What does Auburn's offensive coordinator hire of Kenny Dillingham say? A lot
Gus Malzahn got his guy.
With all due respect to new Auburn offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Kenny Dillingham, I say that tongue in cheek.
A week after Chip Lindsey left Malzahn to go join forces with Les Miles at Kansas, Auburn announced on Sunday night at 10 p.m. ET that it hired a 28-year-old assistant from Memphis to take the position. As recently as 2016, Dillingham was a grad assistant at Memphis.
https://twitter.com/AuburnFootball/status/1071977827229151233
I don’t want to poke holes at Dillingham’s résumé or insist that he isn’t one of the “rising stars in the profession” as Malzahn laid out in the official release, but I think it’s at least worth mentioning that this is a real paragraph in his bio on Memphis’ website:
Before joining the collegiate football ranks, Dillingham served as a coach in the Athletes in Training program from 2008-10. He also worked for the City of Scottsdale (Ariz.) as a football camp manager from 2009-13. Over that same period of time, Dillingham served in several capacities – from freshman coach to offensive coordinator – with the Chaparral High School.
In other words, when Malzahn was leading Auburn to a national title berth in 2013, Dillingham was working his way up as a football camp manager for the City of Scottsdale.
In other shocking news, Dillingham won’t be calling plays for Auburn. Malzahn will go back to filling that role, which he did in his first 3 seasons.
Call me crazy, but this says a ton about the current state of the program.
Again, I really don’t want this to come off as my way of saying Dillingham can’t succeed at Auburn. Of course he can. Young offensive minds are all the rage in football these days. We just watched 35-year-old Lincoln Riley lead his second Heisman Trophy quarterback in as many seasons. Maybe Dillingham was indeed the secret sauce behind Mike Norvell’s high-powered offenses at Memphis.
But to me, this hire is all about Malzahn trying to get control back. By bringing in someone nearly half his age, Malzahn has a coordinator who’s young enough to be his son. I’m not saying that he’ll get treated like that, but the fact that it came out that Malzahn will be handling play-calling duties now doesn’t exactly go against the belief that he hired a “yes man.”
That’s what you’d expect someone entering a make-or-break year to do. Malzahn is. He knows it. Everyone at Auburn knows it. That’s why he’s putting all of his chips on himself to try and find the magic that he had early in his Auburn tenure.
In a different way, that’s why it made sense that Malzahn reportedly wanted to hire Hugh Freeze, AKA the other guy who beat Nick Saban twice. Considering how Freeze left Ole Miss and how desperate he is to rebuild his tarnished reputation, Freeze would’ve done anything that Malzahn asked of him. Malzahn could have taken on play-calling duties while Freeze was probably just giddy to get back into the SEC in an on-field role.
But that, in fitting Auburn fashion, didn’t get the nod of approval from the folks upstairs:
Freeze is reportedly seeking a multi-year deal from future employers. Sources said Malzahn has asked AU to wave the recent restriction on multi-year contracts in order to hire Freeze. AU response: Nah. /2
— Josh Moon (@Josh_Moon) December 5, 2018
It’s worth noting that according to Auburn Undercover, Dillingham agreed to a 2-year deal to become the Tigers’ new offensive coordinator.
Just sayin’.
So Auburn reportedly waved its multi-year contract restriction to hire Dillingham. Why? It was either desperate to fill the position with the Early Signing Period just a week and a half away, or it realized that Dillingham’s contract is probably half of what it would have paid Freeze.
Again, that’s just speculation. It’s also technically speculation to say that Dillingham wasn’t Auburn’s first choice.
And believe it or not, Auburn’s release had Dillingham’s experience as a football camp manager for the City of Scottsdale tweaked to “from 2007-12 Dillingham served in several coaching capacities with the Chaparral High School football program in Scottsdale, Ariz.”
Dillingham is a hustler. No doubt. That’s why the guy was coaching junior varsity football … while he was a high school senior. He’s basically been grinding as a coach since before he could legally vote. The fact that he’s risen to such heights so quickly is a testament to just how hard he’s worked.
But let’s be clear. Auburn doesn’t make a move like this if everything is business as usual. Malzahn will enter 2019 with a seat hotter than anyone in America, and nobody is going to blame the 28-year-old offensive coordinator if the Tigers’ offense repeats its 2018 offensive dud.
Malzahn wanted to get back to what he had with Rhett Lashlee, who was only 29 when he was hired as Auburn’s offensive coordinator in 2013. He was just over a decade removed from being Malzahn’s quarterback at Shiloh Christian High School (Ark.). And despite how things ended, that plan benefitted Auburn greatly in the short-term. There’s no doubt that Malzahn is trying to recreate that dynamic with the 28-year-old Dillingham.
