News Article: Six SEC coaches facing the most pressure this spring

BamaMoon

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Can't believe Gus isn't getting more attention here with his shoddy record. Outside of 2 miraculous wins in 2013 against Georgia and Alabama (and the NC game appearance) he has been a miserable failure in the eyes of the Auburn fan base.

Unless Stidham bails out Gus this year with nothing less than beating Georgia and Bama and winning the SECW, I don't see how he survives another season.
 

RobK

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Most Ole Miss fans I know still think Freeze is the best thing that ever happened to their program and that the NCAA isn't going to dish anything they can't handle. And they may wind up being right at the end of the day depending on what the NCAA can prove and its desire or lack of desire to hammer Ole Miss.
 

Bamabuzzard

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They may likely be waiting to see what he can do knowing he won't have any further funds.
Freeze is going to do about what Dan Mullen does at Miss St. I put both of these coaches (along with Gus) in the same tier of the coaching hierarchy. They are above average coaches, do better when they are the underdogs, but just aren't cut from enough of the cloth that it takes to be apart of the best coaches in the nation.
 
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RTR91

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Freeze is going to do about what Dan Mullen does at Miss St. I put both of these coaches (along with Gus) in the same tier of the coaching hierarchy. They are above average coaches, do better when they are the underdogs, but just aren't cut from enough of the cloth that it takes to be apart of the best coaches in the nation.
Mullen's problem looks to be his school. I'm starting to wonder what he would do if given the chance at a place that isn't 80 miles from Tuscaloosa and is a place he can sell to recruits.
 

Bamabuzzard

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Mullen's problem looks to be his school. I'm starting to wonder what he would do if given the chance at a place that isn't 80 miles from Tuscaloosa and is a place he can sell to recruits.
According to some of my Miss St friends who follow the program very close. They say Mullen and his family absolutely love Starkville and want to stay there. If I'm not mistaken they moved his parents down to Starkville and they are living there as well.
 

Bamabuzzard

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There is a lot to be said when the only pressure is on you to win 7-9 games a year and get a mid-tier or lower bowl invitation.
That's about the threshold Mullen has to meet to keep the state fans happy. Most of them I know simply want to win 7-9 games a year and go to a decent bowl game. They aren't like a lot of the Ole Miss fans who actually think they are on the brink of eating at the big boys table of college football.
 

BamaMoon

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That's about the threshold Mullen has to meet to keep the state fans happy. Most of them I know simply want to win 7-9 games a year and go to a decent bowl game. They aren't like a lot of the Ole Miss fans who actually think they are on the brink of eating at the big boys table of college football.
Beat Ole Miss every few years and 8 wins a year will probably get you a lifetime contract for the Bullies.
 

crimsonaudio

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According to some of my Miss St friends who follow the program very close. They say Mullen and his family absolutely love Starkville and want to stay there. If I'm not mistaken they moved his parents down to Starkville and they are living there as well.
If he buries his dad in an MSU sweatshirt you know he'll be there forever...
 

Bamabuzzard

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I suspect that's selling the man short - he's been a very successful coach, I'm betting he's as competitive as anyone...
I bet he is very competitive. But I also wonder if he's hedged his bets a bit and given himself some "wiggle room". In that at a school like Miss St, though he always strives to win it all. He knows if he falls short or has a few down years. He doesn't have to worry about bricks being thrown through his window. He's a smart guy, you know he knows the odds of him winning a national title at Miss St are slim to none.
 

GrayTide

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I suspect that's selling the man short - he's been a very successful coach, I'm betting he's as competitive as anyone...
Oh, I agree and I was not selling him short just different expectations from the fan base and school. I am somewhat surprised he didn't get a shot at the UF and LSU jobs.
 

selmaborntidefan

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Botch is the obvious number one here, but I'm not so sure that Bielema is really second. Freeze's entire fate hinges on the NZAA investigation, but I would rank Sumlin second and Malzahn third. Sumlin has now had several years - starting with JF2 in 2013 - where he's the hot promiscuous girl at the new school only to find out when it gets late that she's really nothing near as good as her promise early in the evening. I think if they don't move forward this year he's in serious trouble.

And Malzahn? Well, he lucked out yet again in the "Loser Fires The Coach" Bowl against LSU. In essence, Gus had one month of a good football team last October. He beat ULM (whoop de do), thumped Mississippi State, routed Arkansas after a bye week while the Hawgs were coming off consecutive rough house games with Alabama and Ole Miss, and beat a fading Ole Miss.

After that? He barely survived Vandy, lost to an inept UGA team that's only TD was a pick six, mauled nobody Bama ATM, and played a decent first quarter against Alabama - then got sucker punched by Joe Mixon (yeah, I had to).

Flip the Arky and LSU games and the time of year they were played, and that 8-4 season is likely 6-6. I'll spot them the fact that injuries down the stretch hurt them, particularly Pettway, but this is the usual m.o. for an Auburn coach - come set the world on fire early in your tenure......and then spend the rest of your career on the Plains failing to meet expectations above a four-loss season.

Malzahn's SEC record is 18-14. Remember that he STARTED 7-1, so he's 11-13 since the Kick Six...then remember how many of those SEC games have been "pull them out of your backside at the very end" and it will only take one unlucky year (Chizik 2012 2.0) to send Gus packing.

In all honesty, he reminds me of Houston Nutt as far as the 'best new thing.' Nutt had a 42-38 SEC record at Arky. He started 5-0 then fell victim to the Clint Stoerner fumble and Ryan Hazlewood's career day of Bulldog FGs in 1998.

Take away his start - aided by food poisoning decimating Alabama, catching Auburn with an interim head coach following Buster Brown's resignation, and the fact Ole Miss' coach was spending more time planning his exit from Oxford than preparing to play anyone...and Nutt was always a mediocrity.

I suspect Malzahn ends up the same way - the real question being whether or not his QB pans out this year. They've been searching for a QB ever since Nick Marshall left and even Nick lost his last 3 SEC games (and would have been four if not for the fortuitous injury to Laquon Treadwell crossing the goal line).

If the bills come due for the lucky wins all in one season - as happened to Gene "It's A God Thing" Chizik - Gus might be on the bus himself.

And unlike most folks here (not named Gray Tide), I'm not even an overly harsh critic of either Auburn OR Malzahn. But I do think he's on a warmer seat than some imagine. Remember - this is a school that fired one coach less than two years after winning a national title, had another one lined up and ready to fire leading to his resignation only six games after winning the SEC West for the first time ever, and plotted the demise of another than only failed because it got exposed.
 

russtang

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Is this why he almost starts crying during every post game interview while looking up at the crowd and saying "Isn't this great? Can you believe this?" LOL!
He did that one time at CO St I think after a bowl game when somebody said "Colorado" instead of "Colorado State" in the interview. I can't remember specific details but I thought he was actually going to cry.

I wonder if that is a simple quirk or something more.
 

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