Coaching in the SEC can be a cut-throat business, and the business was at work on Sunday as Auburn announced that it had fired head coach Gus Malzahn.
Malzahn, who held the position since 2013, had garnered a great deal of respect from Alabama head coach Nick Saban who shared his thoughts on the coaching move during his Sunday teleconference.
“I have a tremendous amount of respect for Gus,” Saban said. “He was difficult to play against when he was the offensive coordinator. He’s always been difficult to play against as a head coach. Their teams always played hard. Their team is always well-coached on both sides of the ball and special teams. I have a tremendous amount of respect for Gus.
“Sometimes you wonder why people do what they do. But I don’t know what the reasons are. I certainly think he’s an outstanding coach and has been a tough adversary for us to have to play against in the Iron Bowl every year. I have a lot of respect for Gus and the job he’s done.”
During his time at Auburn, Malzahn was able to defeat Saban and Alabama three times with the most recent coming last season.
But throughout his term in the rivalry, Malzahn had a tremendous impact on how Saban and the coaches approached scheming games and overall style of play.
“I don’t think there’s any question about it,” Saban said when asked about Malzahn’s impact. “Gus’ style of play — he’s not the only one. The whole sort of Baylor influence. Hugh Freeze. Those guys have all sort of come I think from the same roots in terms of some of the innovations they’ve made and temp offenses, RPOs, really changing the game. I think Gus has been one of the — at the forefront of all that.
“I guess playing against those guys, you almost at least get to the point where you say, ‘if you can’t beat ’em you might as well join ’em.’ I guess that’s why we changed some of the things that we do around here.”
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Patrick Dowd is a Reporter for Touchdown Alabama Magazine. You can follow him on Twitter, via Pat_Dowd77
