<![CDATA[Parsing the orange and blue tea leaves]]>While I’m not in the “99.2827% of the internet is firmly convinced that Auburn won’t have a football program by mid-2011” gang whom Will Collier identifies in this post, I do find his taking comfort in Barrett Sallee’s assertion that Gus Malzahn’s decision to stay at Auburn represents insider validation there’s nothing to worry about from the bad ol’ NCAA a tad optimistic.

First off, let’s not lose sight of part of what got Gus to stay:  he’s now the highest paid assistant coach in the country.  He makes more than Dan Mullen now does.  His raise is more than any assistant coach in the SEC currently makes.  Yeah, he had a fabulous year.  But it’s not like he’s the first assistant ever to do that.  If Will and Barrett are going to speculate about what Malzahn’s continued presence means, let’s just say that paying somebody a shitload of money could be interpreted as cutting the other way.

Second, if Malzahn knows something about Camgate that the rest of us don’t, that’s a change.

And third, unless he had a direct hand in Cam’s recruiting, what does he have to worry about anyway?  If  something does turn up and Auburn gets slammed as a result, he’ll just pick up the phone and say, “Get me out of here, Jimmy”, won’t he?  And he’ll go.

None of which is to say that Auburn’s guilty of anything more than giving a scholarship to Cecil Newton’s spawn.  But I’m not sure how much I’d be hanging my hat on Gus turning down Vanderbilt.

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