An anonymous coaching source was asked by Lindy’s preseason football team what he thought of Gus Malzahn’s work as Auburn head football coach.
This kind of anonymous source reporting is as much a guilty pleasure for football fans as the Kardashians are for young mothers.
You know there is better media to consume. You know you’re wasting your time and encouraging this drivel, but it’s just hard to look away.
About Malzahn, this anonymous coach said, “Auburn’s going to pay $50 million and he underachieved again. They give him a new contract? For What? Mediocrity.”
I suppose mediocrity depends on your standards. For the record, Malzahn won 10 games last season and convincingly beat two No. 1 teams, which happen to be Auburn’s two biggest rivals and the teams that eventually played for the national championship.
A lot of schools would love that kind of mediocrity, but what about the underachiever claim?
Malzahn has won 45 games in Malzahn’s five years. In the previous five years, Auburn won 38 games.
Malzahn’s nine wins per year far exceed what Auburn has accomplished throughout its history. And all of that history wasn’t spent battling an in-state dynasty.
Yes, you can find maddening examples of Malzahn doing goofy stuff and losing games he probably shouldn’t. But exceeding the standards of recent and all-time standards doesn’t add up to underachieving.
For Threaded Fasteners, I’m Randy Kennedy with Nuts and Bolts of the Game.
