Auburn fans take heart! Don’t let Alabama fans tell you that new Auburn offensive coordinator Scot Loeffler is a downgrade from Gus Malzahn. That simply isn’t true. Loeffler is a homerun that will work in conjunction with other important actions taken by Auburn head coach Gene Chizik to put Auburn back on the path to success.

One major problem for Auburn in the 2011 season was internal turmoil. The media might try to gloss over it, but anyone watching and listening to the Auburn coaching staff could tell there was a fundamental difference of opinion between Auburn’s Gene Chizik and his subordinate Gus Malzahn.

However, there was an even more fundamental problem at work.

Malzahn doesn’t want to be anyone’s subordinate. The guy loves himself more than Phil Fulmer loves to eat or Tony Barnhart loves to suck up to SEC football coaches.

Malzhan is a cancer on any coaching staff. He was a disruption at Arkansas, and his inability to help the Auburn defense by running a ball control offense was a key reason the 2011 season was disappointing.

Malzhan never understood what Gene Chizik clearly comprehends—football is a team game that requires the entire staff to be working toward the same end.

Malzahn’s only purpose was self-aggrandizement.

Unfortunately, that doesn’t help you win football games.

It was the same attitude problem afflicting runningback Mike Dyer. Dyer left Auburn after rules violations. Dyer amazingly wound up transferring to join Malzahn’s Arkansas State.

Two cancers gone from Auburn.

That is a major win for Gene Chizik and the 2012 Auburn Tigers.

Loeffler will function as part of the team. His philosophy will compliment every phase of Auburn’s game plan. The running game and passing game will now function not as a showcase to get the OC a head-coaching job, but as an effort to score points. As a bonus, fans should expect to see fewer double-pass reverse fumblerooski plays in the future.

Chizik now has the chance to preside over a coaching staff with a unified purpose. There are simply fewer personal agendas in play now that the Chizik has excised the reasons for 2011’s disappointing season.

Chizik has shown he is a real leader and hired a coach who will build an offense to compliment the defense.

How could you not call this a homerun hire?

21 thoughts on “Auburn hits homerun with new offensive coordinator; Gene Chizik making the right offseason moves”

  1. Could be a good hire, only time will tell. Just like our OC hire.

    Question is…shouldn’t this article be on TET, instead of CR?

  2. Auburn is ready to restore it’s place as a perennial 8-4/7-5 program with this OC hire, and the porn star looking DC hire.

    Congrats Aubies!

    Crystal.

  3. Some coaches I know have told me this is a good hire as well. It will be interesting to see if his integrity will be challenged by Trooper Taylor, Curtis Luper, Chette Williams, Pat Dye, and Gene Chizik (to a smaller degree)

  4. The Bammers won’t know what hit ’em after these two hires. Saban is just getting to old to recruit anymore and hang with the younger Chizik, and these hires just prove that he is a much better coach than Saban. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Auburn ranked pre-season number 1 after this, and get half of Bammers commitments to switch to Auburn on signing day.

    As my good friend Hoopie would say, “Here comes number 10!”

  5. Yeah, I’d kinda like to see a season or so with him calling the plays before I judge him.

  6. This is not a bad hire. It may very well be a good hire–time will tell. It makes sense and I don’t have a problem with it.

    I also had no problem with Malzahn. His offensive system was never designed to “protect” the defense. Chiz knew this when he hired Gus. Gus did the best he could to adjust. Our defensive problems and OL problems had to do with youth and inexperience. Roof’s system was designed to be more of a net than a Muschamp-type aggressive style to begin with and didn’t work even when we did try aggressive play calling due to the lack of talent.

    In hindsight, I guess we needed more JUCO guys to help fill the talent void left from our 2008 and even Chiz’s hurriedly put together first recruiting class.

    The talent level will be better on the Plains this year, but still not where it needs to be.

    1. Gus was the reason for the limited success (one undefeated season and NC) Chizik has had so far, and Gus can thank Cam Newton for the major portion of that success. (along with the upperclassmen.) Auburns defense has been lacking since the beginning of Chiziks return to Auburn. Tuberville consistently had better defenses with a variety of DCs.

      But to compare, when Saban has had a young an inexperienced group, as in 2010, he still had a sound defense and threw his players in the fire and held nothing back on the complexities of his defense. He let them learn the hard way, and they were better for it in 2011.

