You left a lot out of the story. I also have family in bama and one is a Auburn booster.
Lashlee only called the plays one year and finished sixth nationally rushing , while losing his starting qb and rb. The qb that was hurt was Shawn white, and he was awful before the injury. The issue with with him and Gus was more schematically, Lashlee wanted to get away from the majority power run offense and use more of the pass. So they went their separate ways, he could’ve stayed as oc but malzahn has always called his own plays. And wanted them back.
So he goes to UConn , takes pay cut to run his own offense, he took over arguably the worst o in the country and they jumped around fifty spots. Every offensive staff jumped significantly. From yards, s&p and plays.
His pass offense at Smu finished number 13, now go look at malzahns pass offenses at Auburn. This year they finished below MIAMI, yes i said MIAMI!!
The proof in the pass game alone is enough to show he’s not malzahn and was one of the reasons for their issues. Auburn has had below average pass games Malzahns entire time as hc. It’s basically techno bowl route concepts.
I figured I’d ad some facts to your post.