Gus bus refuels with AP honor

AUBURN, Ala. - Gus Malzahn, the 48-year-old former Arkansas high school football coach who took Auburn from SEC chumps to SEC champs in a 13-game span, has been named college football’s national coach of the year by the Associated Press.

It was quick work, even for the coach who wrote the book on the hurry-up, no-huddle offense while taking three different Arkansas high school programs to seven state title games in 13 seasons.

“It’s very humbling,” Malzahn said Monday. “Any time you get awards like this, it’s ateam thing, as far as our staff and our players. It’s been fun to be a part of this year.”

Malzahn received 33 votes from AP Top 25 college football poll voters to beat out Duke’s David Cutcliffe, who received 17 votes after leading Duke (10-3) to its first 10-victory season. Florida State’s Jimbo Fisher and Michigan State’s Mark Dantonio each received three votes.

Malzahn’s Tigers (12-1) take on Fisher’s 13-0 Seminoles in the BCS Championship Game on Jan. 6 in Pasadena, Calif.

Malzahn is the second Auburn coach to win the award since it began in 1998, joining Tommy Tuberville (2004),and the second coach to win it in his first season with a new team. Maryland’s Ralph Friedgen was AP coach of the year in 2001, his first season with the Terrapins. It’s the fifth time an SEC coach has won AP coach of the year.

Malzahn was no stranger to Auburn’s players before his hiring one year ago.

He served three seasons as Auburn’s offensive coordinator, a key cog in the 2010 national championship with Heisman Trophy winner Cam Newton at quarterback.

But the Tigers fell to 8-5 in 2011, despite winning the Chick-fil-A Bowl under Gene Chizik with Malzahn still coordinating the offense, and they completely unraveled to 3-9, 0-8 in the SEC, in 2012without Malzahn, who spent one season as head coach at Arkansas State in Jonesboro.

Auburn quickly turned to Malzahn after firing Chizik, his hiring coming less than a week after Malzahn and the Red Wolves celebrated a 9-3 season and a second consecutive Sun Belt Conference title.

Auburn football hero Bo Jackson compared Malzahn’s task to starting with an empty lot upon his hiring in December 2012.

“He’s got to rebuild that house,” said Jackson, the 1985 Heisman Trophy winner.

The foundation was set with confidence and attitude, reinforced with a message that it was “a new day” for Auburn (12-1), and it didn’t take the team long to adopt a goal of forging the greatest turnaround in college football.

Malzahn did it with a staff deeply rooted with Arkansans, including offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee (Springdale), former Razorbacks player and assistant Tim Horton coaching running backs, and offensve line coach J.B. Grimes from Clarendon, who coached in the Arkansas high school ranks, at the University of Arkansas and ASU.

“It’s a real tribute to our players that they’ve bonded together,” Malzahn said. “They’ve done everything our coaches have asked, and I think the No. 1 thing is we developed good relationships with our players. We trust our players, the players trust our coaches and we’ve got each others’ backs.”

Malzahn’s hurry-up, no-huddle offense thrived with junior-college transfer Nick Marshall at quarterback and tailback Tre Mason, a Heisman Trophy finalist, behind a sturdy offensive line.

Defensive end Nosa Eguae said he knew this team was special “when we really just bought into coach Malzahn’s plan.”

“Our goal at the beginning of the year was to have the biggest turnaround in college football,” Eguae said. “We knew the only way to do that was to get better every single day. Tuesdays and Wednesdays [on game weeks] were big for us because those are our work days and we got better.”

The confidence boost was so dramatic that defensive end Dee Ford wondered publicly back in November, “Why not win it all?” That seemingly far-fetched utterance followed a 45-41 road upset of Johnny Manziel and then-No. 7 Texas A&M.

It was the Tigers’ biggest victory before beating defending national champion Alabama and, then, Missouri in the SEC Championship Game. That followed a game-winning touchdown in the final seconds against Mississippi State and a 35-21 loss to LSU after falling behind 21-0 in the first 18 minutes.

“The Mississippi State game, finding a way to drive the field and win that game in the end, said a lot about our team,” Malzahn said. “LSU, we had a chance to shut her down in a tough environment, and they kept fighting.”

The pivotal game, though, was probably Texas A&M.

“At the time they were one of the top teams in the country, one of the toughest places to play,” Malzahn said. “Our offense drove the field with under two minutes to score, and then we held the best player in college football [Manziel] out of the end zone on the last drive, which nobody had done that up to that point.

“When we walked off that field, we felt like we could play with anybody.”

Sports, Pages 17 on 12/24/2013

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