Auburn hiring Malzahn is another step in wrong direction

• Malzahn, former Auburn offensive coordinator, hired as Tigers' head coach Tuesday
• In one year away from Auburn Malzahn won Sun Belt title at Arkansas State
• Hire of Malzahn is based more on personal relationships than professional accomplishments

Gus Malzahn might be an excellent coach.

The former offensive coordinator at Auburn was hired as the Tigers' head coach on Tuesday, after one year away and a Sun Belt title at Arkansas State.

And the guy might just make a tremendous head coach.

But on the other hand, he might be worse than Gene Chizik.

And therein lies the problem with this Auburn coaching search, led once again by athletic director Jay Jacobs.

No one knows what Malzahn is as a head coach.

Is he organized?

Does he have a clear and tested plan for building and maintaining a major college program?

Can he put an end to the ridiculous discipline issues that plagued the AU program, including during his time on The Plains?

Can he handle the responsibility that comes with being a major college coach?

Can he balance the workload?

The answer to every single one of those questions about Malzahn begins with "I think …"

Because who could know for sure?

The guy's coached one year at Arkansas State.

In a program that was running pretty good when he got there.

Seven years ago, he was the head coach of an Arkansas high school team.

That's a body of work shaped more like an Olsen twin than a Kardashian.

Yet, a school that competes in the toughest conference in college football – a

school that won a national title two years ago and can match salaries with pretty much any other program out there – just hired him as head coach.

Why?

See, this is the issue I had with the Gene Chizik hire four years ago. It wasn't just that you skipped over a more qualified black candidate at the time.

It was that you skipped over all qualified candidates to get to one who wasn't.

And you've just done it again.

Maybe it shouldn't be a surprise. After all, this search was essentially conducted by the same people who handled the last one, spearheaded by Jacobs.

And can I just say, allowing Jacobs to legitimately handle another search is like letting the guy who designed the Edsel give it another shot.

This leadership group seems to have a particularly small time view of the Auburn football program.

This is a place that has produced three Heisman Trophy winners. It ranks 17th in all of football in historic winning percentage. And if you start counting from around 1980, you won't find many more successful programs.

But here's the list of potential coaches from the last two searches: Gene Chizik, Turner Gill, Gary Patterson (twice), Kirby Smart, Gus Malzahn and Bobby Petrino.

Out of all of them, only Patterson is a legitimate candidate.

I mean, you could argue for Petrino, and I certainly think he would be a winner, but no major program is chasing him at this point after his personal snafus.

Look at that list. It's a list you might see at Kentucky. Or Kansas.

Small time programs meant to be stepping stones to better jobs.

In the meantime, you have Arkansas and Tennessee – both with professional, respected athletic directors – conducting coaching searches like big-time programs conduct coaching searches.

They weren't interviewing Smart and Malzahn.

Arkansas took swings at LSU's Les Miles, Super Bowl winner Jon Gruden and Boise State's Chris Petersen. Tennessee went after Gruden as well and had serious talks with Oklahoma State's Mike Gundy.

The Razorbacks ended up with Wisconsin coach Bret Bielma, who is leading the Badgers back to the Rose Bowl for the third straight time. The Vols appear to be on the verge of landing Louisville coach Charlie Strong, a longtime Florida assistant who has the Cardinals heading to the Sugar Bowl in his third season.

And here's Auburn – a program that you could argue has a higher standing in this league than either Tennessee or Arkansas – hiring a guy with no real experience, based more on personal relationships than professional accomplishments.

You know, throughout the 2012 season, as the Tigers struggled to an 0-8 SEC record for the first time in two generations and a laundry list of embarrassments piled up around the program, the Auburn faithful tried to figure out how things could go so wrong with the program they love and support.

This is how.

Josh Moon also writes for the Montgomery (Ala.) Advertiser.