← Josh Pate's College Football Show
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- [00:00]
Gus Malzahn
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Gus Malzahn
Except Discover in a little place like this? I don't think so, Jennifer.
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Gus Malzahn
Huh? Discover's accepted where I like to shop. Come on, baby.
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Gus Malzahn
Right. So we shouldn't get the parachute pants. These are making a comeback, I think.
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Podcast Host
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Gus Malzahn
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Interviewer
All right, real quick. Take a look at yourself right now.
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Podcast Host
Why?
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Gus Malzahn
What's wrong? Nothing's wrong. You look like a guy running on
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Podcast Host
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- [01:50]
Gus Malzahn
Okay, yeah, I'm tired, kind of cranky and very thirsty.
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Interviewer
Those are some of the potential signs of mild dehydration.
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Podcast Host
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Interviewer
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Gus Malzahn
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Podcast Host
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Gus Malzahn
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Podcast Host
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Interviewer
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Interviewer
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Gus Malzahn
Well, take a look at me now. Liquid IV is officially part of my daily hydration routine. Pass the firecracker.
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Gus Malzahn
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- [03:03]
Interviewer
So it's almost been four months since you took the job. You haven't coached a game yet. But it's really interesting from your perspective to hear like how those days and weeks and months have gone by. How long does it feel like you've been been here? How full has the plate already been? Then you got all the other stuff that any first year head coach deals with. But you're coming to the SEC for the first time as a head coach. What has all that process been like?
- [03:27]
Gus Malzahn
Yeah, I think, I think it's felt organized. I think if this was the first time I was doing this, I don't know if I would have felt that way. It's the second time as a head coach. We went through a crazy transition when we got to Tennessee. So I felt prepared. Organized. Prepared would probably be the best way to explain it. I think every morning you walk in and if I learned something really quickly years ago, it was like something's got to be really important. There's got to be a priority list. And we've truly made the players and the staff the priority. And that's where it starts every day. And so come in and got a to do. You got a calendar schedule. But truly the things that can interrupt it are your players and your staff. Players and staff. But came in with a plan and truly tried to attack it every day. I think the fact that we have so much help and so much support makes it a little bit easier. Gives you a little bit more of a supervision type, big picture view of things. But I don't know if it feels any longer or shorter than four months. I know we hit the field yesterday and it was awesome to be on the grass. No cell phone, nobody can bother you. You got two and a half hours where it's you and the guys. And that part felt really, really cool. But organized, I would say it would be like the one word I would
- [05:00]
Interviewer
think Last November was probably one of the wildest Novembers I ever remember. Just watching college football because November's always wild in and of itself. And then number two, you have this inordinate wave of coaches that get fired, which means you have an infinitely bigger group of coaches whose names are being floated for jobs. You were certainly one of them. So you couldn't turn on the Internet, you couldn't go on a social media platform or even host a show. In my Case without Alex Goelish being mentioned for X, Y and Z jobs. And people say they block out the noise all the time, but it's impossible not to be aware that it's out there. So from your perspective as a coach and then you're trying to lead a team at South Florida last year, what was that whole, like, month and a half like to try and deal with? Knowing what you're hearing, knowing your players are probably hearing it, your staff's hearing it, your fans are hearing it. Like, you. You got to kind of address it, but also keep the main thing. The main thing, Yeah.
- [05:57]
Gus Malzahn
I would tell you as. As interesting of a month and a half as I've been a part of, and nothing prepares you for it. And I told. Told my wife after it was all over as crazy, if anything is, you go through simply because you got nobody you can talk to about it. There's nobody that can actually relate in the sense that you're obviously coaching your football team and all you work on and all you preach day in, day out is put your phones down, block out the outside noise, and this, this word being present or focus that you keep harping on with, with your kids. And I think the entire college football world is trying to figure out how to keep guys focused week in, week out for. For a stretch of time with everything else that's pulling at them. And then you're sitting there, there's this feeling of guilt, like a crazy feeling of guilt, because you're like, man, I am the distraction. And the only reason I'm the distraction is because we're having success. And, and nobody really can relate. And so I think that's the part that, for me was. Was tough because it was the last thing I wanted to do was cause any sort of distraction. And as we want and had success, you knew it was coming. Yep. You just didn't know in what capacity it was going to. It was all going to happen. And people care, which is why when you're talking about jobs like this, people care. So your name, the conversation is happening a lot more than I would have ever guessed. I think for. For me, keeping a really, really tight circle, which is truly me and my wife, those conversations happen really sparingly because the last thing you want to do is her to also be anxious or she's hearing it too. She's seeing it. She's getting the text. And my kids are old enough now that they're getting it at school. They're getting it on their phones. And so I would tell you a really unique experience. Obviously really fortunate to be in the situation. So you're grateful, you're humbled by it. But at the end of the day, I'm so process driven and so focused that literally when I tell you that I couldn't care less about any of it through the entire process. You have agents like, I got a great one. He handles, handles all of it. But again, I think every time I walked in there for that last month, there was like a sense of guilt, of, man, I am the distraction, even though I'm doing nothing to be the distraction. And it's a weird feeling and I'm being so transparent with you. It's a really, really weird, weird process, I guess in a lot of ways.
