Auburn Football: Losing Gus Malzahn Will Hurt More Than Fans Realize

When Auburn hired Gene Chizik after the 2008 season, I predicted that with Chizik, the Tigers would be a yearly six or seven-win team.

That prediction obviously didn't look too good when Auburn won a national title in only Chizik's second season.

However, there's no question who deserves most of the credit for that national title—Cameron Newton.  The person who deserves the second-most credit for that title is not Gene Chizik, but Gus Malzahn.

Malzahn is an offensive mastermind, and with the help of Newton, engineered an offense that rolled through the SEC in 2010.

Without those two men, Auburn probably would have been lucky to win eight or nine games that year.

This past season, we got a taste of Auburn football without Cam Newton, and it wasn't pretty.  After ranking seventh in the country in yards per game in 2010, the Tigers dropped to 104th this past year.

A drop that big is somewhat unbelievable, as it shows that Newton meant everything to that offense.

But Gus Malzahn is not to blame for the drop.  He didn't exactly have loads of talent to work with this past year.

The situation at quarterback was an absolute mess, as neither Barrett Trotter nor Clint Moseley were highly recruited out of high school, and simply neither is very good.  Malzahn is obviously not to blame for that.

We know that Malzahn is a mastermind when it comes to coaching quarterbacks though.  A perfect example of this is not necessarily Newton in 2010, but instead, what he did with Chris Todd in 2009.

Todd was not highly recruited out of high school and was an absolute disaster at quarterback in 2008.  When Malzahn arrived in 2009, he turned him into a completely different player, and actually, turned him into a very good quarterback.

The talent level at quarterback this past year, though, was just too low to have success with.  We saw flashes of what Kiehl Frazier will be, but how much can you really expect of a true freshman?

Not only was the quarterback situation a mess, but so was the offensive line.  The unit was simply depleted from last year's group.  Obviously, that's not Malzahn's fault either.

Auburn gave up 31 sacks this year, good for 94th in the country.  It's next to impossible to have success on offense with a poor offensive line.

One of the few bright spots for Auburn's offense this past year was Michael Dyer.  Malzahn will not be able to utilize him for the bowl game, though, as he has been suspended indefinitely.

After the bowl game, Gus Malzahn will be heading off to Arkansas State, where he will undoubtedly be very successful.  The Red Wolves won 10 games this past year, and Malzahn will have them at that same level as long as he stays there.

This is his first head coaching job at the FBS level, and it's long overdue.  This man can make any offense go, and it's likely only a matter of time before he ends up at a big-time program.

His absence will be felt immediately at Auburn.  With that being said, I stand by my prediction of Auburn continually being a yearly six or seven-win team, as losing Malzahn is a bigger loss than if someone like Gene Chizik were to leave.