have your guys prepared and you’ve got to be able to execute.”
But to Auburn fans who see the trend lines with a skeptical eye, that seems more like spin than reality. Auburn lost a four-overtime game to Arkansas, lost to Mississippi State and Mississippi by eight points apiece and lost to Georgia by seven points. But the Tigers also squeaked by Kentucky and needed overtime to survive Jacksonville State. They were beaten soundly by LSU and Alabama. The truth is, 7-6 was about right.
Auburn athletics director Jay Jacobs has done everything he can to provide the illusion that Malzahn’s job is secure no matter what happens this year, including a contract extension through 2020 announced in June. Jacobs has talked about the need for stability at Auburn, and he’s right. Churning through coaches at the first sign of adversity is not the way to sustain success, particularly when everything you do is measured against Alabama. If turning around a broken program and coming within seconds of a national championship doesn’t buy you some job security, what’s the point?
Still, if Auburn goes 6-6 again — or worse — it’s not that hard to predict how this is going to end. Just ask Chizik, who had no inkling his job was in jeopardy heading into the 2012 season but couldn’t survive a 3-9 record and a crushing 49-0 loss to Alabama.
At least Malzahn has some runway to fix what ails the Tigers. Unlike last year when Auburn went all-in with Jeremy Johnson at quarterback only to see him underperform to a shocking degree, there has been enough time and a full recruiting cycle to find a better answer. The defense should be deeper and healthier. And Malzahn has talked extensively about moving away from the CEO approach and being more involved in day-to-day coaching.
“After you get done with the season and you’re not as successful as you’d like, you evaluate things,” Malzahn said. “We had high expectations, and we do every year, and we weren’t able to reach our goals and it was very frustrating and it was humbling to go through an experience like that. You have to evaluate everything. I’m extremely motivated this year as well our staff and our team is.”
But the life cycle of coaching in the SEC suggests that motivation has little to do with job security. When you exceed expectations as dramatically as Malzahn did at the start of his tenure, equivalent success is merely meeting the standard that was set. Anything less suddenly becomes a case to make a coaching change.
Those are significant forces Malzahn has to fight, not to mention Alabama, LSU, Mississippi and the rest. And in a couple years, McElwain could very well find himself in the same spot if Florida doesn’t get back to the SEC championship game.
But given their multimilliondollar salaries and the upside of coaching at a place where you can win national titles, they wouldn’t have it any other way.
“We’re the ones who chose to do this,” McElwain said. “So if you’re going to do it, do it at the highest level where the biggest boiling pot is, and let’s go jump in and see what we can make out of it.”