- [08:54]
Interviewer
And then the other part of it is as soon as you finish your season, it ends up being Auburn. And you've taken the Auburn job. You're the head coach at Auburn. You're a head coach in the Southeastern Conference. You would, you had maybe been through here, but like, you've never lived here, you've not been in the building, you don't know the roster. And so you've got 50 million things, all of which you want to do right now. So you got to stack a priority list the first week when you take a job. What does that consist of? It's a hurricane. But what's in the hurricane? What does it consist of?
- [09:27]
Gus Malzahn
Yeah, again, you got to prioritize. And. And I had a plan laid out in terms of this is, this is the order of events this is going to go in. The first thing is sit down with every player. Truly sit down with every player. In the middle of it, you got your introductory press conference. There's a handful of phone calls you got to make, but literally I'm gonna meet with every player. You go in the team meeting and you say, man, I'm gonna meet with every one of you. And you set it up to where you can truly meet with every single guy. Unique here. Weren't gonna play in a bowl game. You had literally the one week to do it before the guys were done with school and they were gonna be able to get out of here. So it was meeting after meeting after meeting. In the middle of those, I. I would leave half hour chunks to work on staff. Half hour chunks to work on staff. Most of the staff phone calls were at 5am or at midnight and you knew if a guy was going to answer the phone, you were in the conversation. But you try to be present through each of those individual meetings. The players can tell you A lot. I would tell you the players will tell you a majority of the story, which is why I wanted to hear it through their eyes before I ever met with any support staff, before I ever met with any of the current coaches here, because you could paint a really, really good picture through their eyes. And you got to take the outliers out and you end up with a lot of really, really good information on, man, because it's not all what was broken here. It's, man, what is actually really cool about this place. And I'd ask questions. You talk about getting to know a place, like, where do guys go eat, like, where do you guys hang out? And in those meetings, they're really, really transparent because they're trying to get to know you, you're trying to get to know them. And in the middle of it all, you're working through between the players and the staff, man, like, who am I fighting to keep? Who am I good cutting loose, while all at the same time, you've got all this outside noise coming at these kids. Again, every job is unique. This one was open for over a month, so you can imagine the phone calls those kids had already had for the entire month of November. So you knew you were climbing uphill with some guys, you knew there were some guys you didn't want to keep. But until you sit down and start watching film one guy at a time, you don't know the roster like you want to know the roster. And then it just from there, it's a series of decisions. Like, every single decision is made by you. So in terms of the roster, the staff budgets, all the way up to the nil side of it. Like, every single decision is made by you, and you're trying to prioritize which decisions are important right then and there. I would tell you, going through it a second time, I slowed down on making the decisions, was more thoughtful, was more calculated is the word, but probably cerebral. Cerebral understanding that it doesn't all have to be a rush right this second. Let's get it right. Rather than being first, you were laying
- [12:52]
Interviewer
out, meeting with players, you were laying out, learning about and structuring budget. You've got a whole staff piece. You've got a lot of administrative people that are going to be in the building, that are never at a press conference or on camera on Saturday, but they're an integral part of what you do. You got a strength staff, you got nutrition, you got all that. How long is it until you actually feel like you have your hands wrapped around the situation or to put it in another way, like you go home at night and your wife asks, hey, tell me a little bit about the corners room or tell me a little bit about the folks that are going to be at the front desk. Could be top to bottom, A to Z. How long until you really kind of have your hand around it, know, all right, I got a fairly good idea of what Auburn is right now. Now we'll make it what it'll be moving forward.
