AUBURN, Ala. — Coaches at big-time college football programs walk a very fine line.
On the one hand, they want stability, reliability and predictability from year to year. They want to be able to count on the things that have always worked for them.
But the successful coaches also know that from time to time the program has to grow and evolve. If not it turns stale. And stale is not good.
That’s where Gus Malzahn found himself last month as he entered his fifth spring practice at Auburn.
After the 2016 season, longtime Malzahn offensive assistant Rhett Lashlee left the program for Connecticut (a move that caught a lot of people by surprise).