AUBURN | Auburn will pay $21.5 million to buy out the remainder of Gus Malzahn’s contract.

With that kind of investment, you’d assume they’re willing to invest more to bring in a replacement that will take the program to the next level and be able to compete with the Tigers’ top rivals and for championships on a more consistent basis.

With that in mind, there are two important areas Malzahn’s replacement could improve that would make a huge difference — recruiting and offense.

Auburn needs a head coach that is going to lead the recruiting effort and be the point man with AU’s top targets. There’s a reason that Alabama, LSU and Georgia comprised three of the top four spots in the Rivals recruiting team rankings on Signing Day: Nick Saban, Ed Orgeron and Kirby Smart all lead their program’s recruiting efforts.

As Jeffrey Lee has mentioned several times on our podcast, The Rundown, a talented assistant like Travis Williams can win a lot of recruiting battles against other assistants, but he can’t against Saban, Orgeron or Smart. He needs a head coach that’s there to back him up. Malzahn fell short in that area. AU’s next coach needs to be the commander and chief of the recruiting trail.

First and foremost, college football is a talent acquisition game. If Auburn wants to consistently compete in the SEC West, the best division in the best conference in the country, it has to start winning more recruiting battles for 5-star and Rivals100 prospects. It can’t do that with a CEO coach that puts the bulk of the work on his assistants.

On the field, Auburn must have a more consistent offense. Malzahn was supposed to be a difference-maker on the offensive side of the ball, but Auburn finished 86th in scoring offense this season, 28th in 2019 and 48th in 2018.

There used to be a saying that defense wins championships, but that’s not the case anymore. It’s definitely offense. In the 2018 college football playoffs, Oklahoma, Alabama and Clemson were three of the top four teams nationally in scoring offense. Last year’s top four scoring offenses lined up perfectly with the playoffs: 1. LSU, 2. Alabama, 3. Ohio State and 4. Clemson.

Of the four top teams in the current CFP rankings, three — Alabama, Ohio State and Clemson — are in the top five in scoring offense while Notre Dame is 18th.

A big part of having a great offense is having elite players, especially at quarterback, offensive tackle and receiver, but it’s also about having an offensive system that’s produces big plays regardless of the level of competition.

Auburn needs a coach with an offense that is consistently good or one with the ability to evaluate and hire quality offensive coordinators.