Auburn AD Jay Jacobs stepping down: What does it mean for Gus Malzahn?
By Jack Crosby
Auburn is now in search of a new athletic director, which leaves the status of Gus Malzahn up in the air a bit.
Auburn University gave us a little Friday news dump this week with the word that athletic director Jay Jacobs will be stepping down soon. Jacobs will be stepping down from his post no later than June 1, 2018, he announced himself on Friday.
Of course, from this story out of Auburn, there are many questions to be asked, but one of the more prominent ones out there will be regarding the status of head football coach Gus Malzahn. Could the man who seems to always land himself on hot seat lists at some point in each of the past four seasons be living on borrowed time now? Or, well, for some — more borrowed time than he’s already been living with.
Jacobs hired Malzahn prior to the 2013 season after having previously worked with the program as an offensive coordinator, so the current head coach of the Auburn Tigers is losing his biggest supporter. You don’t have to do much thinking to draw the conclusion that this is not a good thing right off the bat. While the hire immediately paid its dividends and made Jacobs look like a genius for the decision he had made, with Auburn winning the SEC and making an appearance in the BCS National Championship Game, it hasn’t exactly been all sunshine and roses ever since. With lofty expectations for the Tigers program and Malzahn seemingly every season, they’ve failed to surpass eight wins in each of the last three seasons since going 12-2 in 2013, while losing two of the last three bowl games, with people calling for the job of Malzahn numerous times. Despite those calls, though, Jacobs had remained adamant Malzahn was the head coach Auburn needed, and he has been able to avoid what some at times saw as the inevitable.
While we don’t know who it will be at the moment with the news just dropping, there will be someone else deciding the fate of Malzahn at some point in the near future. Someone who’s not the person that hired him and stuck by his side through some rough patches the past few seasons.
Obviously, this means Malzahn, not knowing who his new boss will be or how he’ll be perceived, needs to put on a good showing the rest of the way. He’s in a good position right now with his team at 6-2, with losses to a Clemson team currently in line to make it back to the College Football Playoff and an LSU team that turned a corner after an embarrassing loss to Troy.
The journey for Malzahn securing his job starts with not slipping up against an inconsistent Texas A&M team this Saturday. If the Tigers hiccup against the Aggies, you might even be able to start the coaching search for Auburn sooner rather than later. Unfortunately, though, two of the last three games for Malzahn and this team will put even more pressure on his shoulders. After Texas A&M, the Tigers will welcome in the current No. 1 team in the College Football Playoff rankings, the Georgia Bulldogs. Then, following what should be a breather against Louisiana-Monroe, it’ll be time for the annual Iron Bowl against Alabama — another game that will be played at home on The Plains.
Now, does Malzahn have to beat either Georgia or Alabama? While it would surely help — especially if he and the Tigers could somehow come out on top in both of those outings — there’s also a chance the new AD would see him in a favorable light if those games are competitive. Yes, that would put Malzahn at eight wins again in the regular season, with the chance to finally secure a ninth again with a bowl win.
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Not knowing who will be stepping in to run the athletics department, it’s tough to really say what Malzahn has to do the rest of the way to remain employed. All we can do right now is speculate. But what’s for certain is that he needs to avoid embarrassment at all costs, which includes a potential upset at the hands of Texas A&M and convincing losses to Georgia and Alabama.