Arkansas State lost head coach Hugh Freeze to Ole Miss in December, and since that time the school has appointed an interim head coach and hired Auburn offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn to be the team's new head coach. Northern Illinois coach Dave Doeren was asked how this might affect his preparation:
Because they retained David Gunn on the new staff and he was already the named interim coach and with 24 seniors, you operate under the assumption not a lot will change, especially with Gus Malzahn coaching players at Auburn. I don’t expect him to be really involved in what they do offensively.
This sort of scenario tends to arise every year, and teams usually stick to what worked in the regular season.
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