- [13:42]
Gus Malzahn
Yeah, I think it drastically helped that I was coming from a place that I was at for three years, that I every single year re evaluated everything. And there was a lot of conversations of, man, if we had the budget, we would do this. Man, if we had this, we would do this. And I prefaced that with the University of South Florida did a lot to grow that program in the three years I was there. So we got a lot of what we needed, almost everything of what we needed. But there was still that man, you know, if we could have two assistant D line coaches or man, if we could have three or four more people in scouting or on campus recruiting or nutrition or there was always that man, what if we could have that? Well, then you get here and you can. And so you just go and you execute what you, what you, I guess, quote unquote, always wanted to do more people also doesn't mean better. More quality people is better. And so I guess the long winded answer to your question is because we were able to bring a large majority of the areas that are hard to build continuity with scouting on campus recruiting, nutrition, strength, player development, like these areas that take a long time to truly get moving in the same exact direction, from communication channels to standards in each department, to how it all works up, who they report to, how I get the information. The fact that we were able to bring the core group of people here, we were able to hit the ground running. So to tell you that you've got a great feel for all of it, I would say probably quicker certainly than any place I've ever been. Middle of January, end of January, you're still obviously day to day continuing to evaluate and continuing to shir up the little things that make the day flow way smoother. But because my GM came with me, my director scouting came with me, our executive director recruiting came with me, head strength coach came with me, or dietitian I worked with for years at, at Tennessee. And you go down the line, that transition was way smooth. That's why I said at the beginning, like, if this was my first time, we would be sitting here right now and I'd be sweating bullets because I'm in a hurry to go get something done. It feels a lot more settled by the time we got to the middle of January.
- [16:31]
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- [19:08]
Gus Malzahn
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- [19:39]
Interviewer
I would love for you to share a head coach's perspective on this. The outside world looks at college football in terms of tiers and levels. So you got SEC, Big 10, and then ACC, Big 12. But that's like the Power 4 level. Then you go down a level, then you've got the G5 level. And the lazier way, but probably more common way of thinking is, all right, let's say something works or someone works at the G5 level, that's great. I'm not so sure it would work at the highest level. Okay, so then from your perspective as a head coach, you just came from South Florida, you're the head coach at Auburn, so there may be people who say that about you. But I'm asking, when you're talking about who you're going to bring with you, is there anything in the back of your mind that says this person or this player was good enough to be with me at South Florida. I'm on the fence about whether they would be good enough to be with me at Auburn or is it no, if. If they're good enough to be with me in high school, I would trust him if I took an NFL job tomorrow. How does that work?
- [20:42]
Gus Malzahn
Yeah, I think it's twofold. One, where I've seen this not work is when you get to a place like Auburn and you surround yourself with people that you think are supposed to be at Auburn. And ultimately the places where it's worked, the staffs, where it's worked, you have a group of people that are working in the same direction with the same goals and the same standards, and ultimately their loyalty lies to the head football coach. Where, and I should preface that, loyalty doesn't mean you never leave. Loyalty just means you work as hard as you can as long as you can with no ulterior motives for one purpose. When you have a group of men and women in an organization like this, where you're talking about essentially a staff of just over a hundred, where they're all moving in the same exact direction, you got a chance to do it at any level. So the people that, that are here with me, that came with me from South Florida, were the people that I felt that were loyal. Again, not that they didn't have ambitions to, to be coordinators and head coaches themselves or to be directors of whatever department they're in. They were loyal because they came in and worked really, really hard and had no ulterior motives. And generally they were loyal to me. But they were also loyal to the players. Like, the part that doesn't ever get talked about is the actual players. Like there is still, amongst all of the quote unquote craziness, these are still 17 to 23 year olds that want to be held accountable, want to be told what to do, want to be loved. Like that part, you got to be loyal to that. The process of helping these young guys grow as well. So I would tell you, if they're good enough at South Florida, they're good enough here. I don't know if I would necessarily have thought that way until I've had the experiences I've had. I think the experience piece is the most undervalued part of it. Meaning just because you can call plays doesn't mean that you can be an offensive coordinator. Just because you're a good offensive coordinator doesn't make you a great head coach. I think the experiences all the way through, I think for me more than anything else, like I've coached defense, I've coached offense, I've coached special teams. I've stood in front of a room as a special teams coordinator, stood in front of it as an offensive coordinator. Like, all of those experiences help. But I would tell you, the coming in on the front end of jobs, this goes back to Toledo and then Illinois and then Iowa State and then Tennessee and obviously South Florida. Like coming in on the front end that first month, the experience of that is what prepares you for this. Because more than calling plays or scheming something up, it's the dealing of people and getting people to buy into a vision and doing it with a purpose, that if I didn't have those experiences, I could have been a coordinator in the NFL. It would have never prepared me for it.
