Matthew Stevens

Montgomery Advertiser

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 athletic 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.

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 SEC 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 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 afterward. 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 I-A 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 then No. 20 Texas A&M (No. 10 AP, No. 13 Amway Coaches) 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.”