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The 2016 season will be a crucial one for coach Gus Malzahn at Auburn.
Picked by the media to win the SEC championship last season, the Tigers finished the regular season 6-6, then lost defensive coordinator Will Muschamp to South Carolina after just one season.
Malzahn’s reputation as an offensive guru also took a hit, as preseason starter and supposed Heisman Trophy contender Jeremy Johnson got benched three games into the season.
On Tuesday, during and after an annual speech, Auburn athletic director Jay Jacobs gave some public comments on those two individuals.
“I believed in Gus when we hired him, I still believe in Gus,” Jacobs said, according to AL.com. “Football season is about what, eight-and-a-half months away, and we’re excited about what’s going to happen.
Malzahn, whose contract runs through 2019, is scheduled to make between $4.1 and $4.35 million during this upcoming football season. He led Auburn to a win against Alabama and an SEC championship in 2013, but went 8-5 and 7-6 in the subsequent years — with double-digit losses to the Tide both times.
When Nick Marshall left following the ’14 season, the offense lagged.
According to AL.com, Jacobs last month said on the radio that “everybody is on the hot seat every day.”
Jacobs’ comments on his head football coach have been pretty nondescript. Asked several times about Malzahn and the direction of the program since the end of the season, he hasn’t been critical other than to say the team must be better than 6-6. But neither has he reacted with disgust that the questions are being posed.
The bottom line is that Auburn just needs to play better football in 2016, or the questions are going to get much louder.
During his speech, Jacobs did honor the often-criticized Johnson. He threw 6 interceptions during his first three games, including a near-loss to FCS school Jacksonville State and a blowout loss to LSU. Then he got benched in favor of Sean White.
Still, Johnson threw 5 touchdowns to 1 interception on 85 pass attempts the rest of the season. After the year, he declined to transfer and will return to campus in the spring to again compete for the starting job with White and JUCO transfer John Franklin III.
“Jeremy, you showed us what an Auburn man’s all about,” Jacobs said, again according to AL.com.
“Every Saturday, regardless of what your situation was, you were the first one out of that tunnel. To me, as an Auburn man, that means more to me and these people in this room than anything you do. We appreciate you and we appreciate the way you represent Auburn University and your family.”
Both of these men will be looking for a little redemption in 2016. It sounds like they will get every opportunity at putting together a better season.
An itinerant journalist, Christopher has moved between states 11 times in seven years. Formally an injury-prone Division I 800-meter specialist, he now wanders the Rockies in search of high peaks.
