The folks at Auburn hoping to quell that chatter a bit, announcing Monday a one year extension for the coach, taking his current contract through the 2020 season.
Advertisement
Despite back-to-back frustrating seasons, Jacobs reaffirmed his commitment and confidence in Malzahn, who is 27-13 overall and 13-11 in the Southeastern Conference, just a few weeks after Auburn defeated Memphis 31-10 in the Birmingham Bowl last December.
The university released details on a new amendment to the contract Malzahn signed in June 2013.
Malzahn would have made $4.35 million for the 2016 season under the previous contract.
The timing of Malzahn’s contract extension is very odd given that he was very much on the hot seat entering the 2016 NCAA season.
Still, athletic director Jay Jacobs, speaking at last week’s SEC meetings in Florida, said Malzahn would be Auburn’s coach for a “long, long time” and said he was the “the right guy for Auburn”. “He’s a brilliant offensive mind, took us to two national championships, once as a coordinator, once as a head coach”.
“It’s (a) tough league, this league is tough every day”. The other four new assistant coaches are on two-year contracts that, combined with Steele’s three-year, $3.6 million contract, total $975,000 less than what their predecessors would have been owed in 2016.
Advertisement
Auburn went 8-5 the following season and had a disappointing 2015 after coming in regarded as the preseason favorite.
