There are 35 days till college football season, which means we will be without football for only four more Saturdays. And today we focus on one of the most proven head coaches in the SEC.
There are currently very few proven head coaches in the SEC. Gus Malzahn has been the Auburn football coach for four years, tying him with Bret Bielema, Butch Jones, and Mark Stoops as the fourth longest tenured head coaches in the SEC.
But of all the coaches in the SEC that are entering the fifth season, Malzahn is by far the most accomplished. And that leads us to no. 35 on the Southbound and Down College Football Countdown.
Gus Malzahn has a 35-18 record in four years at Auburn
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His 35 wins are the most of any of those fifth-year coaches, and fourth most among active SEC coaches, behind Nick Saban, Dan Mullen, and Kevin Sumlin. His 8.75 wins per season are also fourth among SEC coaches, behind Saban (11.9), Jim McElwain (9.5), and Sumlin (8.8).
Despite his success, Malzahn enters the 2017 season firmly on the hot seat. He is likely a victim of his own success. No coach has ever busted onto the scene the way Malzahn did in 2013. The Tigers went 12-2 in his first season as Auburn football coach, won the SEC, and lost to Florida State in the national championship.
And while you don’t expect that sort of success in a head coach’s first season, you also don’t expect the first season to be the best season either.
Since that magical 2013 season, the Tigers have gone 8-5, 7-6, and 8-5. Auburn has been ranked in the top 8 of the AP poll at some point in each of the past three seasons, but have failed to finish in the top 20 in each of those seasons.
The biggest frustration from Auburn fans is the fact that they’ve lost to their two biggest rivals, Alabama and Georgia three years in a row by a combined score of 114-69 against the Crimson Tide and 67-27 to the Bulldogs.
Auburn will have big expectations again this season. If they can meet those, fans will hop right back on the Gus Bus, but if they finish 8-5 with losses to their two biggest rivals, 2017 could be the last for Gus Malzahn.