Gus commits to Auburn for 2018 … or did he really?

The question came at Auburn coach Gus Malzahn during the SEC Championship game teleconference on Sunday, and it was pretty direct.

Gus was asked, point blank, if he could commit to being at Auburn in 2018.

To some, it sounded like he did make that commitment. But it could actually be interpreted as something else entirely.

“Yeah, I’m honored to be the head coach here at Auburn, like I said [Saturday] night,” Malzahn said Sunday. “We’re playing for the SEC Championship, and I’m excited to be the head coach here.”

That’s one of those good ol’ comments that can be taken, well, however you want to take it. Nobody asked a followup for clarification.

In Southern vernacular, starting responses with “Yeah …” is kind of like acknowledging you understand the question and what’s about to follow is a tap dance around it.

On a day when Arkansas announced they had retained a search firm and coaches were hearing from multiple people representing the Hogs, many were wondering if that means they are starting the search from dead zero.

Not really, in my opinion.

Search firms aren’t necessarily hired to find the candidates or see who’s interested and who’s not. They can do that in some cases, but not all the time.

In this case, I don’t think that’s what’s happening. The search firms for both the athletic director position and football coach are merely doing background vetting and, in effect, crossing the t’s and dotting the i’s.

The pecking order is already established and I’m reasonably certain it’s not going to change this week. My guess is there’s been conversations going on for weeks behind the scenes and everybody has a pretty good idea of how this is going to play out.

Here’s what I think the pecking order is:

• Malzahn. It wouldn’t be surprising if he was told an answer is needed by Sunday about coming back to Arkansas or not, regardless of the outcome against Georgia. Holding up hiring a coach sounds insane to some people, but when you look at the history of first-year coaches, the recruiting class they string together usually isn’t that great. In my opinion, it makes no difference if he was hired Sunday or Tuesday, Jan. 9.

• Mike Norvell, Memphis. He has a championship game of his own Saturday against Scott Frost’s Central Florida team for the American Athletic Conference title. The guess here is he’s been told if he wants the job it’s his if Malzahn doesn’t want it.

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He developed a lot of his offense from Gus. He was a graduate assistant and then wide receivers coach at Tulsa when Gus was offensive coordinator there. He runs a version of that offense that is lighting up scoreboards at Memphis.

• Chad Morris, SMU. This could be the sleeper candidate that has the highest upside of all the candidates in my opinion. His offense, developed after spending a lot of time with Malzahn, was implemented at Clemson and they’re still using it almost exactly as he drew it up.

The added plus is that I think he is the best recruiter in Texas of all the candidates mentioned. His won-loss record at SMU is not staggering, but he took over a program that wasn’t as talented as some bigger high schools in Dallas-Fort Worth. He is a legendary Texas high school coach that won state titles at multiple levels.

• Brent Venables, defensive coordinator, Clemson. While you may be okay with waiting until mid-January for Malzahn, I don’t think you want to wait that long for an assistant who has never been a head coach.

While he is unquestionably a great defensive coordinator, no one knows if he even wants to be a head coach (he’s declined offers before), especially in the SEC where he’s never coached before.

While some fans keep throwing out the name of Mike Leach, the guess here is he’s not even on the long list. There are too many question marks and not enough answers.

To be honest, though, Leach would be a great choice for the media, but I don’t think he’s even under consideration and there are questions of how good he would be in the SEC.