Posted by ESPN.com's Chris Low

Good luck in getting Ole Miss coach Houston Nutt or Auburn offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn to talk about their relationship.

Or for that matter, if they even have a relationship.

Both men said this week they haven’t spoken since Malzahn left Arkansas following the 2006 season to go to Tulsa.

Nutt brought Malzahn in from nearby Springdale High to run the Hogs’ offense, and the Hogs also signed four of Malzahn’s players, including Mitch Mustain, who at the time was one of the top quarterback prospects in the country.

The marriage lasted less than a year, though, and it’s no secret that Nutt believes the whole Malzahn/Springdale connection played a big role in how badly things deteriorated for him at Arkansas.

This summer, when asked if he would have done anything differently at Arkansas if he had it to do over again, Nutt said pointedly, “I probably wouldn’t have hired a couple of people. I probably would have just stuck to my niche.”

Of course, there’s a different spin from the Malzahn side, and that is that he was handcuffed and never allowed to run his spread offense at Arkansas and that Nutt basically took over following the season-opening 50-14 loss to Southern California. The Hogs, led by the Darren McFadden-Felix Jones backfield tandem, went to the SEC championship game that season and lost to eventual national champion Florida.

Malzahn also has talked very little about his time at Arkansas and didn’t shed much light on his time there this week other than to say Nutt gave him his start in college coaching. Andy Bitter of The Columbus Ledger-Enquirer had a detailed story Wednesday on the whole Nutt-Malzahn split.

Coaches always say it’s not about them when they meet in these types of grudge matches.

And, truthfully, it’s not. But the last team Nutt wants to lose to is one that includes Malzahn on the staff, and the same goes for Malzahn. There’s no team he’d rather hang 40-plus on and win against than Nutt’s Rebels.