13.795 million decision...potential buyout.

[aubiefifty 18,230]

 

Quote

A $13.795 million decision: Potential buyout analysis for Gus Malzahn & his staff

AUBURN — $8,950,000.

This is the estimated amount of money Auburn athletics would owe Gus Malzahn should the university decide to terminate his contract as head football coach at the end of this season. However, that doesn't begin to summarize the financial responsibilty if Malzahn should be removed from his position following the 2016 campaign.

The near $9 million figure, which is based off the contract extension given to Malzahn this past summer by Auburn athletics director Jay Jacobs, would be the largest coaching buyout in Auburn University athletics history topping the $7.5 million dollar buyout handed out to Gene Chizik following his termination at the end of the 2012 season.

In a review of the extension given to the Tigers' fourth-year head coach this past June, Malzahn will be owed $2,237,500 for each of the remaining years left on the contract if fired without cause. Therefore if the contract is terminated by Auburn at the end of the 2016 season, Malzahn would be owed for the 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 seasons he wouldn't be able to coach at the school, a figure that totals $8.95 million.

Malzahn Amendment 2016-2020

If that decision is made, it is unknown at this time whether Auburn officials and Malzahn’s agent Jimmy Sexton would come to a payment plan similar to the monthly pay structure given to Chizik following his termination. After being fired following the 2012 season where Auburn finished 3-9 and winless in the Southeastern Conference, Chizik was reportedly paid his $7.5 million in monthly installments of $209,457.84 through the 2015-2016 fiscal year.

In a critical season for the Auburn program and specifically Malzahn that had Jacobs saying last December during a radio interview on WJOX in Birmingham that there was “no excuse” for the Tigers' 6-6 regular-season record, Auburn now stands 1-2 overall and 0-1 in the SEC for the second consecutive year under Malzahn.

During his media session in early June at the Southeastern Conference spring meetings in Destin, Florida, Jacobs gave his head coach a vote of confidence.

“He’s our coach and he’ll be our coach for a long, long time,” Jacobs said at SEC spring meetings. “He’s a brilliant offensive mind, took us to two national championships, once as a coordinator, once as a head coach.”

The following week Jacobs backed that talk up with a contract extension that upped Malzahn’s buyout payment owed by the university. Neither of those acts by his boss calmed the talk surrounding Malzahn’s job security by the time he entered Hoover, Alabama, for SEC media days in August.

“There’s a bunch of schools in our league that would love to be in our position with a guy like him,” Jacobs said. “It’s a tough league. This league is tough every day. It doesn’t matter what year it is. There’s no doubt that he’s the right guy for Auburn.”

In addition to Malzahn's buyout, Auburn has several assistant coaches with multiple years remaining on their contracts including both coordinators and five position coaches.

Auburn offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee and defensive line coach Rodney Garner are scheduled to be paid an annual salary of $600,000 and $500,000 respectively per year until June 30, 2017. Auburn defensive coordinator Kevin Steele signed a three-year contract and is scheduled to be paid $1.1 million annually. Four new position coaches including defensive backs coach Wesley McGriff  ($500,000 salary per season), offensive line coach Herb Hand ($420,000 salary per season), wide receiver coach Kodi Burns ($350,000 salary per season) and linebackers coach Travis Williams ($225,000 salary per season) were given a two-year contracts. Therefore, if a decision on Malzahn's contract is made by the school, Auburn may be contractually obligated to fulfill the remaining salary due on all of these assistant coach contracts totaling an additional $4.845 million. Certain situations could affect the university's financial responsibility regarding these assistants depending on numerous factors including whether they're hired by another school in the subsequent offseason. However, this $4.845 million figure plus Malzahn's $8.95 million buyout totals a possible $13,795,000 in payments the school's athletics department would be responsible for if Malzahn is terminated after this season.

It should also be noted that Auburn President Jay Gogue announced to the university board of trustees Friday morning that he intends to retire from his position within the next year. According to AuburnUndercover.com, after Chizik started the 2012 season with a 2-7 record, Gogue told trustees he planned to make a change and that's exactly what happened shortly afterwards. It’s also never been denied that Gogue has been involved when major head coaching personnel decisions are made.

According to the USA Today database on Division 1 football head coaching salaries, Malzahn was the 13th highest paid head coach in the sport last season but two coaches higher on the list were fired this past offseason (Mark Richt and Art Briles) and only two coaches higher than Malzahn on the salary list (Texas coach Charlie Strong and Penn State coach James Franklin) have a lower winning percentage than the Tigers head coach at their current school.

