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Gus Malzahn Retires, Closing One of College Football’s Loudest Chapters

Former Arkansas coaching search target done after 35 years, ending career that stretched from Arkansas high schools to national championship game.
Andy Hodges|
Florida State Seminoles offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn looks on before a game against the Florida Gators at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, Fla.
Florida State Seminoles offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn looks on before a game against the Florida Gators at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, Fla. | Matt Pendleton-Imagn Images

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Gus Malzahn finally did the most shocking thing of his career.

He stopped coaching.

After 35 years spent drawing plays on napkins, yelling into headsets, and trying to convince quarterbacks that this tempo would absolutely work, Gus Malzahn announced his retirement from coaching.

The news came with the calm finality of a coach who’s seen every version of college football, including the one where the play sheet was laminated and nobody had a “brand.”

Malzahn’s exit ends a coaching journey that stretched from Arkansas high school sidelines to Power Five pressure cookers.

Most recently, he served as offensive coordinator at Florida State, a role that brought him back into the national spotlight after a career spent bouncing between genius and headache.

He didn’t slip out quietly, either. Malzahn said he still loves the game, but the grind finally caught up.

The travel, the recruiting, the constant chase for the next edge—it adds up. Coaching, it turns out, doesn’t slow down just because you’ve been doing it since cassette tapes were a thing.

The résumé is long. The debates are longer, especially in Arkansas.

Before the SEC, before Auburn, before anyone outside Northwest Arkansas cared who Gus Malzahn was, he was building high school powerhouses.

He coached at Shiloh Christian and Springdale High School, stacking championships like they were extra reps at practice.

Those teams didn’t just win. They overwhelmed people. Fast. Relentless. Confusing.

That reputation followed him.

From Arkansas High Schools to Fayetteville Shockwaves

College football first got a taste when Malzahn arrived at Arkansas as offensive coordinator in 2006. And “arrived” might be generous. He was installed.

The hire came with drama worthy of Fayetteville folklore. Malzahn was brought in under head coach Houston Nutt, but not exactly by choice.

Boosters from Springdale pushed the move, leaning hard on athletics director Frank Broyles, who made the call whether Nutt liked it or not.

It remains one of the most polarizing decisions in Razorbacks history.

The results? Electric offense. Hurt feelings. And a marriage that never quite trusted itself.

Arkansas fans still argue about it like it happened last fall. Some swear it modernized the offense.

Others say it cracked the foundation. What everyone agrees on is that it changed the program’s trajectory in ways that still echo.

Malzahn eventually moved on, as he always did. He became a name that followed tempo like a shadow.

Fast snaps. Quarterbacks on the run. Defenses gasping for air.

Tempo, Titles, and Auburn Pressure Cooker

It worked brilliantly until it didn’t, and then it worked again somewhere else.

His most famous stop came at Auburn, where he climbed to the top of the sport and learned how unforgiving it can be.

Winning big wasn’t enough. Winning the right way mattered. And even then, it sometimes didn’t.

Malzahn’s career became a loop. Reinvent. Win. Frustrate. Reset.

SEC Shorts even made a special episode in an effort to capture the up and down relationship between Malzahn and Auburn. One minute they wanted him gone, then he would remind everyone that he's Nick Saban's kryptonite, driving in-state rival Alabama insane in the Iron Bowl at the end of each season.

By the time he landed at Florida State, he was the elder statesman of hurry-up football. The schemes were familiar. The voice was calmer. The pressure was still there.

He said he enjoyed the role, but it was clear the game had changed around him. NIL, portal chaos, and nonstop recruiting had turned coaching into something closer to full-time crisis management.

That’s when the math finally stopped working.

Malzahn went to Central Florida by way of a connection with the athletics director from his days at Arkansas State. There he won nine games his first two seasons before joining the Big 12.

There his team blew a 28-point lead to Baylor and barely missed knocking off No. 6 Oklahoma, but still made a bowl game. There was a chance to grow until Malzahn made the mistake of bringing in former Arkansas quarterback KJ Jefferson.

Jefferson was supposed to be an experienced leader who had learned a hard lesson from his final season at Arkansas, but, instead, the experiment fell apart quickly. He lasted the first give games, throwing for just over 1,000 yards for seven touchdowns and four interceptions while chipping in 193 yards on the ground.

However, after five games, Malzahn moved on from Jefferson and the former Razorbacks' career was over. Unbeknownst to everyone else, so was Malzahn's head coaching career.

Retirement doesn’t erase the contradictions. Malzahn will always be both the offensive innovator and the coach people second-guessed. The guy who could torch elite defenses one week and leave fans staring at box scores the next.

For Arkansas, his name still carries a special kind of static. Mention Malzahn around Razorbacks fans and you’ll get 10 opinions in five seconds.

Some still see him as the spark that pushed the program forward. Others remember the tension, the split authority, and the feeling that something never quite fit.

That’s college football, though. The truth usually lives somewhere between the message boards.

What can’t be debated is the scope. Thirty-five years.

High school dynasties. SEC wars. National titles and national criticism. Malzahn coached through eras, schemes, and rules that barely resemble each other.

Now he’s done.

No more play sheets. No more recruiting calls. No more explaining tempo to people who never wanted it in the first place.

For a coach who spent his life speeding the game up, walking away on his own terms might be the most surprising move he ever made.

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Andy Hodges
ANDY HODGES

Sports columnist, writer, former radio host and television host who has been expressing an opinion on sports in the media for over four decades. He has been at numerous media stops in Arkansas, Texas and Mississippi.

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