      Chizik, on the other hand, took an approach with a young defense of ‘simplifying’ the defense, and, in doing so, did not give his young defense everything they needed to succeed. And now, next season, they will be expected to know the complexities more, after a season of playing ‘dumbed down’.

      I think the new DC will be a much better fit at Auburn, and if Auburn can bring back the defensive tradition that Auburn has been known for, the OC will not have to be the position of having to carry the team. Auburn used to win with defense, and a run first, clock controlling offense. For whatever reason, when Saban was hired at Bama, the mentality changed to live and die by the spread and the defense has not been as good since.

      Look at all the teams that exclusively run the spread, and you will see the common denominators: Scoring goes up, and the defense allows more points. Yet the more consistently successful teams run more of a multiple offense and have great defenses. Maybe Auburn has gotten through the identity crisis of the past 5 years, and will get back to the traditional philosophy that Auburn football has had under Dye, and Tuberville (before Tony Franklin was hired lol)

  7. Wow ..how did an OC discussion end up with you boneheads trying to continue those rumors.

    AU pay4 play? According to Bama fans, The NCAA, FBI and who knows else checked out Auburn for 13 months. The conclusion? ….there was nothing to find.

    Cecil made offer to MSU. Whether he asked Auburn or not, we’ll never know. Nevertheless, Auburn didn’t pay. Get over it boneheads.

    As far as Bama paying …I played football with and still know several players from the early 70’s that got paid by Bama. Heck ….Bear paid players just to keep them on the roster and off of other teams.

    1. I am sure you know ‘several’ bama players, (from the 70s no less) and they told you Bama paid them to play. I know you must be telling the truth, you would have no reason to lie to anyone on the internet or anything.

      You are just repeating the same old tired myths and lies that Auburn fans have been spreading around for 30 years. And you get mad now, because us Bama fans have been pointing and speculating about Auburn in recent years.

      ‘Cecil made offer to MSU’?
      Come on man, you are going to use that as a defense for Auburn? And Auburn didn’t pay? Do you know that for sure? You can’t. All you know is they didn’t find any proof to prove it otherwise. But they did change the rule, and if there is a situation like Cam and Cecil again, the player will NOT be eligible. That says a lot about the whole situation, regardless of what you think you know about what happened.

      But what is it with you Auburn homers here? It is always, ‘I know Bama players and they said this’ and ‘the REC is on an orchestrated plan to harm Auburn football’ and ‘Bear Bryant cheated so much, he was really a terrible coach so he had to, to win’ and ‘Bama makes up National Championships, if Auburn counted the same way they would have 9’ and ‘Saban is going to leave Bama for the NFL any day now’ and so on….

      So quit bitching and whining about Bama people thinking Auburn cheated. You spread and believe the crazy stuff that the Cult of Auburn has been preaching for years. You believe it because you are an Auburn fan, and you have been taught to be a good Auburn fan, you gotta hate Bama, and believe that Bama is the source of all that is bad in the world. Since you live by the ‘Auburn Creed’, that makes Auburn the symbol of honesty and integrity, and defends all that is just and righteous in the world. That is just how far and whacked out most of you really are.

      For me, I am just a die hard Bama fan. I think Auburn sucks, and hope they lose every game. I have no proof that Auburn cheated, but if people on the internet say they did, then it must be true.

      Seriously, I really don’t care if Auburn cheated or not. I won’t hate them any more or less either way. But you Auburn fans haven’t ever been able to deal with the fact that Bama is in a different league when comparing football success and the trophy case.

      1. Good stuff BamaBrando — as far as the 2010 Awbuhn Fambly trophy? Doesn’t even register or “count” in my book. Just an * year to me — RTR.

  8. Hoopie the FBI has not and will not disclose any evidence againt awbarn until milton mcgregors trial is over with if you don’t belive me why don’t you contact the law offices of butler snow and ask for one mr phil abernathy and talk to him about mr newtons saga!

  9. What a crock, they hire Tebow’s former qb coach, & this is the same Tebow that was not a prolific passer while at UF. Also Lofller was at the Detroit Lions during the dismal 0-16 2008 season. It sounds like Dye got him another pupppet.

    As for the DC coach he might’ve been a good at Uga but he had quality talent around him, the aub d has very little talent on the line an in the secondary, they do have some good linebackers.

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