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Ten months after his team was soundly beaten 26-14 at Jordan-Hare Stadium, is Nick Saban, with an assist from Kirby Smart, finally on the verge of breaking Auburn football? That shouldn’t be the case, but warning signs abound.
Auburn football, halfway through a season that has not gone as well as expected, is at a crossroads. Will Auburn people pull together, redouble their commitment to winning at the highest level or will Auburn football be brought down by bickering and infighting? That’s a more important question than how many games this team will win down the stretch.
Can Gus Malzahn, taking some serious heat in his sixth season, be the catalyst? Can Auburn people rally around him and his program? If they can’t, can they move on without upheaval, finger-pointing and name-calling? History says that hasn’t been the Auburn way.
Saban hasn’t been able to break Auburn on the field. Malzahn, beating him twice in five seasons, is the only current SEC coach that has been able to even slow Saban’s march toward being remembered as the greatest coach in college football history. Auburn is the only SEC West program in that period other than Alabama to win anything. And it’s happened amid challenging circumstances.
In his five-plus seasons at Auburn, Malzahn has coached against 11 top-five teams. Pat Dye, whose name is on the field at Jordan-Hare Stadium, had coached against nine of them six games into the 1986 season, his sixth. Both took over Auburn programs that were not in good shape, Dye a team that had gone 5-6 the previous season and Malzahn a team that had gone 3-9.
In that span, Dye had won one SEC championship and gone 2-3 against Alabama. He’d had one season of 10 or more wins. That would become two at the end of the 1986 season. Malzahn has won one SEC championship and has gone 2-3 against Alabama. He’s had two seasons in which he won 10-plus games. Malzahn has played the eventual national champion an astonishing four times in his first five seasons. In 12 seasons, Dye played one team that won the national championship, that coming in the final game of his coaching career.
Tommy Tuberville lost four or more games in seven of his 10 Auburn seasons, but he beat a wounded Alabama six straight times and seven times in 10 years. That overshadowed underachieving teams in 2002 and 2003, two more teams that missed out on the SEC Championship Game by losing games they should have won at LSU, another that followed up a perfect season by losing to Georgia Tech at home in the 2005 season-opener.
Those are facts that can’t be disputed, but they don’t mean the same things now as they did then. The reason they don’t is because of what is going on across the state in Tuscaloosa and to a lesser extent to the east in Athens, Ga. No previous Auburn coach, even in the days of Bear Bryant, has faced anything like it.
The Auburn fan base is in turmoil today because of two losses in the first six games that could have, probably should have, been victories. Losing games that could have or should have been won is certainly not unique to this Auburn program or to any other program. But what makes it different is the specter of No. 1 Alabama and No. 2 Georgia waiting on the road at the end of the season.
After the overwhelming joy of beating Georgia 40-17 and Alabama 26-14, both ranked No. 1, at Jordan-Hare Stadium last season, things couldn’t have turned out any worse for Auburn folks. Georgia got revenge 28-7 in the SEC Championship Game, Alabama beat Georgia to win the national championship and Auburn lost 34-27 to Central Florida in the Peach Bowl.
Should that have sucked all the joy out of what happened in November? No, but for a lot of people it did.
So what now? Will there be any joy if Auburn pulls together and beats Tennessee, Ole Miss, Texas A&M and Liberty and loses to Georgia and Alabama to finish 8-4? What if it’s worse than that? Where does this program go?
Buyout or not, anything less than 8-4 will no doubt leave many fans screaming for Malzahn’s scalp. Even 8-4 won’t make a lot of people happy, not if it includes losses to Georgia and Alabama.
Will Auburn hold it together? Will people get on the same page and stay on the same page? Or will they splinter into factions of those who demand change and those who oppose it and then further factions who can’t agree on what that change should be?
The odds at the moment are trending toward the latter, and that could signal trouble for Auburn football. It’s hard enough to win anywhere in the SEC. It’s harder still at Auburn, where Alabama and Georgia are constants on the schedule and on the minds of Auburn people.
