Hello again, friends. After the Terry Bowden spectacle in 1998 and the Jetgate fiasco in 2003, everybody figured Auburn had set the low-water mark for mismanagement of football regimes. Yet Auburn in 2018 has found a way out out-Auburn itself. So we spoke yesterday about "Plan C," which was an effort by certain, influentional folks to rid Auburn of Gus Malzahn by making "the head coach so uncomfortable that he becomes willing to negotiate a departure." These methods included taking the unofficially green-lighted football complex off the table — a facility Malzahn not only wants to use but also wants to design himself — and requiring the head coach to gain approval before making any hires or fires. He also was told the pool of money to be doled out to assistants was locked. And that meant any grand designs to hire former Ole Miss coach Huge Freeze were dead on arrival. No coach in their right mind, Plan C devotees figured, would agree to such untenable demands. Yet that's exactly what Malzahn is threatening to do. **NOT A SUBSCRIBER? BUY A NEW, ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP TO AUBURNSPORTS.COM AND RECEIVE A $99 VOUCHER TO BE USED IN THE RIVALS FAN SHOP.**

This is an almost impossibly grievous situation that somehow makes everyone involved look bad. If Malzahn agrees to these limitations, he's allowing Auburn to punish him for a 7-5 season — a season that he still doesn't consider a true calamity. He'll be seen as a weakling, a man whose own organization tried to make him leave and he refused to go. And that's to say nothing of the recruiting trail, where rival programs frame minor squabbles or missteps as dumpster fires to prospects. Auburn doesn't exactly look professional here, but there was no way to avoid that once Malzahn actually demonstrated or feigned interest in abiding to the insulting demands. Auburn didn't expect that. Malzahn is obsessed with maintaining control, of course, and the idea was for Malzahn to recoil, for agent Jimmy Sexton to leap into action and for the two sides to begin buyout negotiations immediately. Will Malzahn actually agree to this stuff?

Let's start that answer right here: Malzahn isn't like me or like you or probably anyone else we know for that matter. If we were faced with a situation where our employer wanted us gone and offered us $30 million to leave, we'd almost certainly be gone the minute the ink dried. Maybe we'll find another good job. Or maybe we won't. Either way, the bank account will be stuffed and consulting gigs pay better than you think. Malzahn doesn't think that way. He's never thought that way. He truly, genuinely doesn't fuss over money. I mentioned this to a friend of mine recently, who quickly noted that Malzahn, for not caring about money, sure was opportunistic last fall when he jammed Auburn for this massive contract. True, but that was all due to his agent Jimmy Sexton. Agents are paid to help their clients make money. Sexton is great at making people money.

Malzahn believes that some minor adjustments will put Auburn back into Western Division contention next season. (Jay G. Tate/AuburnSports.com)