- [23:53]
Interviewer
When you're putting together a staff, realistically, you're going to end up hiring some Guys who you had never met until the interview process, probably, who have never worked for you. And, man, your fate, your team's fate, your program's fate is ultimately going to be as good as the people in the building. What kind of process is it if you're interviewing me for, like your wide receivers room, your tight end room, we've never met before. How do I get in the door with you? And then how thorough is that process before you sign off on me?
- [24:24]
Gus Malzahn
Yeah, it would have to truly be one recommended by one of very few people that you truly trust. I think my mindset changed or maybe grew. Shoot. When I became a coordinator and the thought of, all right, at some point here I'm going to get a chance to be a head coach. You spend time in the summers, like, I've taken every July and taken a week to think through exactly that. Man, if this opportunity was to come, like, where would I go? Which direction would I go? And I'm talking about at every spot. And then you kind of shut the book and then you worry about it again the next July. Well, somewhere along the line when I, when I started to think like that, I was also more cognizant when I was on the road recruiting. And I'd run into a guy where less of, man, it's mean, you competing for a guy and more so, like, hey, Josh, like, where you from? Like, more trying to get to know more people. But it would have to be recommended from somebody that you truly, truly trust. And that could be a high school coach in the area, that could be somebody in the profession that you truly trust. A lot of who you hire, guys that you've never worked with, honestly, is guys that you have run into over the years. Recruiting or going head to head with in recruiting. I would tell you, going head to head on the field is a whole nother animal too. You know, like, DJ Durkin's a great example that coaching against him in 21, getting ready for that defense and watching that defense and seeing how hard those kids play, like, like that's your resume, how hard those kids play, how sound you are, that is truly your resume. And I've been even more cognizant of who's done more with less. Like, who has been able to at group of 5 level, at this level, who's been able to have success with less resources, success with lesser players. And again, I think when I was a young assistant, it was the last thing I thought about. I was just trying to make sure my guys knew what the heck was going on as I got closer to this point, I was way more and more cognizant. But if we were going to sit down, the biggest thing I would want to see is how do you teach? And so I'd make you sit down and teach tight end job. I'd make you teach power. I'd make you teach the top of the route on something. We would talk releases, perimeter blocking, and I would literally tell you, I'm a freshman. It's day one. Install, teach me and see. Watch you teach and go through a progression and figure out, man, is this the right way to teach me? Am I learning anything? Is there feedback? Am I getting recall? Then once you can teach, I'm good for you. To have gotten to that, to the table in the first place, every other box would have been checked. Recruiting box, organizational box, human being box. You wouldn't have gotten to the table without getting all of those checked. And I think at the end of the day, if you can teach and you can engage, that's probably the one part that doesn't get talked about enough.
- [27:45]
Interviewer
Let me ask you this. So you mentioned, like, recommendation. Someone you truly trust has recommended this person. That person gets in your building, that person's sitting down face to face with you. You love what you hear enough to hire that person. What kind of like, personal ownership is there sometimes in the mind of the person who suggested that individual to where it's never spoken like this, but you almost understand if you're the person who made the suggestion, hey, that's my endorsement there coaching for this guy. And if it fails, I mean, it's a reflection on me as much as it is that guy.
