Auburn football coach Gus Malzahn is the only SEC coach with a head-to-head win against Nick Saban, but his job status appears shaky after the Tigers went 3-5 in league play with a lopsided loss to rival Alabama last season.KNOXVILLE - Kirk Herbstreit certainly did not realize it at the time, but his first-quarter commentary during the 2014 BCS national championship game foreshadowed an annual clash of schematic gurus that will take its final evolution of the foreseeable future this weekend.
Jeremy Pruitt, in his only season as Florida State's defensive coordinator, helped the Seminoles to a thrilling 34-31 title win over first-year Auburn coach Gus Malzahn.
"That is the game within the game tonight between Jeremy Pruitt, the defensive coordinator for Florida State, and Gus Malzahn," Herbstreit said on the TV broadcast.
Pruitt left soon after to become defensive coordinator at Georgia, a job he held for two years before spending the past two as Alabama's defensive coordinator. Each step along Pruitt's coaching journey has pitted him against the offensive-minded Malzahn.
"We know each other well," Malzahn said Wednesday.
Teams with Pruitt-led defenses are 4-1 all-time against Malzahn. Auburn's only victory came last season, when the Tigers beat Alabama 26-14 to clinch the Southeastern Conference's Western Division title.
Malzahn will have a chance to end the duo's annual series on a two-game winning streak when Pruitt's first Tennessee team (2-3, 0-2 SEC) plays at No. 21 Auburn (4-2, 1-2) at noon EDT Saturday.
Auburn and Tennessee, which rotate as cross-divisional rivals, are not scheduled to play again until 2025. With both coaches under contract for several more years, it would take an unlikely postseason meeting between the teams next season to create a seventh annual Malzahn-Pruitt showdown.
This season's meeting brings a new set of challenges for both coaches. Tennessee's defense is young in the secondary, while Auburn's offense has failed to meet preseason expectations.
"They had to replace some guys up front," Pruitt said Monday. "If you look last week in the ballgame, there's a touchdown that they're this far away from it being a touchdown, had several opportunities."
Pruitt held up his thumb and index finger an inch apart to demonstrate his point. Auburn came close to breaking through in a 23-9 loss to Mississippi State.
"Offensively, Gus has always done a really good job running the football, making you play from sideline to sideline, creating explosive plays and the run and pass game giving you a bunch of different looks," Pruitt said. "They play really fast, have an experienced quarterback, have good wide receivers."
Pruitt noted Auburn's success on third downs in last season's win over Alabama. Pruitt's unit ceded nine third-down conversions on 18 attempts in that game.
"You have to recognize formations and where guys are at," Pruitt said. "To me, his teams have always gotten better as the season has gone along. Most of the time, we have coached against him at the very end. They are really dangerous when they get going."
Malzahn believes Pruitt's ability to recognize offensive formations and adjust quickly sets him apart as a defensive coach.
"He mixes things up," Malzahn said. "He checks his self. He's probably more in control of the defense as far as checks and getting in and out of things, seeing different alignments and calling different defenses for alignments and personnel and all that. He probably does more changing from the sideline than anyone we play."
Malzahn added a new wrinkle last season by hiring Chip Lindsey as his offensive coordinator. Pruitt said there are some things Auburn has changed since Lindsey's arrival.
"But there are lots of things that carry over," Pruitt added. "I think all coaches, all of us, as the game changes, we adapt. We try to figure out new ways. I felt like all the years coaching against Coach Malzahn, he finds new wrinkles and finds a way to be productive offensively, and they present a tremendous challenge. They always have."
Contact David Cobb at dcobb@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @DavidWCobb and on Facebook at facebook.com/volsupdate.