After a frustrating loss to open SEC play in 2015 at LSU, Malzahn benched starter Jeremy Johnson in favor of giving Sean White his first career college start. Following a 29-16 home loss to No. 20 Texas A&M Saturday night, the Tigers head coach left open the possibility of making the exact same strategic quarterback move for a SEC game against LSU (2-1, 1-0 in SEC) this Saturday (5 p.m., ESPN) but this time it would involve benching White for junior college transfer John Franklin III and his superior running ability.

“We felt like there were some opportunities for Sean,” Malzahn said after the A&M loss. “We felt like we needed a shot in the arm, so we gave John Franklin a chance and he did a good job moving the football. We will talk about things next week.”

After the loss to Texas A&M, in which Auburn was outscored 26-9 in the final three quarters of play, Malzahn has now lost eight of his last 10 games against Power 5 conference opponents and is 2-10 in his last dozen SEC games. The loss Saturday to Texas A&M was Auburn’s sixth straight SEC home loss, which tops any streak in program history, and Auburn’s active streak of seven straight losses at home to Power 5 conference opponents is currently only behind Colorado’s 10-game mark in futility.

The Tigers fourth-year head coach, who started his Auburn tenure with a 17-2 record but since then has an overall record of 11-13, deflected questions Saturday night about the state of the Auburn football program.

“Each year is different and this is 2016,” Malzahn said Saturday night. “The only thing on my mind right now is making us as good as we possibly can be. That’s the way I look at it. You turn the page from this (loss) you learn from it, you go practice, you give them a good plan and you worry about LSU – that’s the only thing on my mind and that’s how you look at it.”

http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/sports/college/auburnauthority/2016/09/18/13795-million-decision-potential-buyout-analysis-gus-malzahn-his-staff/90623234/

 

[Lucy123 8]

As the sec losses start piling up the pressure is going to be too big to handle.  According to Philip Marshall .... $ is not an issue .  It's not like we are spending tons of $ on renovating our stadium to keep up with the rest of the sec.

[telling tiger 156]

Hell of a line of work, if you can get it...

Win, lose, sink or swim..................Smell like a rose or a skunk and you walk away a multi-millionaire, whether you are competent or not..............

Killer agent and he walked all over the negotiating team, if there even was one...........OBVIOUSLY, JJ can handle it by himself.....gack

[AU-24 3,130]

Jay, Jay is a friend.

Signed,

The Auburn BOT

[aubiefifty 18,230]

folks are wanting bobby patrino bad except for one problem.not only do you have the gus buyout you have the petrino buyout which is about ten mil i believe?is that like fifteen mil buyout just so we can start over? good gfrief.

[AU-24 3,130]

13 minutes ago, Lucy123 said:

As the sec losses start piling up the pressure is going to be too big to handle.  According to Philip Marshall .... $ is not an issue .  It's not like we are spending tons of $ on renovating our stadium to keep up with the rest of the sec.

LOL, but so true!

[johnnyAU 3,745]

The ole golden parachute

[OnthePlains 2,014]

My guess is the same PTB that will want Gus gone are the same PTB that will help pony up the dough for the buyout.  So if they're willing to do so to get him gone then it won't be an issue.  

[AURandy56 148]

I want to say this falls squarely on Jay Jacobs' head for these buyouts and extensions, but doesn't the BOT have to approve these? At what point does the board say "enough?"

[AUIH1 1,515]

25 minutes ago, aubiefifty said:

folks are wanting bobby patrino bad except for one problem.not only do you have the gus buyout you have the petrino buyout which is about ten mil i believe?is that like fifteen mil buyout just so we can start over? good gfrief.

Well we just spent 15 million on a glorified big screen TV.  I don't think money will be an issue for the right coach.  I can see the money not being available until we have a new AD though.  I can't imagine those that make that type of money rain are happy with the way Jay Jacobs has handled the past two head football coaching hires or their contracts.

wde

[telling tiger 156]

1 minute ago, AUIH1 said:

Well we just spent 15 million on a glorified big screen TV.  I don't think money will be an issue for the right coach.  I can see the money not being available until we have a new AD though.  I can't imagine those that make that type of money rain are happy with the way Jay Jacobs has handled the past two head football coaching hires or their contracts.

wde

If they are happy with it, we are in far worse shape than I think and frankly, there isn't much room left for my opinion to go much lower.

[ToomersStreet 797]

My thoughts are, unless Auburn rids itself of Jay Jacobs then there is no point in firing Gus.  I have ZERO faith in Jacobs to make a good coaching hire.  The guy loves Auburn to a fault.  This has skewed his judgment when hiring and retaining coaches.  So fire Jacobs.  If not then keep Gus.