- [28:21]
Gus Malzahn
Well, I'll put it like this. When you get a job, you got 900 texts, like within 20 minutes. And so that recommendation would have had to have happened at some other time. It would have had to have happened honestly in passing. Like, Josh paid pretty good, huh? Josh paid pretty good. And a lot of time it's that, you know, like it's in the back of your mind. Josh Payt's pretty good. Like, that's your impression that you've got because it was somebody that you truly trust. When you get a job like this, you're getting every phone call in America that isn't the time to start digging for man who's a good tight end coach. So I say it's in July. It's when you sit down, you start thinking and putting truly pen to paper on that part of it. Man, if I told you we've all done It. But I've hired several people and mostly, like, in auxiliary roles where I've made that phone call, like, hey, dog, what in the hell were you talking about? So my process changed, too. If somebody ever, like, truly recommends them, like, why don't you hire them? Like, you're so high on this guy or this gal, like, why don't you hire them? And that's when you get the true answer. I've also changed. I think my question. Jason Candle years ago called me about a recommendation and asked me, he said, why wouldn't you hire him? Give me the reasons you wouldn't hire. Like, give me three reasons you wouldn't hire. I thought that was powerful because naturally, when you're calling about somebody, you want to know everything, and generally it's going to be positive.
- [30:02]
Interviewer
Yeah.
- [30:03]
Gus Malzahn
Give me the reason why not to hire.
- [30:04]
Interviewer
You got to dig for the negative a little bit.
- [30:05]
Gus Malzahn
You got to dig for the negative. And that's why I say it's got to be somebody you really, really trust. Because most people won't badmouth somebody because they never want it to get back to them that you badmouth them.
- [30:15]
Sponsor/Ad Voice
And then the worst part is after
- [30:16]
Interviewer
it's over and it's failed, you call a dude and say, why didn't you tell me this? And you're like, well, you didn't ask about that. You didn't ask me about the negative.
- [30:23]
Gus Malzahn
That's right. That circle of who you would ever ask is really tight.
- [30:26]
Interviewer
Yeah. So you, like anyone else, had observed Auburn as an outsider over the years, and so you probably had a perspective or a perception of this place no different than any other outsider would. How much has the experience so far meshed with what your outside perception was? Have there been any surprises? Overwhelming? You probably don't want to point out anything that's underwhelming, but, like, what has matched what you expected and what has been different than what you expected?
- [30:54]
Gus Malzahn
Yeah. You know, I was telling Cody Burns this a couple weeks ago, and Cody played here, coached here, and have been with Cody for a while. And it's. It's funny places, unless you're, like, around all the time, meaning, like, in the conference, coaching against them, recruiting against them, they get frozen in time, and it's. It's hard to explain. Like, give you an example. Like, for me, before I took South Florida, my impression of South Florida, the thing that always stood out to me was the 07 BCS rankings and South Florida was second. And. And I remember, like, who's Matt Grothe and who. Like. Like, it was. That gets frozen in time in, at least to me. And I, I was in the Midwest at the time. Like play West Virginia, they're in the Big East. Like that stuff gets frozen. At least for me it does. It gets frozen in time. Auburn in the same breath. Like when I thought of Auburn, I thought of Cam Newton. And then the next thing I remember is Bonix and the kick six. Like those things get frozen in time for me. Obviously think of the Iron bowl and then everything else is like things you hear. And I worked with at Tennessee, I worked with a handful of guys that were here. And so what you know about the town or what you know about the place is what you hear. And those guys adored living here. They adored game day. I've had Cody, who for years has said, man, Auburn's different, Auburn's different, Auburn's different. And forever I always thought like, man, that's your alma mater, you're gonna say that. And Cody's got a unique story. So this place means really more to him than a lot of people. But you're like, yeah, that's your alma mater. It's different. Like for the first time that night before I took the job, I said, kb, explain to me what you meant by Auburn's different. Like, really give it to me here. Like, we got about 20 minutes here to figure this out. What do you mean different? Now being in this league and recruiting against Auburn the last six years, you tend to figure out things like, man, why are kids going there? Why aren't they going there? What kind of kids do they attract? What kind of kids that they stay away from? But you have a picture painted in your mind. A majority of it was frozen in time. How much of it is, is what I thought I would tell you. The people, the support is real. You see the sold out games through these losing records, that says something. People care. People are really passionate. I think the thing that I, that I maybe never understood and I'm starting to really see is this Auburn family, the people that like the loyalty to this place and the loyalty to the people is generational. There's not many people that just are born as Auburn fans. Everybody has an aunt, a mom, a dad, a cousin, a brother, a grandparent that went here. And then it becomes generational. That's the part I think is unique. I think the other part that's really hit me is there is nothing else. There's no pro sports. It's Auburn, it's Alabama, it's the Iron bowl, and it's all really, really Important. I think maybe more so even than I ever thought. But I don't know if until I step foot in Jordan Hare and really feel it and see it that it's really going to hit me. But. But that's the part I think, that, that I've learned how truly deep it is for these people here.
