By Zack Steele
Sports Commentary
Over the last decade, my typical Sunday includes waking with bewilderment. I get up, fix myself a coffee, and try to determine just what the heck just happened the night before. If I am feeling truly masochistic, I might even re-watch the recorded game. Fortunately, due to an away soccer game for my daughter, I didn’t get to flog myself with re-living the nightmare of UGA 27, Auburn 6.
From 2010-2019, Auburn managed to beat Georgia only three times, which is remarkable when you consider how close the series was prior to then. In the previous 20 years, the rivalry was remarkably even. Since Gus Malzahn took the helm at Auburn, the lopsided Georgia victories continue to pile up, especially when the game is played at Sanford Stadium. Even when Auburn is technically “supposed” to be the favorite, they inevitably lay an egg.
This troubling trend rests squarely on the shoulders of Gus Malzahn, who continues his trend of losing games to Georgia, LSU, and Alabama. Since 2013, Malzahn’s first year, he has beaten Georgia and LSU two times apiece. His saving grace, I guess, is beating Alabama three times.
Many of these games have been utterly depressing to the Auburn fan. Blowout loses to these teams are all too common in the last seven years, which were really unimaginable prior to his arrival. Saturday night was like watching the people of 1690’s Salem Massachusetts lay stones on someone until they confessed to witchcraft. Slow and crushing.
Make all the excuses you want for Malzahn, and many Auburn faithful will, but this pattern is the rule not the exception. Auburn will never be championship caliber under Gus Malzahn. They will win seven, eight, or if they are really fortunate, nine games a year, and go to a bowl game that no one wants to watch.
I doubt Auburn will make a change after this season unless things really go off the rails. Going off the rails, mind you, can be really easy with a volatile conference season where there appears to be a great deal of parity. Auburn’s next opponent, Arkansas, just knocked off Mississippi State, who were the darlings of college football until Saturday night. Ole Miss outlasted Kentucky in the Commonwealth Saturday night as well.
How confident are Auburn fans about those games as automatic W’s? Yeah. Me neither.
Oh, and throw in LSU and Tennessee games for good measure. I will go head and write off Auburn beating Alabama in Bryant-Denny.
How Auburn responds to this loss is the biggest unknown. Will they regroup and bounce back to have a decent season? In years past, a blowout loss to Georgia usually meant a blowout loss to Bama a couple weeks later. 2020 is different, obviously, because eight games remain on the schedule.
Based on what I saw, Auburn looks like a 6-4 or maybe 7-3 team, if they pull it together.
Based upon Saturday night, that is a pretty big “if”.
Till next week…