It’s nearly impossible if administrators, coaches, players and supporters aren’t pulling together in pursuit of a common goal.
***
Without comment, here are records and accomplishments of all SEC head football coaches starting in 2013, Malzahn’s first season at Auburn, until the present.
WEST DIVISION
ALABAMA
Nick Saban: 70-7 (90.9 percent) overall, 39-4 (90.69 percent) SEC, 3 SEC titles, 5 West Division titles (2 shared with Auburn), 5 New Year’s Six bowls, 4 CFP, 2 national titles.
AUBURN
Gus Malzahn: 49-24 (67.12 percent) overall, 26-17 (60.46 percent) SEC, 1 SEC title, 2 West Division titles, 3 New Year’s Six bowls, runnerup BCS Championship Game, 0 CFP.
LSU
Les Miles: 29-13 (69.04 percent) overall, 15-11 (57.6 percent) SEC, 0 SEC titles, 0 West Division titles, 0 New Year’s Six bowl games, 0 CFP.
Ed Orgeron 20-7 (74.07 percent) overall, 12-5 (70.58 percent) SEC, 0 SEC titles, 0 West Division titles, 0 New Year’s Six bowls, 0 CFP.
MISSISSIPPI STATE
Dan Mullen: 40-24 (62.5 percent) overall, 20-20 (50 percent) SEC, 0 SEC titles, 0 West Division titles, 1 New Year’s Six bowl, 0 CFP.
Joe Moorhead (first year): 5-2 overall, 1-2 SEC.
OLE MISS
Hugh Freeze: 32-19 (62.74 percent) overall, 16-16 (50 percent) SEC, 0 SEC titles, 0 West Division titles, 2 New Year’s Six bowls, O CFP.
Matt Luke: 10-8 (55.55 percent), 3-7 SEC (30 percent), 0 SEC titles, 0 West Division titles, 0 New Year’s Six bowls, 0 CFP.
ARKANSAS
Brett Bielema: 29-34 (53.96 percent) overall, 11-29 (27.5 percent) SEC, 0 SEC titles, 0 West Division titles, 0 New Year’s Six bowls, 0 CFP.
Chad Morris (first season): 1-5 overall, 0-3 SEC.
TEXAS A&M
Kevin Sumlin: 40-24 (62.5 percent) overall, 19-21 (47.5 percent) SEC, 0 SEC titles, 0 West Division titles, 0 New Year’s Six bowls, 0 CFP.
Jimbo Fisher (first season): 4-2 overall, 2-1 SEC.
EAST DIVISION
GEORGIA
Mark Richt: 27-12 (69.23 percent) overall, 16-8 (66.66 percent) SEC, 0 SEC titles, 0 East Division titles, 0 New Year’s Six bowls, 0 CFP
Kirby Smart: 27-7 (79.41 percent) overall, 15-5 SEC (75 percent), 1 SEC title, 1 East Division title, 1 New Year’s 6 bowl, CFP runnerup.
FLORIDA
Will Muschamp 10-13 (43.47 percent) overall, 7-9 (43.75 percent) SEC, 0 SEC titles, 0 East Division titles, 0 New Year’s 6 bowls, 0 CFP.
Jim McElwain: 22-12 overall (64.7 percent), 16-8 (66.66 percent) SEC, 0 SEC titles, 2 East Division titles, 0 New Year’s Six bowls, 0 CFP.
Dan Mullen (first season): 5-1 overall, 3-1 SEC.
TENNESSEE
Butch Jones: 34-27 (55.73 percent) overall, 14-24 (36.85 percent) SEC, 0 SEC titles, 0 East Division titles, 0 New Year’s Six bowls, 0 CFP.
Jeremy Pruitt (first season): 2-3 overall, 0-2 SEC.
