How Auburn boosters are reportedly undermining Gus Malzahn's attempts to hire top assistants
The Auburn football program is a bit of a mess at the moment. After going 7-5 during the regular season, the Tigers are off to the Music City Bowl — a big disappointment after high preseason expectations.
Making matters worse is all the turmoil around coach Gus Malzahn, who many in the fanbase — boosters included — want fired.
On Wednesday, Alabama reporter Josh Moon, who mostly covers politics but interacts with some big boosters on his beat, tweeted about some strong new restrictions on Malzahn.
As you can see below, Moon is reporting that Auburn isn’t letting Malzahn offer deals to assistants that are longer than one year. Moon says that’s hindering Malzahn from hiring Hugh Freeze as his offensive coordinator:
This is the situation at Auburn now: top donors and university officials are so unhappy with the head football coach that they are seeking to undercut him by limiting assistants' contracts to single year deals. This is currently preventing AU from hiring Hugh Freeze as OC. /1
— Josh Moon (@Josh_Moon) December 5, 2018
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
To be clear, I have no source that can say AU is Freeze's top choice. Only that Malzahn, in putting together an offer for Freeze, asked for the waiver. There seems to be better ways to run a football program. /F
— Josh Moon (@Josh_Moon) December 5, 2018
If this is indeed the situation, it’s worth wondering why Auburn didn’t just bite the bullet and fire Malzahn after the regular season.
This seems to be hindering the program, so we’ll see what develops over the coming weeks.
Auburn admin almost as bad as vols… almost.
So the AD is toothless in all of this? If they want the guy gone, just fire him. Intentionally making the program worse only to fire him later only hurts more, and destroys any chance of getting someone better. This isn’t very bright if true.
University officials means President Leath.. The AD is handcuffed too because Leath is his boss. He’s been on the job less than a year. President Leath needs to be canned ASAP!
Also I don’t believe a lot of what this political reporter is saying but if it is true and they are handicapping him then it is all Leath and they want him to be gone next year so they are giving him every possibility to fail. But like I said Josh Moon is not the most reliable source..
I don’t know Moon, never heard of him, but how can you say what you just said.
What do you mean?
Everything Moon has reported to date has been spot on. Until it isn’t, what he says has to be considered.
How come people with influence/power can be so stupid? If you support Malzhan 100% that is your best chance of success with him as your coach. To “handcuff” him not only hurts Auburns chnaces of winning now, but also could set the program back years if recruiting is impacted negatively…poor fans, so helpless. Just have to watch as the those with all the say just let Auburn collapse..but AU wont stay down forever.
It just proves you don’t have to be smart to be rich or powerful
Amen brother.
They probably don’t support him, they just can’t think of anything better,
And, we should believe all these words from Josh Moon, and others, because they were so RIGHT last week when they put out the rumor of AU Boosters going after Stoops. Then, Malzahn’s renegotiating a reduced buyout to stay at Auburn….with tied hands…….God, the BS train never stops! HOW can any of this help AU Athletics in the long term??? Good coach, bad coach….he’s not an idiot. Neither are those who LOVE Auburn and want only a successful future.
I’m sick of FAKE NEWS, RUMOR, AND INNUENDO! Until you have FACTS in place, kindly SIT DOWN AND SHUT THE HELL UP!!
The problem is that the President, who is obviously running this clown show, will not act quickly or decisively. On top of that, he refuses to let the AD do his job and refuses to communicate with the media, boosters, or fans. His incompetence in this situation is astounding for someone with so much education. He’s the reason Auburn is suffering through fake and real news right now.
This is the guy who said Stoops was coming…
Hey Auburn, stop trying to one up us. When it comes to incompetent management Tennessee is SEC King
You are so right, brother.
I seriously doubt this is true. I find it incredibly hard to believe the boosters wouldn’t make an exception for freeze even if the 1 year contract is true.
President and BOT have made a huge mess of this dating back to the overpriced extension. However the above story is old news – it was part of an attempt to force Gus to pack up and leave – it failed.
Moving forward, the Confederacy of Dunces (Harbert & Leath) have put restrictions in place – but nothing is iron-clad. Everything is open to negotiation – if Freeze wants a multi-year deal, they’ll consider his offer. They just won’t allow CGM to do a deal without their approval.
lol…..I see someone else follows Greggory Mannarino’s work