Auburn Football: Takeaways from Tigers’ demolition of Purdue

3. Gus Malzahn should run Auburn’s offense

There’s no question one of the most innovative offensive minds in college football is Auburn head coach Gus Malzahn. His complex, spread-option offense led Auburn to a national championship in 2010 and won Cam Newton the Heisman Trophy that year as well. When Malzahn returned to Auburn in 2013, his offense led to one of the greatest single-season turnarounds in college football history, going from 3-9 to a minute and a half away from a national championship.

But aside from 2013 and 2017, Gus Malzahn has consistently won 7-8 games a season, while not a bad number, still much too low of a win total, especially when your in-state rival is Alabama. The Auburn offensive struggled mightily at times this season, which reportedly led to head-butting between Malzahn and offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey, who left the team following the regular season to join Les Miles at Kansas.

Malzahn took over the reigns for the bowl game and has shown he is still a master play-caller as seemingly everything worked for the Tigers. This game has led me to believe Malzahn needs to appoint himself as offensive coordinator and have him run the show. He knows best on how to run his offense and he knows how he wants to do it.