- [35:07]
Interviewer
Don't you find the best environment you've ever been in, including a job? The best places are not necessarily places where you can bullet point, list why they're great. You just kind of got to feel it. And to a certain extent when you try and explain it to someone, you'll sound all discombobulated and you'll say, man, my words aren't really making sense. Like, I know I'm being long winded here. Why don't you just come down here and spend a week, why don't you just come spend two weeks? Or in your case, like, why don't you just come to a game, just spend a weekend down here and then you'll leave. And you yourself may not be able to exactly put into words why it is you enjoyed what you experienced, but you know what you felt like. You're trying to kind of sell a feeling. In other words.
- [35:53]
Gus Malzahn
Yes, it's, it's everybody that, that ass that hasn't been here, like, you like it, right? That's the first one. You love it there, like it there. And you've been between the office and the rental house and a handful of restaurants for official visits. Like, man, it's great. You know, like, it's really hard to quantify or, or bullet point the feeling or the emotion that you have. It's, it's unique and. But I would totally agree with you. It's, it's like, it's a feeling. It's something you gotta, you gotta feel. And I think it's the experiences you have, right? Like, it's, it's like my parents who still haven't been here, like, what kind of town. I'm like, when I think of a sec college town and an SEC college campus. When I picture it as somebody that grew up in the Midwest, when I picture it like this is what I pictured to look like. Red brick churches on every corner, privately owned restaurants.
- [37:01]
Interviewer
You drive 10 minutes and be in the wilderness. Basically, yeah, that's what I picture.
- [37:07]
Gus Malzahn
And it's school and it's football and that's it. But then you try to explain, like, man, it's really clean and it's, it's really safe. And then you're like, man, it's really expensive to live here. I guess that's why it's really clean, why it's really safe. But you can't quantify it, you can't bullet point it. It just is what it is. But I think it's why people fall in love with it.
- [37:27]
Interviewer
You know, in major college football, people always had these nightmare perceptions maybe of, especially in the nil era, where you are so conditioned to know, man, I need financial support. I got to have my big money donors on board that when you take the job, those are some of the first conversations you're going to have. And then people think to themselves, oh man, I guarantee he's dealing with big money donor after big money donor that are saying, hey, here's my check and in exchange, here's what I'm going to need. So there's the help piece, but then there's also the perceived hindrance but piece. So how much of that is real? How much of it is not real? How have you handled kind of basically explaining to people, you're welcome here, I want you, I need you. Here's how it's going to be though.
- [38:15]
Gus Malzahn
Yeah, well, it's all real. You're in, in an era of college football where, where people that have financial means can make a huge difference in your program. And whether it was done off the books for a long time or on the books now, like, this is the one time you can do it legally and can make a huge difference. So it's all real. I think again, my experience of basically going door to door for my first two years at South Florida, nothing short of begging for, for money to get it started, to get it going. You need proof of concept to get people excited and you're trying to sell what it's going to be and then you have some proof of concept and you go back to the same people. And I think if I didn't have that experience of going 1000, 2000, $5000 at a time to raise that money, knowing that, that that's what it was going to take to, to retain guys. I don't know if I would have been prepared for this in the same breath. And to me, I enjoy relationships like I enjoy people. I enjoy getting to know people's stories. If somebody is got the means to help in that capacity at this level, they're obviously uber successful. Like they had to have made it to that point because they're incredibly smart in business or they've made incredible choices in terms of investments or like they got there. Like there's very few people that aren't with it that have the money that, that we're talking about to help us get to where we want to go. So to me, it's that relationship and the transparency in that relationship. And to be honest with you, through the conversations of raising money at the last place to hear, I've learned more than you would ever imagine. If nothing else, how do you raise money? And I think ultimately the South Florida experience gave me, I don't confidence maybe just stamped the fact that, man, just be you, just be you. And if somebody doesn't like you, they don't like you you. And if somebody does like you, they like you. Like, it's the transparency, the being yourself and, and being truthful too. Like, like why do we need the money? Like, what are we going to do with it? I got zero problem telling you what we're going to do with it and I got zero problem telling you that, that we need it. And I've enjoyed meeting the people that this place is important to because in the same breath as the players when I first got here and talking to those guys, like, why is this place so important to you? Like, why does it mean, like, because at the end of the day you're asking somebody, I don't care how much money they got, you're asking somebody to give their hard earned money to something that they're uncertain about. So that's why to me, like, people say, man, it's crazy. Like, is it though, like sitting down with somebody saying, give me, give me your hard earned money and we're going to give it to a 17 to 23 year old and you don't know if he's gonna be any good or not. And then by the way, I'm gonna come back again. And so I do think there has to be a level of transparency for them and I do think there has to be honesty. And that part I've enjoyed. I don't mind. The time is obviously hard because you're finding tidbits of time to do that part of it, but I think it's really important that you do. And again, for the first time in the history of college football, they actually can make a difference.
