Auburn football fans, Fly War Eagle hopes you enjoyed your bye week — whether it was spent in the crisp fall air, in front of multiple TVs, or in the middle of a mid-afternoon REM cycle after the first seven weeks of the season wore you down to the point of exhaustion.
The Tigers, at 3-4, can either come out of this off-week reinvigorated and shock people in the final five games on the 2022 schedule, or they could continue to lay an egg and get head coach Bryan Harsin dismissed from his scorching hot seat.
What happens next is anyone’s guess. What happened on October 22, however, is now fully processed around these parts. Week 8 of the college football was a mixed bag of results for Auburn football fans with rooting interests in games that were played.
Here’s a tier-by-tier breakdown of those results for Tiger fans:
The bye week good for Auburn football: Several remaining teams look beatable
Easily the best part about Week 8 of the 2022 college football season for Auburn football fans was seeing future opponents falter in a fashion that leaves the door open for some Tiger wins in the coming weeks.
Mississippi State didn’t look potent against Alabama, as Will Rogers wasn’t accurate against a Crimson Tide front line that put pressure on the rocket-armed threat from the pocket. November 12 in Starkville doesn’t seem insurmountable given what we saw against Alabama — even if the Bulldogs did score their first touchdown in Tuscaloosa since 2014 — or against LSU and Kentucky earlier this season either.
Texas A&M couldn’t keep up with South Carolina, and while the Gamecocks may be levels above the Tigers, Auburn may be able to keep Haynes King at bay to upset the Aggies on November 5 in a battle of current 3-4 teams.
The bye week bad for Auburn football: Bo Nix looks better than ever
Current Ducks offensive coordinator Kenny Dillingham’s presence in Eugene was always going to get more out of Bo Nix than Chad Morris and Mike Bobo, but that he’s already surpassed even his freshman season with Dillingham on the Plains in several scoring categories already is a horrendous look for Auburn football.
Nix is a legitimate dark horse Heisman candidate and is leading a potential College Football Playoff contender, neither of which he could ever claim while donning the orange and blue the past three years. Lamenting over the loss of Nix after starting the season with no clear option between T.J. Finley and Robby Ashford made for a bad time Saturday for many Tiger fans.
The bye week ugly for Auburn football: Gus Malzahn and UCF lay an egg vs. ECU
East Carolina blew the doors off of UCF during Week 8, parlaying a 17-3 halftime lead into a 34-13 rout even after the Knights were favored by 5-6 points on the spread. While some would likely want to categorize this in the good, Fly War Eagle thinks that’s ugly.
It’s understandable to not want to see UCF achieve legitimate national success as Auburn falters, but wishing ill on Gus Malzahn after a time spent on the Plains he and many are grateful for — and some even yearn for once more — isn’t living by the creed.
After leading the Tigers program to consistent success for many years, Malzahn was shown the door after a down-year during the COVID-19 pandemic. No need to kick the man now that he’s moved on.