my gus malzahn manifesto

i will admit it. i have a man-crush on gus malzahn and think he'll be an exceptional head coach wherever he gets his shot, and i pray its at LSU. heres why:

i think the days of a CEO-type coach are dead. if you look around the country, the elite coaches are experts on their respective side of the ball: saban, meyer, chip kelly, bobby stoops, mcbrown**, tressel, petrino, patterson. all of them either call the plays/ schemes, or are very involved and have their hands all over that side of the ball. the lone exception is mack brown. i consider him the anomaly b/c its texas and they are shelling out $1M/yr+ per coordinator.

the last few years at LSU, we have has our hands tied b/c our head coach doesnt fall into this category. miles is an offensive guy and our offense has really struggled the last 2 years. its either: miles' offense, crowton's offense whom miles keeps around, or its somewhere inbetween where miles meddles in the offense. i dont know which one it is. everyone speculates its one or the other and i simply dont know- and i dont think it really matters which on it is- its an indictment on the miles he hasnt hired someone good enough to run an offense for LSU

now, what happened in 08 was kinda the opposite. the offense was pretty good, even with all the pick-6s, and the defense was awful. miles put malveto in charge, it didnt work, it was fixed by "allowing them to find other jobs." heres the main point: if the HC is in charge of one side of the ball, you are only trying to fill 1 top end coordinator, not 2. its half the trouble. it makes hiring a staff easier b/c the coordinators are not a revolving doors with people being successful and moving up, or coordinators failing and getting whacked. this is still a problem, but its half the headache. its my feeling we should get ahead of the curve and have the foresight to get out of the "CEO" head coach while we can.

this is why my "top 5" list only includes people who fit this category: the pattersons, malzahns, pelinis, ect.

i am fully aware that in malzahns case, his lack of head coaching is an issue. i see the risk in it, i really do. hes only been in college coaching for 5 years, but i think hes been uber successful at every stop and hes been under 3 different head coaches, so he has it done different ways.

gus malzahn is a good leader, he recruits, kids love playing for him evidenced by getting a gatorade bath after the SEC championship game. hes a workaholic, no nonsense guy. but he also likes running trick plays and has fun on the football field. i truly believe if we hired him and kept chavis to run the D- he would come in, right the ship offensively, and we would be filthy good. think auburns offense this year, with LSU's defense.

cue everyone bitching its too long...