- [41:59]
Podcast Host
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- [43:04]
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- [44:36]
Gus Malzahn
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- [45:07]
Interviewer
Let me hit you with a couple more here. You were talking about being true to yourself. I remember listening to, like, a pro scout in baseball a long time ago, and he was talking about guys in Double A or AAA when they get their first call up to the big league. And one of the biggest mistakes they make is thinking they need to do more than they were doing. They need to be a 120% version of themselves, because all of a sudden, now they're in the major league, so you got to do more. And they have to sit guys down when they get sent back down and say, now, look, they called you up because the player you were was good enough in their eyes to make it on the biggest stage. So then professionally. All right, and this is no disrespect to any place you've worked before, but this is one of the premier head coaching jobs in college football. Does the maturation sort of lend you to be able to think more like an adult on that sense, or is there sometimes still a reminder you have to have that, no, man, I'm. I'm good enough. That's why I got this job. I don't need to try and reinvent anything. I don't need to try and be 1.5 versions of myself. Myself is good enough. And then, you know, you take the message, give the staff, give to players. But, I mean, is that ever something you have to deal with, or do you just understand that as a byproduct of getting the job?
- [46:22]
Gus Malzahn
Yeah, men, that's a thoughtful question. I think the truth is, you. You gain confidence through checkpoints. You know, I mentioned it earlier, like, my confidence has always come from not skipping a step. Like. Like, I think if I would have been sitting here 10 years ago, I'd be like, man, like, what the hell am I supposed to be doing? Like, what's the head coach at Auburn supposed to be doing? I think the not skipping steps, like I mentioned earlier, being at these places, on the front end of these jobs, whether perceptionally or not, at this level, and not just being there, not being a fly on the wall, but working for guys that trusted me to be, I don't know, quote, unquote, inner circle. Like, being in the process, being there in the process of hiring, making player decisions, whether it was as a recruiting coordinator, whatever. It was, like, never Skipping a step to where when you sit in whatever chair it is, you can be truly focused on that job. And I think that's the part to me that I learned early. Like, when I was. When I was young, it was like, man, how fast can I become a coordinator? And then when I become a coordinator, like, how fast can I become a head coach? I think early on in my time, and I had some really cool people that I worked with that essentially did a really good job of telling me to shut my mouth and work. And I think I learned really early. Like, man, if I'm, like, the best this, then people will notice and I'll be fine. And I think when I. When I came to that mindset, like, one, I became way better at the job I was doing. But two, I never took for granted the. The things that were on the outer scope of whatever job it was that I was doing. Like, as I got better at being a tight ends coach, I was more observant of special team stuff. As I became better at being special teams coordinator, I became more observant of defensive football. As I became an offensive coordinator, I was more observant of the head coaching piece. And I never skipped a step, and I never chased anything until I felt like, all right, I've got a good grip on it. I've always just wanted to be the best at what I do. And so when you sit in this chair, I think the thing that maybe I'm more cognizant of than I've ever been is like, a. And I'm gonna go back to. Cody Burns said this, like, hey, dude, like, side note, you're. You are the SEC either the first or second most powerful person in the state, and you're like, what? Like, yeah, you know, like, this is the last thing I've ever thought about. But that's where I think you just become more cognizant of what you say when the people you say it around maybe more guarded. But I. But I also tell it. Like, if you ask my wife, she would tell you what makes me who I am is I'm not guarded. Like, I enjoy relationships. I'll say what I think. It's rarely, like, out of control, crazy, but I'll say what I think, and I'll listen to the response. And so I don't, like, I really don't. I get excited for the challenge. I get excited to know that you're coaching against the best players, against the best coaches. But to say, man, like, we gotta go reinvent how we teach kids man, we gotta go reinvent any part of it. Like, you better make sure your scheme's right because the dudes you're going against are better week in, week out. But so are your dudes. And so I think, I think people say see when you change, people see when you're different than what, what you were. And I think like I've got a core group of guys, a majority of our staff that I've worked with, been around. Shoot. My high school coach is here. He's our director of player development. Like if, if I started to like go off the rail and start changing, he, he'd still grab me. He still thinks he, he's my coach, you know, and, and I got a wife. That man is like zero impressed by any of this. When I tell you zero impressed. Couldn't care less about where I'm the head coach, the trash better be out on Tuesday night. The laundry, if it sits on the floor one more day, folded, it's gonna stop being folded and then stop being washed. There's humble checkpoints that I have built in that the second I think I gotta change because I'm at Auburn or I'm at wherever, I'll get checked real quickly.
