Is Eight Wins Enough in 2016 for Gus Malzahn to Save His Job?
Despite a recent contract extension, it’s no secret that Auburn football head coach Gus Malzahn is on the coaching hot seat entering the 2016 season.
After having Auburn on the brink of winning a national title in his first year on The Plains, he has gone just 15-11 over the past two seasons, which doesn’t quite meet the expectations that Auburn fans have at the moment when they’re rival keeps adding trophies to the trophy case.
A recent article from SEC Country came up with a win total that each coach in the SEC West must reach in order to avoid the hot seat. Eight is the number of wins they believe Gus Malzahn and Auburn must come away with in 2016 in order to avoid the boot.
How many games does each SEC West coach need to win to avoid the hot seat?
I personally think eight regular season wins is a must for Auburn, and then if Auburn is the favorite in their bowl game that would be a must-win game as well. As much as we discredit bowl games, I’m not certain Gus Malzahn is back at Auburn for 2016 if the Tigers don’t have such an impressive showing in the Birmingham Bowl.
His fall hasn’t reached the point that Gene Chizik fell to after reaching the National Championship game in 2010. He followed that season up with an 8-4 record, and then failed to win a single SEC game the following year before being let go.
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Gus Malzahn still hasn’t had a losing season at Auburn, and I don’t think he will in 2016 either or he’ll definitely be on his way out, but with the amount of talent that has come in over the past couple of years Auburn fans need to see the Tigers competing for championships.
Eight wins isn’t going to win you an SEC West title, but it would show signs of improvement and give the fan base hope that Gus Malzahn has us moving in the right direction again. It also depends on who those eight wins come against. Arkansas State, Louisiana-Monroe, Vanderbilt and Alabama A&M have to be easy wins. Then Texas A&M, Mississippi State and Arkansas should all be winnable games.
That means to get to eight wins Auburn is going to have to upset either Clemson, LSU, Ole Miss, Georgia or Alabama. The Clemson and LSU games are the only home games of those five, but they also come within the first month of the season when we’ll most likely be trying to break in a new quarterback.
Regardless of who it comes against, Auburn has to get at least one big, upset win in 2016 to save Gus Malzahn’s job and prove to the fan base that we can compete with the best in the SEC.
So for me, eight wins is a must for Gus Malzahn in 2016. Anything less than that and Malzahn should feel the fire from his seat. I hate that it has to be that way because I think Malzahn is a good coach, but we need to be at a level in football where we are competing for championships almost every year.
Next: Auburn Football Recruiting (June 20): Commits Rolling in After Big Cat
So what do you think? How many games does Gus Malzahn have to win in 2016 in order to stay off the hot seat? Please leave your comments in the section below, or tweet us on Twitter @FlyWarEagle.
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