PEA RIDGE — Coach wins “irony” award
In what I think is one of the most ironic moments in sports history, former Shiloh-Springdale-Arkansas Razorback coach Gus Mahlzahn has been named the top assistant coach in all of college football, thereby earning the prestigious Frank Broyles Award which was awarded to the current Auburn offensive coordinator in Little Rock Monday.
Ironic in that Mahlzahn was basically run out of Arkansas when Broyles was still the athletic director. During Mahlzahn’s brief time in Fayetteville, Broyles made the remark that Mahlzahn’s ideas would never work on the college level. He seemed to agree with a lot of detractors in those days that Mahlzahn was a great high school coach but had no business in the college game.
What a lot of folks didn’t know or remember, was that Malzahn was calling the plays for the Hogs when they were on that eight-game winning streak in 2006. For whatever reason, some say jealousy while others say politics, Mahlzahn was reportedly removed from play calling duties the last three games of that year, all three of which were lost. After being demoted by then head coach Houston Nutt, Mahlzahn left and went to Tulsa to be the offensive coordinator for the Hurricanes.
For the two years Mahlzahn called playsfor Tulsa, they shattered school records for yards and scoring and led the NCAA in several national offensive charts.
When Auburn needed a head coach to replace the fired Tommy Tuberville, they hired defensive ace Gene Chizik who was then head coach for a lousy Iowa State team. As soon as he was hired, he immediately offered the offensive coordinator’s job to Mahlzahn. Auburn fans were livid with the decision to hire a head coach from a losing school and to hire a still rather inexperienced offensive coordinator.
There were actually protests conducted on the Auburn campus to criticize the hires and the media outlets were swarming with naysayers.
Now Auburn has had some glory years so the bar was fairly high to begin with for the Chizik/ Mahlzahn team to approach. Actually, Chizik was part of that bar as he was the defensive coordinator in 2004 when Auburn went 13-0. Anyhow, in the first year, Auburn’s new offensive schemes piled up 5,613 yards of offense, by far a new school record. This year Auburn is scoring over 42 points a game and has racked up 6,470 yards with a game left to play! That is right at 500 yards per game, every game, playing in the tough SEC.
Mahlzahn’s ideas are now being utilized by high school programs all over the country as well as countless colleges. The NFL is using plays and schemes that a few years ago would have caused folks to laugh at anyone trying such things. Even coach Nuttt, after dismissing Mahlzahn’s ideas, has implemented a lot of his old assistant coache’s ideas at his new school at Mississippi.
I can remember back when Mahlzahn was named the head coach for Shiloh. Within a few years, he built up the Shiloh program into a monster (thanks a LOT, Gus) although he didn’t need to raid other schools for their talent. When Springdale was looking for a new head coach, alot of people in Springdale thought that the school should hire a “name” coach rather than some “little” school coach like Mahlzahn. Of course, Mahlzahn went on to turn the Bulldogs into national powers, totally dominating the state with a No. 2 national ranking in 2005.
Wherever Gus Mahlzahn has gone, winning has followed; and not just a little winning, a lot of winning. Whenever he has gone to the next level to coach, there have always been detractors to predict failure. Through it all, I have never heard of Mahlzahn ever saying anything negative about his detractors, or his saying anything negative period. Through the Arkansas debacle, he was given plenty of chances to tell the media what was wrong at Arkansas but he never would and never did.
I was talking with some folks locally about Mahlzahn the other day and one person remarked that “yeah, well they are only winning because of Cam Newton.” Personally, I am a fan and admirer of Mahlzahn and have been for some time. I actually watched or listened to Tulsa games while he was there because his games are always so interesting. If not Cam Newton, then someone else.
Perhaps the biggest reason I like the man is that he lives his life in accordance with his Christian principles. At the banquet last Monday, if some other person had of been in same situation, they may have said to Broyles “In your face!” But I am sure Mahlzahn was gracious and appreciative for the honor. He’ll be a head coach someday, probably sooner than later, and I wish it could have been Arkansas. He really is a good guy.
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Editor’s note: John Mc-Gee is the art teacher at Pea Ridge elementary schools, coaches elementary track and writes a regular sports column for The TIMES. He can be contacted through The Times at [email protected]. The opinions of the writer are his own, and are not necessarily those of The TIMES.
Sports, Pages 8 on 12/08/2010