HOOVER, Ala. – It’s hard to find a “hot seat” ranking of Southeastern Conference football coaches this summer that doesn’t have Auburn’s Gus Malzahn at the top and somebody else as a distant second.
It didn’t take long for that subject to surface Thursday as SEC Media Days wrapped up.
Malzahn is entering his seventh season as Auburn’s head coach and his 10th overall with the Tigers, having served as offensive coordinator for the 2010 national championship team highlighted by quarterback Cam Newton. His first six seasons as head coach have yielded six bowl trips, one SEC championship and two SEC West titles, and for a second straight year, Malzahn is the only league coach who has ever defeated Nick Saban.
“I’ve got a job that expects to win championships, and I expect to win championships,” Malzahn said. “I knew that when I signed up for this. In the years that we win championships, it’s good. The years we don’t, it’s ‘hot seat this’ and ‘hot seat that.’ Out of the six years, four have been this same rodeo. It’s just part of the job description.
“At some places, they celebrate eight wins. That’s just not part of Auburn. We expect to win championships and we’ve done that, and we’re going to have more championships in the future here, too.”