COLUMN: Malzahn's program has arrived (again)
For Auburn's football team, the past month has been one of discovery.
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For Auburn's football team, the past month has been one of discovery.
Auburn's 4-2 start, featuring rapid improvement on both sides of the ball, has helped erase memories of a mediocre 2015 campaign. The offense has found its identity while the defense has been among the best in the country, which has the Tigers in the Top 25 and feeling good.
Auburn leads Arkansas all-time, 13-11-1. The Tigers lead 6-5-1 in games played at Jordan-Hare Stadium. Since these teams began meeting annually in 1992, the series has become one of the tightest in the SEC West.
After a rocky first few games, Auburn's offense found new life after offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee took over the playcalling duties, resulting in a 4-2 start and a spot among the best teams in college football.
After a grueling early schedule that saw the Tigers face three ranked teams (two of which remain undefeated) and travel to play Mississippi State in Starkville, Auburn is ready for some down time. With the offense starting to click, the defense rolling on all cylinders and a physical Arkansas team coming to town in two weeks, the Tigers are using the downtime to focus on themselves.
Heading into Saturday's showdown with Mississippi State, Auburn carried not only the burden of playing its first road game of the season, but also a history of sluggish morning performances. The program's recent history suggested the 11 a.m. kickoff would lead to a sleepy performance by the Tigers.
A common trend for Auburn's offense under Gus Malzahn, both as an offensive coordinator and a head coach, has been its early-season identity crises. When Malzahn has had a new or unproven quarterback — which has been the case every season he's been on The Plains except for 2014 — it has generally resulted in some sluggish early performances.
When Montravius Adams arrived on campus at Auburn, he was a five-star recruit who was considered a significant signing of Gus Malzahn's first recruiting class. While he was a solid contributor his first three seasons, he never reached his potential as one of the elite defensive talents in college football.
When Auburn quarterback Sean White made his first career start in late September of last season, it was a baptism by fire for the then-redshirt freshman. Having never seen the field before in college, he was given the keys to the Tigers' struggling offense and met a tenacious Mississippi State defense.
After a pair of momentum-building wins that featured a more explosive and consistent offense, Auburn offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee had no shortage of praise for his quarterbacks.
After an entire month of dramatic home games, Auburn finished its season-opening five-game home stand with its most complete and relaxed performance yet.
If Auburn kicker Daniel Carlson seems more talkative and positive on campus this week, it shouldn't take much imagination to figure out why. After all, it's not every Saturday you score all of your team's points in a perfect performance that results in a huge conference win and the firing of your opponent's national-title-winning coach.
Of the SEC's many storied rivalries, few have been as hard-nosed and physical as the Auburn-LSU series has been for much of the century. That was no different this time around in Auburn's 18-13 win.
Auburn sophomore receiver Ryan Davis wasn't utilized much during his freshman season, as he didn't record a catch all season and didn't touch the ball until a 28-yard run in Auburn's 26-10 win at Texas A&M.
After 700 days without a home SEC win, Gus Malzahn and Auburn finally broke through with a thrilling 18-13 win over No. 18 LSU. The defense flexed its figurative muscles again, the offense (outside of the red zone) looked as crisp against a Power Five opponent as it has in some time and special teams brought it all together as the Tigers exorcised their Jordan-Hare demons.
Auburn linebacker Deshaun Davis, exhausted yet exhilarated, leaned back in his chair, welcoming the plethora of cameras and recorders. When asked to recall the last play of the game that had just been played, he had to collect his thoughts for a moment.
When Darius Slayton was a highly touted prospect in the 2015 recruiting cycle, he received offers from some of the biggest programs in college football, including Georgia. The Bulldogs were considered by some to be the favorite to land the four-star wide receiver.
- LSU leads Auburn all-time, 28-21-1. - LSU has won 7 of the last 9 meetings.
With two losses in three weeks and Leonard Fournette's LSU Tigers looming, Auburn must figure out what went wrong against Texas A&M and turn things around for arguably the biggest game for the program since 2014.
Auburn head coach Gus Malzahn must have been sure his offense was heading in the right direction after a 706-yard outburst against Arkansas State. The explosive performance helped ease the memories of the offense's incoherent performance against Clemson the previous week.