KENTUCKY
Mark Stoops: 31-37 (45.58 percent) overall, 15-29 (34.09 percent) SEC, 0 SEC titles, 0 East Division titles, 0 New Year’s Six bowls, 0 CFP.
MISSOURI
Gary Pinkel: 28-12 overall (70 percent), 15-9 (62.5 percent) SEC, 0 SEC titles, 2 East Division titles, 0 New Year’s Six bowls, 0 CFP.
Barry Odom: 14-16 (46.66 percent) overall, 6-12 (33.3 percent) SEC, 0 SEC titles, 0 East Division titles,0 New Year’s Six bowls, 0 CFP.
VANDERBILT
James Franklin: 9-4 overall, 4-4 SEC, 0 SEC titles, 0 East Division titles, 0 New Year’s Six bowls, 0 CFP.
Derek Mason: 21-34 (46.66 percent) overall, 6-28 (17.64 percent) SEC, 0 SEC titles, 0 East Division titles, 0 New Year’s Six bowls, 0 CFP.
SOUTH CAROLINA
Steve Spurrier: 20-12 overall (62.5 percent), 9-11 (45 percent) SEC, 0 SEC titles, 0 East Division titles, 0 New Year’s Six bowls, 0 CFP.
Will Muschamp: 18-13 (58.06 percent) overall, 10-10 (50 percent) SEC, 0 SEC titles, 0 East Division titles, 0 New Year’s Six bowls, 0 CFP.
34COMMENTS
MALZAHN VS.SEC COACHES
2-3 vs. Saban, 2-1 vs. Miles, 0-2 vs. Orgeron, 3-2 vs. Mullen, 0-1 vs. Moorhead, 3-1 vs. Freeze, 3-2 vs. Sumlin, 4-1 vs. Bielema, 1-0 vs. Morris, 1-0 vs. Luke, 0-1 vs. Fisher (at Florida State), 1-2 vs. Richt, 1-2 vs. Smart, 1-0 vs. Jones, 1-0 vs. Pinkel, 1-0 vs. Odom, 1-0 vs. Spurrier, 1-0 vs. Stoops
Auburn football, halfway through a season that has not gone as well as expected, is at a crossroads. Will Auburn people pull together, redouble their commitment to winning at the highest level or will Auburn football be brought down by bickering and infighting? That’s a more important question than how many games this team will win down the stretch.
Can Gus Malzahn, taking some serious heat in his sixth season, be the catalyst? Can Auburn people rally around him and his program? If they can’t, can they move on without upheaval, finger-pointing and name-calling? History says that hasn’t been the Auburn way.
Saban hasn’t been able to break Auburn on the field. Malzahn, beating him twice in five seasons, is the only current SEC coach that has been able to even slow Saban’s march toward being remembered as the greatest coach in college football history. Auburn is the only SEC West program in that period other than Alabama to win anything. And it’s happened amid challenging circumstances.
In his five-plus seasons at Auburn, Malzahn has coached against 11 top-five teams. Pat Dye, whose name is on the field at Jordan-Hare Stadium, had coached against nine of them six games into the 1986 season, his sixth. Both took over Auburn programs that were not in good shape, Dye a team that had gone 5-6 the previous season and Malzahn a team that had gone 3-9.
In that span, Dye had won one SEC championship and gone 2-3 against Alabama. He’d had one season of 10 or more wins. That would become two at the end of the 1986 season. Malzahn has won one SEC championship and has gone 2-3 against Alabama. He’s had two seasons in which he won 10-plus games. Malzahn has played the eventual national champion an astonishing four times in his first five seasons. In 12 seasons, Dye played one team that won the national championship, that coming in the final game of his coaching career.
Tommy Tuberville lost four or more games in seven of his 10 Auburn seasons, but he beat a wounded Alabama six straight times and seven times in 10 years. That overshadowed underachieving teams in 2002 and 2003, two more teams that missed out on the SEC Championship Game by losing games they should have won at LSU, another that followed up a perfect season by losing to Georgia Tech at home in the 2005 season-opener.
