LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas State coach Gus Malzahn was running a little late to Monday's Little Rock Touchdown Club, where he was the guest speaker for the crowd of a few hundred at the Embassy Suites in west Little Rock.
The shortened time span didn't deter anyone from asking some of the more popular questions that are going to be asked of the coach in the coming weeks.
Along with telling the crowd about his confidence in his Red Wolves, the team's ability to rebound from early-season losses and his affinity for high school coaches in the state — which he was for 15 years — Malzahn was asked both at the podium and by the media afterward about his name popping up in several coaching searches for bigger programs.
Malzahn reaffirmed several times that he is happy being the coach at Arkansas State and is focused more on the games at hand than what his next job might be. He added that he is the coach of the Red Wolves program now, and that he "focused on winning a championship."
The first-year head man is currently leading the Arkansas State into a de facto conference championship game against Middle Tennessee State on Dec. 1. A win would assure them of at least a share of the conference crown and a loss would put them back into a four-way tie for the title.
Read more about this story in tomorrow's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.