- [51:18]
Interviewer
All right now as you and I are talking to wrap up here, you have had a grand total of one spring practice. So you went through probably what had to be a crazy signing day cycle cuz it was right after you got hired. Then you went through a multi week portal cycle. Plus the guys that you brought with you from South Florida, plus the guys that you just inherited who were already on the roster here. I'm not holding you to this five months from now, but so far, like what is your feel for the roster you have?
- [51:47]
Gus Malzahn
Yeah, I thought you were going to ask for an over under.
- [51:50]
Sponsor/Ad Voice
We'll do that.
- [51:50]
Interviewer
Off yourself, right?
- [51:52]
Gus Malzahn
You know what it is? It's early. I'll say this. Really competitive and really willing. Like this group is done. This is not coach talk. Like, like this group has done everything we've asked them to do. They're very compliant. Maybe is the word. Now I want to put pads on Saturday and find out if, if the dudes that are compliant and have done everything right and talk a pretty good game, if they'll go smack you in the face and then the guys that get smacked in the face, I want to see those guys respond. I think it's too early to tell. I think we're, we are team, speed wise better than I thought. I think skill wise, we are pretty good. I think how that develops in the next six months will determine where we are, I think defensively up front, where we've got depth and we've got size. I think at linebacker, we, we run really well and we've got Deb. Like, to me, we've got some veteran ness in the back end. Again, pads, come on, Bullets are flying. How guys respond will be interesting. I think for us on the offensive line, it's a whole new group and I could tell you like, man, through OTAs, it's looked like this. Like, again, pads on high end, pass rushers on the edges. Like, what the hell does that look like? I'll give you a better answer here in about probably two weeks. But I think the gelling of the offensive line, we've got a ton of experience. We've got some really, really cool skill sets in there. How that comes together will be a huge part of how we function offensively. And I think defensively, the back end, the corner position, like, how we're able to gel together there will determine a lot of where we are. But I like the attitude, I like the competitiveness, I like the intent. Until you put pads on me, you don't know. And I can give you whatever coach answer here you want. But until truly bullets are flying and you see responses and responses and responses. So we got to teach. But I'm excited about it. Like, I really am. Like, I'm telling you, two and a half hours on the field yesterday, like, nobody can bother you. No cell phone, there's no distractions. Now as soon as you walk off the field, you're right back out. But like a really cool group of guys that again, you got to remember this group of guys is guys that chose to stay that we also chose for them to stay day and then guys that chose to come. So they're, they truly all want to be here. And so when you get that now, it's how fast can they come together? How fast can they truly grow to want to play for each other? And then we'll see what it looks like.
- [55:01]
Interviewer
Alex. Gorgeous. This is awesome, man.
- [55:03]
Sponsor/Ad Voice
We appreciate it.
- [55:03]
Gus Malzahn
Thank you, brother. Appreciate it.
- [55:19]
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- [56:03]
Podcast Host
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- [56:39]
Interviewer
When Kohler, global design leader in luxurious
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Gus Malzahn
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- [57:06]
Interviewer
firsthand gave me a whole new appreciation for their craftsmanship.
- [57:12]
Gus Malzahn
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- [57:38]
Podcast Host
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- [57:40]
Gus Malzahn
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Gus Malzahn
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