Those are facts that can’t be disputed, but they don’t mean the same things now as they did then. The reason they don’t is because of what is going on across the state in Tuscaloosa and to a lesser extent to the east in Athens, Ga. No previous Auburn coach, even in the days of Bear Bryant, has faced anything like it.
The Auburn fan base is in turmoil today because of two losses in the first six games that could have, probably should have, been victories. Losing games that could have or should have been won is certainly not unique to this Auburn program or to any other program. But what makes it different is the specter of No. 1 Alabama and No. 2 Georgia waiting on the road at the end of the season.
After the overwhelming joy of beating Georgia 40-17 and Alabama 26-14, both ranked No. 1, at Jordan-Hare Stadium last season, things couldn’t have turned out any worse for Auburn folks. Georgia got revenge 28-7 in the SEC Championship Game, Alabama beat Georgia to win the national championship and Auburn lost 34-27 to Central Florida in the Peach Bowl.
Should that have sucked all the joy out of what happened in November? No, but for a lot of people it did.
So what now? Will there be any joy if Auburn pulls together and beats Tennessee, Ole Miss, Texas A&M and Liberty and loses to Georgia and Alabama to finish 8-4? What if it’s worse than that? Where does this program go?
Buyout or not, anything less than 8-4 will no doubt leave many fans screaming for Malzahn’s scalp. Even 8-4 won’t make a lot of people happy, not if it includes losses to Georgia and Alabama.
Will Auburn hold it together? Will people get on the same page and stay on the same page? Or will they splinter into factions of those who demand change and those who oppose it and then further factions who can’t agree on what that change should be?
The odds at the moment are trending toward the latter, and that could signal trouble for Auburn football. It’s hard enough to win anywhere in the SEC. It’s harder still at Auburn, where Alabama and Georgia are constants on the schedule and on the minds of Auburn people.
It’s nearly impossible if administrators, coaches, players and supporters aren’t pulling together in pursuit of a common goal.
***
Without comment, here are records and accomplishments of all SEC head football coaches starting in 2013, Malzahn’s first season at Auburn, until the present.
WEST DIVISION
ALABAMA
Nick Saban: 70-7 (90.9 percent) overall, 39-4 (90.69 percent) SEC, 3 SEC titles, 5 West Division titles (2 shared with Auburn), 5 New Year’s Six bowls, 4 CFP, 2 national titles.
AUBURN
Gus Malzahn: 49-24 (67.12 percent) overall, 26-17 (60.46 percent) SEC, 1 SEC title, 2 West Division titles, 3 New Year’s Six bowls, runnerup BCS Championship Game, 0 CFP.
LSU
Les Miles: 29-13 (69.04 percent) overall, 15-11 (57.6 percent) SEC, 0 SEC titles, 0 West Division titles, 0 New Year’s Six bowl games, 0 CFP.
Ed Orgeron 20-7 (74.07 percent) overall, 12-5 (70.58 percent) SEC, 0 SEC titles, 0 West Division titles, 0 New Year’s Six bowls, 0 CFP.
MISSISSIPPI STATE
Dan Mullen: 40-24 (62.5 percent) overall, 20-20 (50 percent) SEC, 0 SEC titles, 0 West Division titles, 1 New Year’s Six bowl, 0 CFP.
Joe Moorhead (first year): 5-2 overall, 1-2 SEC.
OLE MISS
Hugh Freeze: 32-19 (62.74 percent) overall, 16-16 (50 percent) SEC, 0 SEC titles, 0 West Division titles, 2 New Year’s Six bowls, O CFP.
Matt Luke: 10-8 (55.55 percent), 3-7 SEC (30 percent), 0 SEC titles, 0 West Division titles, 0 New Year’s Six bowls, 0 CFP.
