Auburn football: Does Gus Malzahn’s buyout make him untouchable?

Gus Malzahn is too expensive for Auburn football to potentially buy out right now.

Gus Malzahn makes way too much money for Auburn football to buy him out this offseason.

Despite being the second-longest tenured head coach in the SEC, Auburn Tigers fans have wanted to get off the Gus Bus shortly after whenever they decide to get on it. Auburn has played in two SEC Championship games since Malzahn’s arrival down on The Plains in 2013. However, he has not won the SEC or played for a national title since his first year in town. Could he be axed soon?

Gus Malzahn’s Auburn football contract buyout details

Auburn is the No. 24 team in the nation through the first week of November. Though the Tigers had their Week 11 date vs. the Mississippi State Bulldogs postponed due to positive COVID tests in Starkville, Auburn should finish the season around 6-4 in SEC-only. Given who they would have fallen to, Auburn would likely find itself ranked somewhere in the bottom fifth of the top 25.

For 2020, Malzahn is the seventh-highest paid coach in the Power 5. He makes $6,927,589 in total pay, which has him fifth among SEC coaches, trailing only Nick Saban of the Alabama Crimson Tide ($9,300,000), Ed Orgeron of the LSU Tigers ($8,918,500), Jimbo Fisher of the Texas A&M Aggies ($7,500,000) and Kirby Smart of the Georgia Bulldogs ($6,933,600).

Though other notable Power 5 coaches make more, what makes it difficult for Auburn to move on from Malzahn is his cushy buyout. After leading Auburn to the SEC Championship game in 2017 for the second time, the coach that we all thought was on the hot seat netted a sweet seven-year, $49 million contract extension. It runs through 2024, meaning his buyout is above eight figures.

If Auburn University were to buyout Malzahn on Dec. 1, 2020, it would cost the university $21,450,000. What makes this even more complicated is Malzahn does not have a provision in his contract to actively look for a job if he were fired without cause by Dec. 1. He would be entitled to 75 percent of whatever is left on his contract and would command half within 30 days.

So what put Auburn potentially between a rock and hard place with Malzahn? Leverage. It was a confluence of a few huge events taking place around the same time. In 2017, Auburn defeated its two biggest rivals in Alabama and Georgia during the regular season, longtime athletic director Jay Jacobs retired and Malzahn’s home state Arkansas Razorbacks were looking for a new head coach.

Essentially, Malzahn benefited from a series of fortunate circumstances. It was also aided by a fellow Jimmy Sexton client taking Texas A&M to the cleaners in Fisher. This is how Malzahn went from being on the hot seat in 2016 to almost certainly a guarantee to stay in Auburn for at least two more offseason cycles. Factor in the global pandemic and there is no way he is gone in 2021.

Few college football head coaches have the unquestioned job security Malzahn has these days.

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