Auburn can save Gus Malzahn’s job and impact College Football Playoff
With two big games left on a tough schedule, the Auburn Tigers can impact the College Football Playoff and save Gus Malzahn’s job in one fair swoop.
At 7-2, the Auburn Tigers came in 12th in this week’s College Football playoff rankings. Gus Malzahn’s team currently has a five percent chance to reach the playoff, but are in line to impact the final results.
On Saturday, Auburn will welcome No. 4 Georgia to Jordan-Hare Stadium. The Bulldogs are a pretty flimsy No. 4, with their lone loss coming to 4-6 and reeling South Carolina, so a second loss may very well drop them out of the top-10 with no realistic path back to the top-four.
After the typical November layup SEC teams get on Nov. 23 against Samson, Auburn will end the regular season with a home game against chief rival and currently No. 5 Alabama. A win there for the Tigers would be a second loss for the Crimson Tide, and likely enough to push them out of any real consideration for a playoff spot. If they keep winning, LSU, Ohio State and Clemson will be locked into the first three spots.
So the fourth spot may come down to a pack led by Georgia, Alabama and a currently one-loss Oregon out of the Pac-12. Who did the Ducks’ lone loss come against? Auburn, 27-21 in the season opener on Aug. 31.
Aside from the potential to greatly impact the playoff rankings going forward, the Tigers can also substantially impact Malzahn’s job security over their final three regular season games. A win over Georgia or Alabama, or both (!), would line up a 10-win season (with or without a bowl game win) while residually spoiling the bigger aspirations of at least one conference rival.
Related Story. 5 candidates to replace Chad Morris at Arkansas. light
A big buyout seemed to save Malzahn’s job after last season’s disappointing 8-5 mark, and he’s never too far from the hot seat anyway. But one or two significant wins as November winds down would cool talk of him being fired for at least another year, while altering things on a national level as a couple of paths to the playoff literally go through Auburn.