Firing Gus

There's a scenario where firing Gus Malzahn is a good move, but let's consider the facts so far:

Somebody is paying $21 million during the worst pandemic in a century to fire a winning coach who has the fourth-best record in the SEC in his eight years, at a time when annual rivals, all of whom have equal or better recruiting opportunities, have: the best coach ever (at Alabama), a Saban-disciple who is his recruiting if not coaching equal (at Georgia), and a lightning-in-a-bottle national championship (at LSU). Gus has never had a major scandal and averages a top ten team by analytical rankings. His players seem to love him and have not had a single game which looked low-effort. They fired him less than a week before early signing day.

That's a lot to swallow, but it would be OK if Auburn had a clear plan. But there is no known plan. Apparently they fired Gus because dodo boosters are mad he wouldn't call the plays they want or go to their summer barbecues enough. This was change for the sake of change. Apparently Mario Cristobal was the first choice for some of these rich idiots who think they won the national title personally in 2010, and they didn't have him locked up. Some of the boosters want to promote Steele, a 62-year-old with a 9-36 record as a head coach. Perhaps some of them want Pat Nix.

Things could work out, still. If I were Cristobal, I wouldn't want to leave Oregon to play 3-5 top ten teams every year and be constantly on the hot seat, but coaches are often meathead idiots who think they can do anything and that being paid more proves they are better. Someone like Billy Napier or Tony Elliott could be hired and work out, improving recruiting (which is technically possible) while bringing fresh blood into offensive and defensive coaching.

Or Auburn could become Tennessee, 2008-present. Or worse!  We'll see!!