Auburn football program reaches high-water stability mark under coach Gus Malzahn

Auburn football coach Gus Malzahn gets a Gatorade drenching after last Saturday's 26-14 win over Alabama.
Auburn football coach Gus Malzahn gets a Gatorade drenching after last Saturday's 26-14 win over Alabama.

Although this past decade of Southeastern Conference football will forever be remembered for Alabama's dominance under coach Nick Saban, the Auburn Tigers are making their third trip to the SEC championship game since 2010.

Auburn won SEC and national titles in 2010, when Gus Malzahn was Gene Chizik's offensive coordinator and quarterback Cam Newton was running away with the Heisman Trophy. Malzahn became head coach of the Tigers before the 2013 season and promptly led them to a Cinderella run through the league and came within 13 seconds of knocking off Florida State in the final BCS championship game.

A third SEC West title and the second with Malzahn as head coach was attained last Saturday, when the Tigers scored the final 16 points of a 26-14 triumph over previously undefeated and top-ranked Alabama. There was no "Kick Six" needed this time around, which is why Malzahn believes this Auburn team is unlike those that came before.

"The win (over Alabama) in 2013 was obviously huge for our program and where we were at, but this is different," Malzahn said in a news conference. "We're a little more stable right now, and I like where we're at. I like our staff. I like our players.

"You can see where we're at now. We're starting to get depth, and to have quality depth and talent - we've got a real chance for a long time."

Auburn has become the first team in the brief College Football Playoff era to knock off two No. 1 teams in the same season, whipping Georgia 40-17 on Nov. 11 before last week's topping of the Crimson Tide. That accomplishment will only result in a berth to the Orange Bowl or Peach Bowl should the Tigers, who are No. 2 in the latest playoff rankings, lose to No. 6 Georgia in Saturday's SEC title game in Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

Beating the Bulldogs again would clinch Auburn's first trip to the four-team playoff and extend the national reach the Tigers have enjoyed under Malzahn, who is widely reported to be the top candidate for the Arkansas vacancy after last Friday's firing of Bret Bielema.

Although Auburn's two Associated Press national championships occurred under Ralph "Shug" Jordan (1957) and Chizik, Malzahn has a chance Saturday to join Pat Dye as the only coaches for the Tigers to win multiple SEC titles. Dye won four league crowns in a seven-year stretch from 1983 to '89, but that was an era dominated nationally by Miami, with Florida State, Notre Dame, Oklahoma and Penn State in that mix as well.

The SEC was plenty solid then but didn't pack the same punch it has the past decade, though Saban's success has resulted in other schools making changes, including Auburn.

Malzahn's 2013 Tigers had Rhett Lashlee as offensive coordinator and Ellis Johnson as defensive coordinator. This year's team has Chip Lindsey, an analyst for the 2013 team, in his first season running the offense and veteran Kevin Steele in his second season heading the defense.

Auburn opened this year with a methodical 41-7 pounding of a lousy Georgia Southern before losing 14-6 at Clemson and surviving five turnovers in a 24-10 win over Mercer.

"We're a completely different team, and I think that's fair to say," Malzahn said. "I'm not taking anything away from Clemson, because they've got a great team and everybody sees that, but we were still trying to figure out who we were and our identity. We had a new quarterback (Jarrett Stidham) and a new coordinator, and you saw us getting better and better.

"Take away the second half of the LSU game, and it's as good as it gets. We're scoring at one of the better paces we've had since I've been at Auburn, and we've had some really good teams."

Auburn climbed as high as No. 3 in the playoff rankings in 2014 before being undone by defensive woes and to No. 9 last season before getting ravaged by injuries on offense, so the 7-6 team of two seasons ago was the only one under Malzahn that wasn't in the national hunt for at least a while.

The 2013 Tigers won the league by scoring 45 points at Texas A&M, 43 against Georgia and 34 against Alabama before lighting up Missouri for 59 in Atlanta. This year's team has been far more sound defensively and is on pace to rank among the top 10 nationally in fewest points allowed for a second straight season.

When current senior linebacker Tre' Williams was a freshman in 2014, the Tigers lost a 55-44 Iron Bowl.

"For the past two years under Coach Steele, we set a standard, and a lot of guys aren't here anymore who helped build that standard," Williams said. "We're fine with being overlooked. We're going to do what we do and let the numbers talk for themselves. We're going to keep pushing forward, and at the end of the day, we'll give them something to talk about."

Said Malzahn of Steele: "He's up for the Broyles Award (given annually to college football's top assistant coach), and he should probably win it."

Malzahn was asked this week if his Tigers might run out of gas in Atlanta given their dominant November, but he believes his team has the maturity and hunger to keep things going. With what Auburn could potentially bring back next season, there could be more big victories ahead on the Plains.

"I felt like coming into this year that we finally had some quality depth through recruiting," Malzahn said. "We had a lot of the pieces of the puzzle. We are in a really good spot. The future is very bright. We have the ability to sustain it.

"Now, we have to go do it, but we are a lot more stable right now than any other time that I have been at Auburn."

Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.

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