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Gus Malzahn responds to criticism from Mike Lombardi calling his offense ‘one of the worst’ in football
By Adam Spencer
Published:
Recently, former NFL GM Mike Lombardi discussed the New England Patriots’ pick of former Auburn QB Jarrett Stidham in the 2019 NFL Draft, and it involved a lot of Auburn bashing.
On his “GM Shuffle” podcast, Lombardi said he doesn’t think coach Gus Malzahn can develop quarterbacks.
You can read his scathing comments about Auburn’s offense here:
“That offense at Auburn, I’m not sure what the hell it is,” Lombardi said. “They run power, they run unbalanced… But anyway, that offense, seriously, might be one of the worst offenses in football, so you can’t evaluate a quarterback in it or they can’t train a quarterback, that’s the other thing. (Gus Malzahn) can’t train them.”
On Wednesday, Malzahn spoke at Regions Tradition in Birmingham and chose to take the high road when responding to Lombardi’s criticism. He cited his success over the past 10 years while admitting that things didn’t go very smoothly in 2018 (via 247Sports):
“I’d say this: I’ve been in the league 10 years and we’ve been pretty successful offensively,” he told reporters. “Last year was a tough year. We were very inexperienced, we had some growing pains, but I feel really good about our offense moving forward. Really excited about the future.”
Malzahn faces a big year in 2019, as he has to decide between Bo Nix and Joey Gatewood at the quarterback position. It’ll go a long way toward determining his future in Auburn.
Adam is a daily fantasy sports (DFS) and sports betting expert. A 2012 graduate of the University of Missouri, Adam now covers all 16 SEC football teams. He is the director of DFS, evergreen and newsletter content across all Saturday Football brands.
