Gus Malzahn was asked about Arkansas reports after SEC Championship loss

The Auburn Tigers lost to the Georgia Bulldogs, 28-7, in the SEC Championship on Saturday, effectively leaving the Tigers out of the College Football Playoff hunt. Although Auburn will likely get a nice bowl bid on Selection Sunday, the attention now turns to head coach Gus Malzahn, who earlier this month was considering the vacant Arkansas job. Saturday after the loss, Malzahn was asked about the rumors:

Although Auburn won the Iron Bowl, which was the first game that could’ve prompted him to leave, Malzahn now has to choose between coming back or taking a job he could succeed at in Arkansas:

So he’d choose between:

-A maximum-pressure job with a new athletic director in a state he’s not from and with an awful record in the series that matters most,

-Or a less demanding job (Bielema’s had one winning SEC record, a 5-3 2015, in five years) with a new athletic director in his home state.

Not to mention Malzahn has roots in Arkansas:

He’s a Natural State native, played for a smaller Arkansas college and walked on for the Hogs, met his wife in the state, made his name as a high school coaching legend in the state, spent a year as Arkansas’ OC (the less said about Houston Nutt’s willingness to actually run Malzahn’s offense, the better), and went 9-3 in one year as Arkansas State’s head coach.

Arkansas would welcome Malzahn with welcome arms, pretty much -- and there’s a whole backstory here, too. From 2014, back when Malzahn vs. Bielema was the SEC West’s most personal rivalry, here’s what was bubbling under the surface:

Arkansas fans, current coaches, and even Hogville all want you to know that Nutt vs. Malzahn is history.

But the story encapsulates the difference between Little Rock, where a born politician like Nutt once enjoyed strong native support, and Northwest Arkansas, where companies like Walmart, Tyson Foods and J.B. Hunt turned a handful of ignored Ozark towns into one of the strongest local economies in the United States almost overnight.

“Basically, Little Rock’s as Southern as Birmingham or Memphis, with all that comes with it,” says one Little Rock booster, who asked to remain anonymous. “And now if you drive one exit north of Razorback Stadium, you might as well be in Ohio.”

“I think if they would’ve hired Malzahn, it would’ve been fine by now,” Mattingly says. “We’ve come full circle as a state since Gus left, but when he came up as a name for the job, there were all those leftover feelings. Do you like Gus? Did you get over Gus? The state is still divided over him. It’s fueled by Gus being from Northwest Arkansas and Houston being from Little Rock. That’s when things began to really divide. I think it got to a point where people felt like they had to choose sides.”

Bielema offered a restart free of regional agendas and a decade of Hogville conspiracy theories, like the one suggesting Malzahn was sent to overthrow Nutt from the beginning and usurp control of the program to the Northwest, or that Malzahn was barred from considering the open Arkansas job in 2012 because of Governor Mike Beebe, an Arkansas State fan angry that the state’s flagship university refuses to schedule the Red Wolves in football or basketball.

Of course, if Auburn wants to in fact keep Malzahn, a lot of that depends on if he gets offered a new contract either in the coming weeks or depending what happens with Auburn’s bowl game. We’ll have to wait and see how it all plays out, but Auburn’s loss in the SEC Championship certainly re-opens the door to have him head to Fayetteville to take that job.