It wasn’t a coincidence that in the release that Auburn sent out at 10 p.m. ET on Sunday night, it made no mention of Dillingham’s age, or that he’s one of the youngest FBS coordinators in the country. That’s fine. They didn’t have to. The internet took care of that.
There’s another sentence that wasn’t in the team’s release that certainly could’ve been.
“Auburn is desperate, and everything that’s happened on The Plains the last few months suggests that 2019 will be filled with angst.”
This was the only hire that could possibly work for Malzahn. No real OC is going to work for him under his control. Rhett left because he was given a shot at OC and Gus quickly ripped it away from him like a child. Win or lose next year, it’s all on Gus…which is the only person he trusts.
What a mess.
Gus is sick of AU and he’s doing dum*ss stuff like this so they’ll fire him so he can collect his millions and go.
It has to suck for Auburn fans. This is the powers that be saying we aren’t trying to win next year. They are just trying to lessen the buyout to Gus for next year. Bo Nix better be ready. He’s Gus’s only hope.
Sadly, I don’t see Gus starting a true freshman no matter how talented.
For the sake of Nix and the Auburn program, I hope Gus doesn’t try to burn the program down around him if it looks like he’s going to get fired. It would be petty to burn redshirts and run players off from the program. I enjoy the rivalry with Auburn a lot better when both teams are successful. It’s more fun when winning the Iron Bowl actually means something.
Gus believes in himself and won’t do anything out of malice. He’s genuinely a good guy and most Auburn people have wanted him to turn the corner. Unfortunately, it’s his trust issues with people that holds him back. Yes, he played a lot of freshman this year…but that’s entirely different than handing the keys over to a freshman QB. If Bo plays, then he’s won the confidence of Gus and that would be truly amazing.
Gus Malzahn is not a good guy. He’s the kind of coach who gives a walk-on an athletic scholarship and then takes it away once player gives up his academic scholarship
Might as well get the short list of recruits for Auburn head coach ready for the post 2019 hiring. Gus is gone. I see no way he can win 10 games, more likely 7-8 wins. No experience or depth at QB or RB. New OC. If one or two DL declare for the draft, then 5-6 wins.
Pappoe is a 5* Georgia player committed to Auburn. Kirby and company need to get him to see reality and get back home to Georgia.
I don’t see why any player would commit to Auburn this year if he has other good options.
If Pappoe goes anywhere other than Auburn, it’ll likely be with his teammate Wanya Morris to Tennessee. He has visited a handful of times recently.
I agree. Not only does UGA have their LB commits lined up, but Pappoe seems to be trending towards UT being 2nd after Auburn.
Gus’ years running the offense (excluding the Cam 2010 season)
2013 – 7,018 yards and avg 40 pts
2014 – 6,305 yards and avg 35 pts
2015 – 4,810 yards and avg 27 pts
Looks bad on paper, but the returning experience and skill set is much more in line with the 2013 and 2014 teams, but we still have Kevin Steele and those 2 years Auburn was just trying to outscore people with Ellis Johnson as DC.
Auburn has every RB back. The new OC is not calling plays. Gus is at his best when he calls plays. If he wins 9 games and competes with or possibly wins either UA, LSU or UGA then he will stay. There has be somewhat of a direction in the offense next year or he is out.
What about the kid that’s transferring because Gus burned his redshirt?
He was the number 5 running back so I think Auburn will be okay without him for this season. He wasn’t going to make or break next season. I was looking forward to his progression in the offseason though.
It sucks for depth but he was already number 3 for just freshmen. Have multiple guys that are ahead of him already.. sucks for the kid and wish him the best.
I wonder what will happen if auburn loses to Purdue. The pressure will be so bad idk what Gus will do. But I do wish the best for Kenny dillingham.
Things are not ok down at the Barn.
SDS would be wise to think twice about relying on John Moon as a reliable source. Nothing he has “reported” on has been corroborated by other sources and none of his bombshell reports have panned out. Bob Stoops never was and is not in talks to be the head coach, boosters did not prevent Malzahn from hiring anybody (that was probably the University itself putting the kibosh on hiring a pariah as OC), and there was no change to Malzahn’s contract.
Obviously, there are problems down on the Plains, but Moon doesn’t know what they are.
When we lost a couple games we shouldn’t have this past season I was livid and wanted Gus fired. Now that the dust has settled though I really want him to have at least 2 more years. I really believe Bo Nix at qb will change things and get us back in the championship picture. It won’t happen overnight, but he’s the type of qb Gus excels with and he’s the real deal. I firmly believe that he needs to start next year, and if he does than I have no problem with yet another 7-8 win season so long as box gets the experience he needs to explode in year 2. Frankly Auburn hasn’t had a qb of this caliber since Cam, and I’m excited for the future. Lastly, I don’t really care who the OC is so long as they can develop Qb’s since Gus has frequently proven he can’t.