[Elephant Tipper 430]

1 hour ago, aubiefifty said:

In a review of the extension given to the Tigers' fourth-year head coach this past June, Malzahn will be owed $2,237,500 for each of the remaining years left on the contract if fired without cause. Therefore if the contract is terminated by Auburn at the end of the 2016 season, Malzahn would be owed for the 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 seasons he wouldn't be able to coach at the school, a figure that totals $8.95 million.

 

What I don't understand is why firing a coach for mismanaging a team, which GM is clearly doing, is "without cause".  Even though we have loved Malzahn's past successes and been patient with his "figuring his way", this is a contract with AU to SUCCEED, not show a best effort.  Why else would he have been hired for $5.4 million/year ?   In my line of work a person is hired to SUCCEED and if you don't you are kicked out on the street unceremoniously.  You do your job !

Jay Jacobs should be not only be fired, but also taken to court for mismanagement and bad business practices.  Instead of a petition to fire JJ like some dimwit started, it should be a petition for a lawsuit.  I've had enough of JJ.

For the future, salary compensation to the HC should also include deductions for under performing and no contract extensions unless he meets a certain level of success.  AU is watching the good ole buddy system at work with this fiasco.  "You cover my back, I'll cover yours.....in case you're incompetent".

[NoALtiger 3,961]

First thing that pops in my head after reading this Lashlee makes $600K a year??? Second thing is Jimmy Sexton is one heck of an agent.  

[OnthePlains 2,014]

14 minutes ago, NoALtiger said:

First thing that pops in my head after reading this Lashlee makes $600K a year??? Second thing is Jimmy Sexton is one heck of an agent.  

Lashlee making 600k just drives home the point that life is not fair.

[Dual-Threat Rigby 9,046]

It really does need to be a top to bottom firing if this season ends the way its looking. I'll take a removal of Jacobs, Malzahn, the other offensive coordinators, and picking up the right hire. The Board itself needs to understand that the 4 disappointment of seasons that we've had this decade can't continue to occur and expect Auburn's brand to continue to be so valuable. Shell out the money, and make another splash hire. 

[icanthearyou 4,468]

The relative value of money at this level is almost impossible to comprehend.  It is difficult to understand why, given the power of these institutions, coaching contracts aren't more incentive based.

[IronMan70 3,321]

 As long as JJ is the one responsible for hiring head football coaches and negotiating contracts, don't fire anybody. We will have a quicker  recovery and be better off waiting for the next AD. 

[tombigbeetiger 223]

2 hours ago, ToomersStreet said:

My thoughts are, unless Auburn rids itself of Jay Jacobs then there is no point in firing Gus.  I have ZERO faith in Jacobs to make a good coaching hire.  The guy loves Auburn to a fault.  This has skewed his judgment when hiring and retaining coaches.  So fire Jacobs.  If not then keep Gus.

unfortunately, you are correct

[keesler 5,957]

1 hour ago, Dual-Threat Rigby said:

Shell out the money, and make another splash hire. 

I'm still waiting for Auburn to make their first splash hire.  Seriously, Terry Bowden/Tommy Tuberville/Gene Chizik/Gus Malzhan?  

[auskull 242]

Its a financial dilemma. Huge buyout expenses or escalating lost revenue from tickets, refreshments, donors, etc. Makes one wonder how many times a "good" person can make financial decisions and negotiate financial matters that end like this? My neighbor is a "good" person but I wouldn't want him making financial decisions or handling my financial matters. Criticize our record and at the same time lock up the HC so other schools won't come calling.....Go figure. 

[YesWeCam 1]

Lets just swap out Gus and Rhett for Art and Kendal and call it a day folks!!! Everybody wins.

[Dual-Threat Rigby 9,046]

1 hour ago, keesler said:

I'm still waiting for Auburn to make their first splash hire.  Seriously, Terry Bowden/Tommy Tuberville/Gene Chizik/Gus Malzhan?  

Yeah I was thinking about Muschamp, who was pretty solid. He was basically the only option but still 

[JDUBB4AU 5,287]

3 hours ago, icanthearyou said:

The relative value of money at this level is almost impossible to comprehend.  It is difficult to understand why, given the power of these institutions, coaching contracts aren't more incentive based.

Great post. I agree 100

[AU64 10,122]

6 hours ago, aubiefifty said:

folks are wanting bobby patrino bad except for one problem.not only do you have the gus buyout you have the petrino buyout which is about ten mil i believe?is that like fifteen mil buyout just so we can start over? good gfrief.

Florida ended up spending about $20 million to get rid of Muschamp and they buy his replacement's contract.....kind of stuff if not that unusual these days for impulsive schools who fire their coaches at the drop of a hat...or after some a few bad seasons.