Just announced. Wow. What a great hire for them. Frankly though, I'm surprised they were able to land him. I woulda thought he could easily get an AQ offer right now.

Its easy to question Malzahn accepting this job due to the paycut and drop in prestige...does he want to work on his head coaching chops at a lower level, then go big?

Good for them. Good for the conference, too, as now people are noticing the Sun Belt. Been lurking about some other boards and some folks didn't even know stAte was D1.

BIG MISTAKE!

I am sure the fact the he gets to return to Arkansas helps soften the blow of a 500K pay cut. If were about the money he could have just stayed at Auburn. He also should have struck when the iron was hot if he wanted an AQ job, or is Ark St > Vandy with regard to stepping stone job?

I have also heard that his that his fruitcake wife hasn't helped his public image any either.

It's a GREAT move for him. His stock has fallen with the drop in performance at Auburn. Last year he could have had the Vandy or possibly the Maryland job but he choose to wait a year and get something bigger. Now Ark State is his best offer and I see nothing that leads me to believe that Auburn's offense will rebound next year.
Plus, he walks into a program that just won 10 games, returns a ton of starters and ran a very similar offense to his last year (he and Freeze are good friends). Back in Arkansas he'll have a chance to recruit some good talent thanks to his name recognition there. My biggest fear is that his time at Auburn will help him get players from Alabama.
This is a much better step than McElwain's to Colorado State. CSU was 3-9 last year and is paying him $600,000. Getting a winning season there will be difficult. Malzahn is getting $800,000 and should have the SBC favorite going into next year. I could see him going to bowls two or three straight years and then he gets the big offer he wants.

I am sure he will get some guys from AL. ASU really likes AL. CJJ needs to have the youtube video of Gus' wife on his cell phone to show recruits.

The SBC is not getting any easier. The coaching upgrades in the last two years have been impressive. Competition is good, but it's going to make our road much tougher.


Edit: Link to the Tim Brando Show segment where they are talking SB football and Malzahn. If you get error when the page loads, just refresh the page, and it should work.

Ugh.....

Malzahn has put together offenses that scored video game scores every year, excepting this year. I lend that to being personnel related rather than coaching.

Arky State is positioned to steamroll the SBC next year. Unfortunately, we might be part of that steamroll. I take solace in the fact that we DID shut down UTM, who was the highest scoring offense in FCS, at the time.

Maybe, JUST maybe, we could do the same, but it looks bleak.

I like the SBC upgrade, as it helps conference prestige. I just hate that we have to deal with it next year.

I don't think CGM is going to be that hard to deal with after a couple of years. We were expecting to get rolled by most teams next year anyway.

CGM offenses need good talent (possibly an understatement) to put up those video-game like scores. This year his offense scored zero points against Alabama at JH, something GaSo managed to do at BDS. If anything he will be as good as Freeze, which is still pretty good but I don't believe he will be unstoppable. Hes a big name to boost interest and that's about it IMO.

(12-14-2011 11:51 AM)Tiguar Wrote:  I don't think CGM is going to be that hard to deal with after a couple of years. We were expecting to get rolled by most teams next year anyway.

CGM offenses need good talent (possibly an understatement) to put up those video-game like scores. This year his offense scored zero points against Alabama at JH, something GaSo managed to do at BDS. If anything he will be as good as Freeze, which is still pretty good but I don't believe he will be unstoppable. Hes a big name to boost interest and that's about it IMO.

I think you vastly underestimate his celebrity in Arkansas. During their good couple years with Nutt, he was always viewed as the brains of the operation. He'll be able to recruit well.

I think it's good for the conference. It will force everyone to get better; either put up or shut up. And if he does well, it will help raise the profile of the conference as a whole. Then I think you'll see a lot of keeping up with the Joneses.

Well, I do agree recruiting will be better for stAte and that it is a huge boost to the conference. I just disagree hes some sort of offensive wizard.

Go back to his days to Tulsa. He took two relatively pedestrian QBs and put up ridiculous numbers.

Not sure about the $600,000 for CSU job. Per my information the CSU job is paying 1.35 million plus a bonus of $150,000 for grad rates. I don't know if this is accurate or not.

(12-14-2011 12:21 PM)USACoN2012 Wrote:  Go back to his days to Tulsa. He took two relatively pedestrian QBs and put up ridiculous numbers.

He's good for a few years, no doubt. I look forward to seeing him in Ladd in 2013.

You guys are killing me, talking about now that he is there could make our job harder over the next couple of years....Weren't we all wanting to get into a better conference, C-USA or any other conference then the one we are in, minus the WAC. Now a schools are hiring "better" coaches. That is a good thing, bring recognition to the conference, maybe elevate the conference to a status higher then the picked through MWC and C-USA.

Bring on the competition, I'm not scared of any of them. Can't beat them if you don't play them.

(12-14-2011 12:46 PM)Jagtide11 Wrote:  Not sure about the $600,000 for CSU job. Per my information the CSU job is paying 1.35 million plus a bonus of $150,000 for grad rates. I don't know if this is accurate or not.

You are correct.

I stand corrected on the CSU salary.
Nonetheless, I still think the Ark State job is a much better stepping stone because they are set up to win immediately.

You're stating that FREEZE did a great job for MALZAHN.

Malzahn and Freeze are longtime friends, so I'm sure Freeze did sell him on how well the Ark State job is set up.
Not to mention some ASU fans that also cheer for the Razorbacks (we've all seen that kind of booster) were willing to pony up extra cash to bring Malzahn back the the Natural State.

Man! He must have wanted to go back to Ark real bad. ......Family connections?