A lot can happen in six days, and no one knows that more now than Arkansas State as it named Gus Malzahn the head coach of Red Wolves football.
In front of a packed Convocation Center auditorium during a Wednesday afternoon press conference, ASU system president Charles Welch and athletic director Dean Lee introduced Malzahn as the 28th head football coach of the ASU football program.
“This eclipses everything,” Welch said of the hire, which was completed on Tuesday night after a six-day process that began with Malzahn contacting Lee Thursday night.
Welch said he had to pull over onto the side of the road after Lee informed him of the possibility of hiring the former Arkansas 5-A high school champion coach.
“I’d always used the term, ‘I’m looking for the right place at the right time,” Malzahn said, wearing a brand new Red Wolves visor. “I’m not a normal college coach as the progression goes. This is the right place and the right time.”
Malzahn takes the reigns as the Red Wolves head coach after three years as the Auburn offensive coordinator, where he helped Auburn win the 2011 BCS championship and coached Cam Newton to winning the 2010 Heisman trophy.
Malzahn was recognized in 2010 with the Broyles Award, which is awarded to the top assistant coach in the nation.
“I look at the foundation that coach [Steve] Roberts and coach Freeze have laid…this is a program on the rise,” Malzahn declared. “I told the team, ‘Buckle up, because we’re fixing to take this thing to the next level.”
The road to the next level began as early as two hours before the press conference, when Malzahn said he had already started recruiting for ASU and would be up late into the night doing the same thing.
“In the few hours that I’ve been here, you can sense that we’re on the verge of something special,” Malzahn said.
Malzahn announced he would finish out his duties as the Auburn offensive coordinator in the Dec. 31 Chick Fil A Bowl against Virginia, citing he felt it was “the right thing to do as far as the players.”
Malzahn went on to say he would be present on the sideline for Arkansas State’s bowl game against Northern Illinois in Mobile, Ala. on Jan 8.
On putting together his own staff, he said he would be patient with his decisions and would be speaking to each of the current staff members on the possibility of being retained.
Among the crowd present Wednesday were many members of the ASU football team, including senior running back Derek Lawson, who witnessed Malzahn’s work in person during the coach’s days at Springdale High School where he coached the Bulldogs to a win in the state championship against West Memphis in 2005.
“I think a lot of people didn’t really believe it at first. I wanted to believe it, but it was hard to,” Lawson said of the speculation surrounding the hiring of Malzahn. “I think this increases everybody’s morale by a lot. It gets people excited about the bowl game and also next season.”
Malzahn’s debut as the Red Wolves head coach and first game in an attempt to defend ASU’s Sun Belt title will come on Sept. 1 when the Red Wolves travel to Eugene, Ore. to face the University of Oregon. The first home game of the year will be against rival Memphis on Sept. 8.
After ASU’s most successful season in 25 years in 2011, Welch declared the hiring of Malzahn as a sign that Arkansas State was ready to take that success even further.
“When the board of trustees hired me, they said the job we have for you as the president of this system is to take this university and take this system and move it to the next level,” Welch said. “To show this state, this region and this nation that ASU is here; we’re here to play and we’re stepping up to the next level.”