This Saturday will be the official beginning of Gus Malzahn’s eighth season as the head coach of the Auburn Tigers. Kentucky, currently ranked 23rd in the country, travels to Auburn this weekend to take on the 8th ranked Tigers to open the 2020 season. During his time at Auburn, the Tigers have had some struggles in season opening games.
When looking at Auburn’s season opening performances by the numbers, however, this does not appear to be the case. Auburn is 6-1 in season openers under Malzahn, and his offenses have scored over 30 points in four of the seven openers. Despite these numbers showing more success than struggle, it is important to look at each of these games individually.
In 2013, Auburn beat Washington State 31-24 in Malzahn’s very first game. While it was a good start to what would be one of the Tigers’ best seasons ever, Washington State went 6-7 that year and it was a game Auburn should have won.
In 2014, Auburn defeated the Arkansas Razorbacks 45-21 in the opener. This was a better performance than the previous year but once again the Razorbacks were not a difficult opponent, they finished 7-6 that year, and this was a game Auburn was favored in.
The struggles in season opening games really began in 2015. The Tigers were ranked 6th in the country and opened the season against the Louisville Cardinals, led by eventual Heisman Trophy winner Lamar Jackson. Auburn started off hot, going up 24-0, but the offense became stagnant quickly as Louisville attempted to mount a comeback. Auburn survived with a 31-24 victory, and while Louisville did finish 8-5 that year, the issues within the offense could not be ignored and became more apparent the following week when Jacksonville State took Auburn to overtime in their home opener.
It is important to mention that following the 2015 season, Auburn faced an opponent ranked in the top-11 3 times in their season opener, and faced another in week two. These games are not supposed to be guaranteed victories and while Malzahn and the Tigers have dealt with some very stiff competition, the problems Auburn has had in these games, specifically on the offensive side of the ball, cannot be ignored.
In 2016, the unranked Auburn Tigers played host to the 2nd ranked Clemson Tigers. Auburn looked like two teams during this game, with the defense, under first year defensive coordinator Kevin Steele, holding one of the best offenses in the country to under 400 yards and only 19 points. The Auburn offense was dysfunctional throughout the game with three different quarterbacks getting playing time as the offense managed only 262 total yards, 13 points and 3 turnovers.
The following year would be different when Auburn opened with Georgia Southern and won in convincing fashion, 41-7. It is important to mention that Georgia Southern was a former FCS team that had moved to the FBS and went 2-10 that year. The following week, Auburn traveled to Death Valley, home of the 3rd ranked Clemson Tigers. This would end up being one of the worst performances of the Malzahn era. The Auburn defense showed up again, holding Clemson to only 14 points and 281 yards. The Auburn offense did not experience the same dysfunctionality from a year ago, with Jarret Stidham getting all the snaps at quarterback, however the offense experienced very little success. Stidham, in his debut, was sacked 11 times as the offense managed only 117 yards and six points. Stidham and the Tigers would eventually find a groove and finish the year 10-4, including two huge wins over Alabama and Georgia, but the problems of the past two years were still present at the start of 2017.
The 2018 season marked the third straight year Auburn faced a top-10 opponent in the first two weeks of the season when the Tigers faced the 6th ranked Washington Huskies in Atlanta for the season opener. With a year of experience under their belt, the expectations were high for Stidham and the Auburn offense. They somewhat delivered with 420 total yards and a 21-16 victory over the Huskies, however this game was marred by missed opportunities in the red zone and multiple field goals. After an opening drive touchdown, the Tigers did not reach the end zone again until there was six minutes remaining in the fourth quarter. The Huskies were a top-10 team, but Auburn continued to look very rusty on offense in the season openers.
The next year was the beginning of a new era for Auburn with freshman quarterback Bo Nix taking the reins and the Tigers opened the season with a primetime matchup in Dallas against the 11th ranked Oregon Ducks. The highly anticipated rematch of the 2010 National Championship lived up the hype, but it did not look that way at halftime. The first half was dominated by Oregon with the Ducks leading 14-6 and the Auburn offense struggling to find any sort of rhythm. This continued until Auburn finally found the end zone toward the end of the third quarter and began mounting a comeback that would end with a game-winning touchdown pass from Nix to Seth Williams that sealed a 27-21 victory for the Tigers.
There is no denying Auburn’s record in season openers under Malzahn. Going 6-1 with the one loss being to the eventual national champions is a good win loss record but there is important context that comes with the games. And while Auburn has beaten the likes of Oregon and Washington, they have had their fair share of problems on the way to those victories. Rust and appearing unprepared have plagued the Auburn offense in season openers the last few years and the question is whether or not that will continue this Saturday against Kentucky. New offensive coordinator Chad Morris could bring an entirely new element to the offense, while the bizarre offseason could lead to more rust than normal. The Tigers open the 2020 season this Saturday at 11 a.m. CDT.
