Gus Malzahn stated on Saturday that he was happy at Auburn. But Arkansas certainly seems to be willing to make him happier.
You may have already heard the reports from CBSSports.Com, but the amount of money that Arkansas is reportedly willing to pay him to jump ship is staggering. Certainly, it is more than anyone on the state payroll has ever brought home (at least by legal means - we remember some of those 1990’s era legislators).
Now they are citing sources, but CBS reported today that the compensation package could be somewhere in the neighborhood of $50 Million over the course of the next seven years.
For those of you who do not have a slide rule or abacus handy, that breaks down to $7,142,857 per year, which could buy Mrs. Kristi a very nice house, and pay for a lot of postgame meals at Waffle House after the expected Razorback wins.
Take a look at his predecessor Gene Chizik’s 2010 season at Auburn.
2010 14-0
2010 SEC Champion
2010 National Champion
2010 SEC Coach of the year
2010 Home Depot Coach of the year
2010 Liberty Mutual Coach of the year
2010 Paul “Bear” Bryant award
In 2012, less than two years later, Auburn fired Gene Chizik.
And Gus is worried about being loved?
If a football coach had that type of record at Arkansas, I’m not so sure we wouldn’t tell the descendants of Donald W. Reynolds to take a hike and have the stadium renamed in Gus’ honor before the plane landed coming home from the title game.
Even with everything that could be thrown at him in the next twelve hours, our logic as fans doesn’t always get applied in these coaching search situations.
I’ll hang up and listen.