Not advocating for Gus, just curious.
If he never had an association with our State or program, how would you feel about him?
My opinion…
If I completely disregard history, he would seem at least acceptable. The only holdup I would have is wondering if his Arkansas record even approach his (at times suspect) Auburn record without his current recruiting advantage$.
Hard to disregard the history. I have no idea how I’d feel about him without it. However, if he had no history in the state, I doubt anyone here would be talking about him at all. He’d be discussed as a possibility about as much as Muschamp or Jimbo Fisher.
I would expect him to do worse than he has at Auburn due to recruiting level just purely based on his record. But in a year when he has a good running qb and running backs, he’s proven he can beat Bama and Georgia even when they played for a national title. He’s a good coach and at Auburn a great recruiter. However, I would put an asterisk on the recruiting simply due to Auburn’s past history of recruiting methods.
His record Auburn and likely worse at Arkansas may be acceptable due to the current state of Arkansas football.
Bottom line: based on the body of work, Gus would be the most qualified for the job if he were to become available.
Have read that his buy out including his staff is around 33 million dollars. How could that even happen?
Not a fan. Divisive.
The only reason he’s being considered is because of history, so you can’t ignore that.
Gus’ fingerprints are all over the demise of our program as I laid out in a long post earlier this season. The turmoil when he was Nutt’s OC (plenty of blame to go around on that one, but a good bit of it falls on Arthur Gustavo Malzahn III). Playing the PTB and Julie Peoples like a fiddle in 2017 which more or less forced us into gambling on Chad Morris (we lost). Not only burned bridges here, he nuked them.
So I can’t separate Gus from his history. Don’t want him, don’t think HY does either. He wasn’t the one who hired Chad but he knows from JCP what went on before that.
I saw an article that said that, but it goes to Swine’s “if he’s fired” discussion. Another article said if he leaves for another job, it’s only $7 million
Don’t want the Gus bus at all
Neither do I. Would be worse than Morris and Bret combined
Would have no problem with him as HC. Although not my first choice. I think he has forgotten himself offensively and because of that he has lost me a lot.
I do think it would be interesting to see if he could find himself again with KJ at QB.
Yup. Auburn probably can’t afford to fire him, but they could let him go somewhere the same way we let Houston Nutt leave for Ole Miss in 2007. They might even waive some of the $7 million if he finishes 7-4.
Do
Not
Want
Put down whatever you’re drinking. He’s completely under performed as a coach for the talent his staff recruited for him.
Arrogant and narcissistic to the bone. A sniveling backstabber that directly aided in the failure that ensued after he was added to our staff.
My opinion of him cannot be shaded from his past any more than I would be able to remove from memory what Charles Manson did in his past. Hypotheticals for the future are much easier. I can see us space-faring beyond Mars, eradicating cancer and the Razorbacks lofting the National Championship Trophy in the air, but I can’t see him being our coach any more than OJ Simpson, maybe a little more.
Not saying he should be hired and seriously doubt he will, however with his SEC experience, competing at the highest level with a true in state rival, and he knows the state of Arkansas. Who if available is more qualified? If and I mine a big IF, he came and won, people would forget whatever it is they have against him. To quote Doc Rivers, “Winning is like deodorant, it can cover up a whole lot of stink”. Also, wonder what recruits and current players think of him. That is who really matters, not people on this site.
I have no problems with him being here. I only have 2 stipulations that MUST be in the contract.
I don’t want him either, and as mentioned, the recruiting would fall way short of Auburn unless we have a redirection with the payoffs and the sad truth is we are not anywhere near their level of acceptance with recruits anyway. If he did become the coach, there would be zero honeymoon with the vast majority of fans and would have to produce a lot of real value add quickly or the screams would start early and loud. He won’t come here because our AD is not willing to give anyone a 40 million dollar buyout and that’s what he would demand to jump ship. He can stay at Auburn and make their fan base hate him even more than they do now.
I have been a fan of his coaching since he came to Arkansas as an assistant under Houston Dale, but after he spurned us for the Auburn extension in 2017, he eliminated any chance of coming home. He caused us to panic and hire Chad Morris. Two wrongs don’t make a right. It would be a really bad decision to hire Gus at this point.
Agree 100%
A lot of people washed their hands of Gus in 2006.
Not me.
No problems with him until he uses us in 2017. And there are lots of folks like me who joined the already considerable anti-Gus ranks
So you add the folks he lost in 2006 and combine them with all of the folks who were upset in 2017 and you have sizable group of people that are against Gus.
He’d be a terrible hire if the goal is at least in part to unite the fanbase.