quote:
On Jan. 3, 2005, Auburn football players celebrated the end of a perfect 2004 season with a 16-13 victory over Virginia Tech in the Sugar Bowl. It was a season for the ages.

The 2004 Tigers were the first in school history to win 13 games in a season. They won the SEC championship for the first time since 1989 and had the first perfect record since 1993. Even with the loss of four first-round draft choices and others who would make their marks in the NFL, the future looked bright.

By the time the 2014 season was over, Auburn would have won two more SEC championships, won one national championship and played for another and had seasons with 11, 14 and 12 wins.

But Auburn also would have had two losing seasons, including the worst in 60 years, and five seasons with at least five losses. One coach would have felt compelled to resign and another would have been fired outright.

Auburn football, in those 11 seasons, experienced the highest of highs. And the lowest of lows.

Really, other than Pat Dye’s halcyon years from 1983 through 1989, Auburn football has been that way more often than not. And even then, Dye’s 1984 team finished 9-4 after being ranked No. 1 in the preseason polls and his 1985 team finished 8-4 after being ranked No. 1 a week into the season.

The hard-to-answer question is why the highs are so often followed by lows, and if third-year head coach Gus Malzahn will be able to change that trend.

First, the whys:

Auburn has a seemingly unique ability to damage itself. Even as Terry Bowden, who took over a program going on probation, was winning in unprecedented fashion, Auburn football was something of a house divided. Later, SACS and Jetgate contributed significantly to the slide that resulted in Tommy Tuberville’s resignation after a 5-7 season in 2008.

Gene Chizik had lost 10 consecutive games at Iowa State before arriving at Auburn. And some were quick to turn on him when he failed to recapture the national championship magic of 2010 after losing Cam Newton, Nick Fairley and more than two dozen seniors. The woeful 2012 season, when his team was non-competitive down the stretch, sealed his fate.

None of those coaches were blameless, but they also didn’t deserve all the blame. All of them, in one way or another, resisted the high expectations that are part of being the head football coach at Auburn.

Maintaining dominance at Auburn is made all the more difficult by the power of its biggest rival. Alabama responded to Dye’s success by hiring Gene Stallings and getting in line behind him. It responded to Tuberville’s six-game Iron Bowl winning streak by hiring Nick Saban and building the best facilities this side of Oregon.

Auburn football can climb to the top of the mountain, regardless of who is coaching at Alabama or anywhere else. It has shown that over and over and over again. But it has also shown it can crash hard.

And that’s where Malzahn comes in.

In his first two seasons, Malzahn experienced what others have experienced. He went 12-2 in his first season, won the SEC championship and came within 13 seconds of the national championship. His team rose as high as No. 2 in the polls in his second season, only to lose four of the last five games and finish 8-5.

Nobody can make Auburn or any other SEC school a champion every season. But in today’s atmosphere, when boosters are asked to pony up millions of dollars to keep programs going, when coaches are made wealthy, anything less than being in the national conversation on a consistent basis.is not going to be acceptable for long.

Is Malzahn the man to make it happen at Auburn? My gut tells me he is. And here are five reasons:

* Malzahn has not fallen victim the disease that seems to affect some Auburn coaches, and not just in football. They come to believe that the expectations are unrealistic, that it’s too hard to stay at the top in the SEC. I’ve seen it football, in basketball and in baseball. I haven't seen even a hint of it from Malzahn.

* Malzahn has not backed down from the recruiting machine across the state. He and his staff have won their share of battles with Alabama. They have recruited well in Georgia and Florida. Auburn has to do those things to be consistently successful.

* I wondered last season if Malzahn would take a hard look at himself after a disappointing season. It’s clear that he did. He hired Will Muschamp to coordinate the defense. He changed his approach, making spring practice more physical and demanding than before. He says preseason practice will be the same.

* Malzahn has been willing to make hard decisions. I admire and respect former coordinator Ellis Johnson, and I don’t put anywhere near all the blame for Auburn’s defensive woes at his feet. But Malzahn made a hard and quick decision to make a change. Muschamp, whose intensity is legendary among those who have played for him, has had a major impact.

* Malzahn is, purely and simply, an offensive guru. His teams are always going to score points. And now, it seems, he’s made the commitment to do what it takes to have the kind of defense that can win consistently against the top teams in the country.

If Malzahn is to put Auburn beside SEC brethren Alabama and LSU and other perennial powers across the country on a near-annual basis, he still has it to do. His laser focus is on doing just that.

The expectations will be high again in the season to come. Malzahn says he welcomes and embraces those expectations.

And that’s where it begins.

I think so far he has shown the ability to adapt and analyze himself and his processes. He's still very new to the college head coaching game and I think we saw that with what happened last year. Obviously something wasn't working with either the way he went about things or other coaches and outside factors (injuries, etc.). It sounds like he is taking a different approach to this year (more physicality in spring, I read a note in one thread that said Malzahn is learning a lot from Boom which I LOVE) which I think shows his ability to adapt and critique his own processes. He is a workaholic, which I think we will agree Chizik and Tuberville weren't. I think he is a great coach as far as X's and O's. He has a great offensive system and is a great play caller, but it seems that he is still learning how to manage a whole team and motivate them. His teams have shown flashes of being great, but the last two years we have lacked consistency of performance. I think the potential for great things in the future is there. Thoughts? What do you think are Malzahn's strengths and weaknesses as a coach and is he the answer?