Auburn Football: 5 Fixes for make-or-break 2019 for Gus Malzahn

5. Malzahn is at his best when no one sees him coming

Malzahn’s best teams at Auburn have come when expectations were mild entering the season.

In his debut season as the Tigers’ head coach in 2013, he took over an Auburn team coming off of a 3-9 season and a winless conference slate. Malzhan immediately pulled the right strings and pushed the right buttons leading Auburn to a surprising run to an SEC Championship and berth in the BCS Championship Game.

Three straight seasons followed where Malzahn was unable to break the eight-win plateau, although one of those seasons did culminate in a bid to the Sugar Bowl.

Most expected Auburn to be good in 2017, but no one expected that they would seriously threaten Alabama for the SEC West. An early loss to Clemson and an October road loss to LSU dropped the Tigers to 21st in the AP Poll as they entered the last weekend of October.

From there, Auburn earned back-to-back road wins over Arkansas and Texas A&M before blowing out then-No. 1 Georgia at Jordan-Hare. They knocked off Alabama 26-14 to finish the regular season and clinch the West, putting them one win away from the program’s first berth into the playoff.

The season didn’t end as they hoped, but it birthed the expectations that led to this season’s disappointment.

Point is, when Malzhan’s back is against the wall, when the obituaries of his tenure have been penned, that’s when he strikes. 2018’s struggles, along with some key pieces to replace, have the majority of pundits slating the Tigers as a fringe-Top 25 team for 2019.

Don’t be surprised if Auburn makes another run at the SEC West crown, with both Georgia and Alabama having to make the trek to Jordan-Hare in November.