“Do me a favor guys, don’t tell my wife what I’ve done.”

In a out and out strange move THAT TOTALLY MEANS EVERYBODY AT AUBURN IS JUMPING SHIP BECAUSE OF THE CAM NEWTON SCANDAL PAAAAWWWWLLL, Gus Malzahn is leaving Auburn to take the head coaching job at Arkansas State.  While the package is significantly more lucrative that the one the now Ole Miss head coach at Hugh Freeze had when he was in Jonesboro, Malzahn is still taking a massive paycut to go from coordinator at an SEC school to head coach at a Sun Belt school.  You’ll hear soundbites like “Wanted to prove himself as a head coach” and “Just wanted to finally come home to Arkansas”, but you can’t help but theorize that the move, in some part, may be related to Malzahn’s relationship with Gene Chizik.  The fast break Malzahn offense struggled in its second year on the Plains thanks in very large part to the absence of the Heisman winning quarterback Malzahn had under center the year before.  That said, the Auburn offense was going to be better next year from a talent standpoint so it seems odd that Malzahn would up and leave instead of sticking around and trying to bounce back after a lackluster second year.

Malzahn takes over a program that won the Sun Belt title this past year, going 10-2 in the process, but he’ll have a little rebuilding project on his hands as that team was very Senior-heavy.  Luckily, there’s a quarterback’s coach out there who is willing to help and is totally available and is someone that Gus is very familiar with…but he’s going to have to catch him before he enters boot camp.

Meanwhile, back at Auburn, the official spokesman for the coaching staff reacted to the news…

[HT: RuntheDrive for the Trooper goodness]