Arkansas Sports 360 - ArkansasSports360.com

1/18/2011 at 11:34am

If Auburn is in so much trouble, as the rumors that continue to emanate from the South indicate, why isn't its coaching staff jumping off this Lusitania before it's torpedoed. As it turns out, as the Birmingham News' Kevin Scarbinsky points out, Auburn assistant coaches have entertained lots of nice offers, including a head coaching position for offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn, but as it stands now the national champion Tigers' coaching staff will remain intact for the third straight year.

The latest to say no, with every reason to say yes, was Auburn offensive line coach Jeff Grimes turning down Texas' Mack Brown to stay on the Plains.

Scarbinsky writes:

If the Auburn coaches had reason to believe that this championship season might be followed by probation, would offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn have turned down the chance to be an SEC head coach at Vanderbilt? Would Grimes have flown to his home state of Texas, interviewed with Brown and still said no?

Texas has long been considered one of the best places to work in college football, and Brown has earned a reputation as one of the better bosses. Chizik raves about him.

It's not easy to say no to Brown. Alabama's Bo Davis couldn't. After coaching the Tide's defensive line for the past four years, he's going to do the same job for the Longhorns.

Grimes had extra incentive to go west himself.

His line was the foundation of Auburn's record-setting and title-winning offense. Three of his starters earned All-SEC honors, and one of them, tackle Lee Ziemba [from Rogers], won the Jacobs Award as the league's best blocker.

But Ziemba, center Ryan Pugh and guards Mike Berry and Byron Isom are all seniors who've exhausted their college eligibility. Put it all together, and Grimes was as hot a commodity as he's ever been, facing as big a rebuilding job as he's ever seen.

On a personal level, he's a Texas native. He played his college football at UTEP, and he's coached in both high school and college in that state.

He had plenty of reasons to leave, but didn't. [Auburn running backs coach Curtis] Luper said the reasons to stay are plentiful, too, and they start at the top.

Tagged: Birmingham News, Kevin Scarbinsky, Auburn Tigers, Southeastern Conference, Gus Malzahn