HOOVER, Ala. – In 2013, Auburn’s Gus Malzahn became the first Southeastern Conference head football coach to win the league title in his inaugural try since legendary Ole Miss coach Johnny Vaught in 1947.
Last season, Malzahn became the first SEC coach to have his team finish last in a division after being picked to win the league.
Malzahn enters his fourth season with the Tigers having gone 12-2, 8-5 and 7-6, his 12-win team coming within 13 seconds of knocking off Florida State for the national championship. His third Auburn team, however, needed a 31-10 thumping of Memphis in the Birmingham Bowl to avoid the first losing season of his college coaching career.
“When I look at last year, the thing that really stands out to me is that we lost close games,” Malzahn said Monday as the annual SEC media days event opened. “In this league, you’re going to have a lot of close games. The two previous years, we were one of the best in the country at winning close games, and we had opportunities last year.
“From an offensive standpoint, last year really was the first time since I’ve been coaching college that we didn’t execute at a high level consistently, and that goes back on me. I do feel good about where we’re at, and I do feel good about some of the valuations and some of the changes we made going into this year.”