This upcoming season is an important one for the Auburn football program. Bo Nix is entering his second year as starting quarterback with most of his weapons on offense returning as well. Auburn’s offense will also be adding new additions, such as the highly ranked recruit Tank Bigsby.
While the Auburn defense is looking to fill the voids left by the likes of Marlon Davidson and Derrick Brown but are led by one of the more experienced linebacking groups in the nation, including senior K.J. Britt.
For Gus Malzahn, this upcoming season will be his eighth at the helm as fans and media alike continue to debate the temperature of his hot seat. In reality, this season presents another opportunity for Malzahn to continue to cement his status as one of Auburn football’s greatest coaches and silence the critics.
This eighth season represents a few milestones for Malzahn. He has a chance to get to 70+ wins at Auburn, only the fifth in Auburn football history to do so. He currently sits at 62 wins in seven years, trailing Tommy Tuberville with 85 for fourth place all-time.
He will also be the sixth coach in the 117-year history of Auburn football to be at the helm for eight seasons or more. The other five are “Iron” Mike Donahue, Jack Meagher, Ralph “Shug” Jordan, Pat Dye and Tommy Tuberville.
“Iron” Mike Donahue was the first long term coach in Auburn football history. He coached at Auburn for 18 years and won 99 games during his tenure. The 99 wins are tied for second-most in program history.
Despite not being as much of a household name as the other men listed above, Jack Meagher was the first coach in Auburn history to lead the Tigers to a bowl game, winning one and tying another. He also led Auburn to its first-ever AP Poll ranking in 1936, leading the Tigers to No. 16.
In 1942, Meagher finished his ninth and final season at Auburn ranked in the AP Poll for the third time, at No. 16, before he left to join the Navy in World War II.
The third coach is the man many consider to be the greatest coach in the history of Auburn football. In 25 years at the helm, Ralph “Shug” Jordan compiled 175 total wins and led the Tigers to their first national championship in 1957.
Pat Dye, the fourth coach, brought Auburn football consistent success in the 1980s’ and ended the nine-game losing streak in the Iron Bowl. Not to mention that Dye coached Auburn’s second Heisman Trophy winner in Bo Jackson.
Tommy Tuberville is the fifth on this list and led Auburn at the dawn of the 21st century. During his time on the Plains, he amassed 85 wins in 10 years at the helm, including an undefeated season in 2004.
Of those six coaches, only one has never had a season with a winning percentage of .500 or below, and that is Gus Malzahn. However, almost every other coach mentioned above, except for Jack Meagher, coached for more than eight seasons at Auburn.
Having more seasons comes with more chances to have a season with a losing record. Donahue, Meagher, Jordan, Dye and Tuberville all experienced a season at or below .500 within their first seven years at the helm.
This stat shows the level of success Malzahn has had at Auburn, getting to a bowl game in every season since he returned to the Plains in 2013. Additionally, every coach mentioned, except for Donahue and Malzahn, had a losing record in their first season at Auburn.
Malzahn’s first season at Auburn came off the heels of a 3-9 season in 2012, the worst record for an Auburn football team since 1998. That 2012 season led to the firing of the man that brought Auburn its second national championship, Gene Chizik.
Malzahn did not come close to a losing record in his first year as the head coach. He led the Tigers to a 12-2 record that included winning the SEC Championship and making the BCS National Championship game.
Malzahn is one of only three coaches in the 117-year history of Auburn football to never have a season at or below a .500 record. The other two are Billy Bates, who coached Auburn for one season in 1903, and William Kienholz, who also coached only one season, this time in 1907.
One of the reasons for Malzahn’s success since coming to Auburn is his recruiting. According to 247Sports, Malzahn has had a recruiting class ranked inside the top 20 in every season since he was hired in 2013. He has never had a recruiting class ranked lower than 12th according to 247Sports, and that 12th ranked class features players like Seth Williams, who has become an experienced starter.
Six of the ten highest-rated recruits in Auburn history have been signed by Malzahn, including Derrick Brown, Carl Lawson, and Montravius Adams.
While recruiting rankings are a tough metric to compare Malzahn to past coaches, since the rankings and star system are more recent creations, they do serve as a testament to the success of Malzahn relative to his era. Recruiting rankings are one of the ways to measure the success of college coaches in the modern era, and Malzahn has been consistent.
Compared to the only other long-tenured Auburn coach during the recruiting rankings era, Malzahn has been more successful in recruiting than Tommy Tuberville, with Tuberville having a class ranked as low as 30 according to 247Sports.
Despite some struggles during the regular season, Malzahn has had consistent success during the offseason each year. While there are sometimes questions surrounding the status of Malzahn as head coach from some in the Auburn fanbase, Malzahn matches up well with the long-tenured Auburn coaches of the past and exceeds them in other categories.
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