ARKANSAS
Brett Bielema: 29-34 (53.96 percent) overall, 11-29 (27.5 percent) SEC, 0 SEC titles, 0 West Division titles, 0 New Year’s Six bowls, 0 CFP.
Chad Morris (first season): 1-5 overall, 0-3 SEC.
TEXAS A&M
Kevin Sumlin: 40-24 (62.5 percent) overall, 19-21 (47.5 percent) SEC, 0 SEC titles, 0 West Division titles, 0 New Year’s Six bowls, 0 CFP.
Jimbo Fisher (first season): 4-2 overall, 2-1 SEC.
EAST DIVISION
GEORGIA
Mark Richt: 27-12 (69.23 percent) overall, 16-8 (66.66 percent) SEC, 0 SEC titles, 0 East Division titles, 0 New Year’s Six bowls, 0 CFP
Kirby Smart: 27-7 (79.41 percent) overall, 15-5 SEC (75 percent), 1 SEC title, 1 East Division title, 1 New Year’s 6 bowl, CFP runnerup.
FLORIDA
Will Muschamp 10-13 (43.47 percent) overall, 7-9 (43.75 percent) SEC, 0 SEC titles, 0 East Division titles, 0 New Year’s 6 bowls, 0 CFP.
Jim McElwain: 22-12 overall (64.7 percent), 16-8 (66.66 percent) SEC, 0 SEC titles, 2 East Division titles, 0 New Year’s Six bowls, 0 CFP.
Dan Mullen (first season): 5-1 overall, 3-1 SEC.
TENNESSEE
Butch Jones: 34-27 (55.73 percent) overall, 14-24 (36.85 percent) SEC, 0 SEC titles, 0 East Division titles, 0 New Year’s Six bowls, 0 CFP.
Jeremy Pruitt (first season): 2-3 overall, 0-2 SEC.
KENTUCKY
Mark Stoops: 31-37 (45.58 percent) overall, 15-29 (34.09 percent) SEC, 0 SEC titles, 0 East Division titles, 0 New Year’s Six bowls, 0 CFP.
MISSOURI
Gary Pinkel: 28-12 overall (70 percent), 15-9 (62.5 percent) SEC, 0 SEC titles, 2 East Division titles, 0 New Year’s Six bowls, 0 CFP.
Barry Odom: 14-16 (46.66 percent) overall, 6-12 (33.3 percent) SEC, 0 SEC titles, 0 East Division titles,0 New Year’s Six bowls, 0 CFP.
VANDERBILT
James Franklin: 9-4 overall, 4-4 SEC, 0 SEC titles, 0 East Division titles, 0 New Year’s Six bowls, 0 CFP.
Derek Mason: 21-34 (46.66 percent) overall, 6-28 (17.64 percent) SEC, 0 SEC titles, 0 East Division titles, 0 New Year’s Six bowls, 0 CFP.
SOUTH CAROLINA
Steve Spurrier: 20-12 overall (62.5 percent), 9-11 (45 percent) SEC, 0 SEC titles, 0 East Division titles, 0 New Year’s Six bowls, 0 CFP.
Will Muschamp: 18-13 (58.06 percent) overall, 10-10 (50 percent) SEC, 0 SEC titles, 0 East Division titles, 0 New Year’s Six bowls, 0 CFP.
34COMMENTS
MALZAHN VS.SEC COACHES
2-3 vs. Saban, 2-1 vs. Miles, 0-2 vs. Orgeron, 3-2 vs. Mullen, 0-1 vs. Moorhead, 3-1 vs. Freeze, 3-2 vs. Sumlin, 4-1 vs. Bielema, 1-0 vs. Morris, 1-0 vs. Luke, 0-1 vs. Fisher (at Florida State), 1-2 vs. Richt, 1-2 vs. Smart, 1-0 vs. Jones, 1-0 vs. Pinkel, 1-0 vs. Odom, 1-0 vs. Spurrier, 1-0 vs. Stoops
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