The reigning SEC champ is moving into its second season under a coach whose offenses tend to get even better the second time around, and it’s the one team among legitimate conference contenders – let’s not count Florida among that number – that won’t be changing quarterbacks. But Auburn won’t be picked to repeat as titlist. As ever, Alabama will be the choice.
The 2013 Tigers were both lucky (the Prayer at Jordan-Hare against Georgia and the Kick Six against Alabama) and unlucky (losing the BCS title in the final minute after leading 21-3). They were great with the ball (ranking 11th nationally in total offense) but substandard without it (86th in total defense). They won the championship of the nation’s best conference a year after failing to win an SEC game.
Much about the 2013 Auburn Tigers didn’t add up, which is why it’s hard to gauge the 2014 edition. Did this program simply catch and ride a massive wave? Did the wave break when Florida State’s Kelvin Benjamin rose above Chris Davis with 13 seconds remaining that Monday night in Pasadena?
A year ago, Auburn was picked to finish fifth in the seven-team SEC West at these Media Days. “It’s completely different,” coach Gus Malzahn said Monday. “Last year we weren’t on anybody’s radar. We snuck up on lot of people. This year we’ll be circled. But at the same time I feel like that’s good pressure. We’ve got our program back where it should be.”
As we know, Auburn is given to wild mood swings. It entered the 2003 season ranked No. 1 in the land by the New York Times and lost its first two games, the second coming against Georgia Tech and its freshman quarterback Reggie Ball. The week before the Iron Bowl, Auburn officials took a private jet to interview Bobby Petrino, then in his first incarnation as Louisville’s coach, for the head coaching job at Auburn, which technically wasn’t open. The next year, Auburn went undefeated behind the still-in-place Tommy Tuberville.
In 2010 the Tigers won the BCS title with Cam Newton, who spent four months on campus en route to winning the Heisman Trophy and becoming the NFL’s No. 1 draftee. The next year the Tigers went 8-5, all five of the losses coming by at least two touchdowns. In 2012 they went 3-9 and fired coach Gene Chizik 23 months after he’d won a national championship.
It would be wrong to cast Malzahn as another Chizik. (For one thing, Malzahn was the offensive coordinator who maximized Cam Newton’s many assets.) The Tigers probably won’t be as good – I’m on record as picking them to lose three games – but they shouldn’t fall to pieces.
A check of Malzahn’s wayfaring history suggests that his stylized spread offense gets better in Year 2. (The caveat is that, in the eight seasons since exiting Arkansas’ Springdale High School, he has left two of his four jobs after a year and has never made it to a fourth season.) With Malzahn as coordinator, Tulsa led the nation in total offense in both 2007 and 2008 but gained 363 more yards in the latter year. Auburn rose from 16th in total offense in 2009 to seventh in 2010, but that also bears an asterisk: Newton was in junior college in 2009.
For the first time as a collegiate coach, Malzahn will be working with a returning quarterback. Nick Marshall, who signed with Georgia as a cornerback but was kicked off the team after his freshman season, became an adroit administrator of the spread in 2013. Auburn led the nation in rushing, which could lead to bigger and better things from Marshall as a passer. “When you (run the ball well), defenses take chances,” Malzahn said. “We’ve got to do a better job of making them pay this year.”
Marshall was supposed to be here but was scratched after being cited in Reynolds, Ga., for possession of less than an ounce of marijuana. “It is a privilege and a reward to be able to represent Auburn University here at Media Days,” Malzahn said. “Last Friday Nick lost that privilege … Nick made a mistake and he’ll have to deal with the consequences. I’m not ready to say what those consequences are.”
Asked if Marshall might be suspended for the Arkansas game, Malzahn said: “I’m not to that point yet.”
When might that point be reached? “We’ll see.”
Alrighty then. Providing Marshall doesn’t miss substantial time, the Tigers should be spiffy on offense, even without NFL draftees Greg Robinson and Tre Mason. The defense is another matter. Auburn won three key games in which the opponent scored 38 or more points, and that wouldn’t seem a sustainable model. But Malzahn, who in public utterances is devoid of charisma, nonetheless has made his Tigers believe.
“Our coach has instilled his confidence in us,” defensive lineman Gabe Wright said. Auburn fans can only hope Gus Malzahn’s powers of persuasion have a longer shelf life than Gene Chizik’s.
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