Nick Saban reacts to Auburn firing Gus Malzahn
The Iron Bowl rivalry will look much different in 2021, as Auburn fired Gus Malzahn Sunday. Malzahn finished the 2020 season with a 6-4 record, including a 42-13 loss to Nick Saban and Alabama.
Malzahn was somewhat of a thorn in Saban’s side, as his spread-em-out hurry-up offense gave Alabama’s defense fits at times. Malzahn finished with a 3-5 record against Saban, and the former Auburn head coach had more success against Saban than most.
On Sunday evening, Saban was on a teleconference call with reporters discussing the upcoming SEC Championship Game against Florida, and he was asked about Auburn firing Malzahn.
“Well, I have a tremendous amount of respect for Gus,” Saban said. “He was difficult to play against when he was a offensive coordinator. His teams always played hard the team was always well coached on, you know both sides of the ball and special teams. So, I have a tremendous amount of respect for Gus and I, you know, sometimes you wonder why people do what they do but I don’t know what the reasons are but I certainly think he’s an outstanding coach and has been a tough adversary for us to have to play against in the Iron Bowl every year and to have a lot of respect for Gus and the job that he’s done.”
Auburn will pay Malzahn his $21.5 million buyout for terminating his employment early.
“He was difficult to play against when he was OC.” I hope yall caught that shot at Chad Morris. Well done saban!
The article says Malzahn had more success than most against Saban with a 3-5 record but has anybody beat Saban more since he has been at Bama?
Nope. Hugh Freeze once beat him two seasons in a row.
I think Les Miles and Dabo have beaten him 3 times, but I don’t think anyone has more wins.
“I certainly think he’s an outstanding coach and has been a tough adversary for us to have to play against in the Iron Bowl every year and to have a lot of respect for Gus and the job that he’s done”
I bet he’s thinking, tell me they’re not going to hire Hugh Freeze…
Auburn just made a huge mistake, all coaches have had a tough season this year. You can’t compare your team to Alabama every year. Good luck Auburn you just dropped to the bottom of the food chain.
This had nothing to do with Bama. It has everything to do with 5 years of terrible offense and losing to UT, Miss St, USC, and UGA when they were terrible. It’s about going 2-5 in bowl games and saying a 4 loss season is acceptable. The only mistake, was not letting him go to Arky in 2017.
Thank you for that by the way
Its an old drum beat, but Malzahn should have taken the Arkansas job when it was offered. Life is too short and you can be happy with success short of a national championship. Gus will find a pretty good spot if he wants it, but his decision to hire Morris was a huge mistake. The guy is dead weight and he better not be on the Gus Bus when it pulls into the next town. Maybe equipment manager? Naw, just cut off that wart.
There isn’t really anyone available that is a home-run hire other than Freeze, but he comes with a considerable amount of baggage. Given what our basketball program is currently going through, I’m not sure we’d want that kind of NCAA scrutiny on our football program too, but he has a proven track record of being able to beat Saban, and I’d rather beat Alabama regularly than win 11 games every and never beat them, because if you can beat Alabama, you’re almost guaranteed to be in the title hunt.
He played us like a second-hand fiddle to get his extension, but I wish him no harm.
i would totally agree with the extension plan. Best of luck to him
Gus really isnt a bad guy, really not. He just made some wrong decisions and not taking the Arky job is the worst one. The hire of Morris though sealed his fate as to ever being called back to that state. A hire that made absolutely no professional sense. In the end, they are both multi millionaires so life could be worse.