Outback Bowl Loss Shows Gus Malzahn Has Work to Do to Become Elite Head Coach

Gus Malzahn came within 13 seconds of winning a national title in his first season as Auburn's head coach in 2013.

In the 2015 Outback Bowl, it looked like he was 13 years away from getting to another one.

Malzahn's Tigers fell 34-31 to Wisconsin in overtime on Thursday after kicker Daniel Carlson's field goal clanged off the right upright in the bottom half of the first extra frame.

Carlson shouldn't have been in that position.

The offense called a tunnel screen to wide receiver Sammie Coates on 2nd-and-12 despite Wisconsin's defense playing a disciplined brand of football the entire game.

On the next play, Malzahn called a wide receiver throwback where C.J. Uzomah—a former high school quarterback playing in his last game in the orange and blue—threw back to senior quarterback Nick Marshall.

Predictably, Wisconsin sniffed it out and dropped Marshall for a loss. Malzahn was forced to trot Carlson out.

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If Malzahn wanted to get sentimental with Uzomah and Marshall—two players who were key pieces of Auburn's turnaround—he should have done it on first down in overtime, not 3rd-and-long from the Badgers' 27-yard line.

The curious play-calling in a clutch spot came after Malzahn—for the second straight game—displayed clock management skills that would even confuse LSU head coach Les Miles circa 2009.

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Instead of calling one of his final two timeouts after linebacker Kris Frost sacked Wisconsin quarterback Joel Stave at the Badger 46-yard line, Malzahn let Wisconsin drain the play clock with a simple off-tackle running play on 3rd-and-23 before calling his second timeout of the half with 17 seconds left.

He could have used both of his timeouts and given his offense a chance with no timeouts and around a minute to play. Instead, he took his final timeout into halftime despite the fact that timeouts aren't like cellphone minutes that roll over.

At the end of the first half of the Iron Bowl, a pass from Marshall to wide receiver Sammie Coates got the Tigers inside the opposing 5-yard line with 28 seconds to go.

Instead of using his final timeout immediately with 28 seconds left or telling Marshall to spike it, Malzahn substituted, let the clock tick all the way down to 10 seconds and called a running play with Cameron Artis-Payne.

It was stuffed, Malzahn finally used his timeout and Auburn settled for a field goal.

One of Auburn's biggest problems reared its ugly head again in the Outback Bowl, as the Tigers were penalized nine times for 75 yards. What's more, those penalties almost always come at the worst possible times—like Frost's late hit out of bounds that cost his team 15 yards on Wisconsin's game-tying drive.

As Jon Solomon of CBSSports.com notes, that's par for the course:

The same issue nearly cost Auburn the win at Ole Miss and is a big reason why, from a yardage standpoint, Auburn entered the game as the most undisciplined team in the SEC (68.4 penalty yards per game).

Has that issue been addressed?

Malzahn thinks new defensive coordinator Will Muschamp's presence will help, according to Bleacher Report Auburn lead writer Justin Ferguson:

You'd think, though, that Mushcamp's presence during bowl practice would at least wear off a little bit, even though he wasn't technically coaching in the Outback Bowl itself. After all, those players know they have to win their jobs back, and one way to make an early impression is to play smart football in front of their new coordinator.

Malzahn is a good coach. He wouldn't have been standing on the sidelines in the closing seconds of last season's BCS National Championship Game with a chance to win if he wasn't.

But questionable clock management and the inability to instill discipline are preventing him from joining the fraternity that currently includes Alabama's Nick Saban and Ohio State's Urban Meyer.

Barrett Sallee is the lead SEC college football writer and video analyst for Bleacher Report, as well as a co-host of the CFB Hangover on Bleacher Report Radio (Sundays, 9-11 a.m. ET) on Sirius 93, XM 208.

Quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. All stats are courtesy of cfbstats.com, and all recruiting information is courtesy of 247Sports. Follow Barrett on Twitter @BarrettSallee.