There was light at the end of the tunnel. The hot seat that Kevin Sumlin sat on cooled measurably with a comeback victory over Florida in The Swamp. The late-season collapses that soured the last few years had finally become a thing of the past. So it seemed.

No, the light at the end of that tunnel was a freight train engineered by Nick Fitzgerald and the Mississippi State Bulldogs. A freight train that flattened the Aggies, 35-14, on Saturday at Kyle Field. And just like that, the seat under Sumlin returned to its boiling point.

Such is life in the SEC West, where each game brings the weight of the world with it. Wins and losses are magnified and overreacted to, with teams wrongly defined by each and every result.

If you don’t think so, wait for the results from this Saturday’s game, a noon SEC West showdown against an Auburn team dealing with its own coach’s hot seat. Come to think of it, which SEC West head coach not named Nick Saban is sitting comfortably at this point? Perhaps only Dan Mullen, and he’s been rumored to perhaps be willing to jump into the fire at Florida.

It isn’t Sumlin, and it’s certainly not Auburn head coach Gus Malzahn. The two square off on Saturday in what appears to be the proverbial elimination bout. Both programs are facing crossroads as they get together at Kyle Field, although many believe the die has already been cast.

Sumlin and the Aggies have zero room for error. In fact, outside of the days of Johnny Manziel, Sumlin’s team must play its best football since joining the SEC if he is to survive. Saturday’s game with Auburn will be the first obstacle. The season-ender at LSU is the other. That’s assuming they take care of business in between with games against New Mexico and at Ole Miss.

If they can win those, and that’s obviously a great big “if,” especially considering the finishes to the last few seasons, the Aggies would be 9-3 with a chance at a 10-win season with a bowl victory.

That would appear to be enough to satisfy AD Scott Woodward, who said before the season that Sumlin had to do better than in the past. Well, the past three seasons have produced 8-5 records. A 10-3 finish qualifies.

Some have resigned themselves to the inevitable and are already posing the “what if” question. If Sumlin is fired, can Texas A&M compete with the likes of Florida and Tennessee for the nation’s top coaches?

A slip-up on Saturday would mean that Texas A&M could do no better than finish 8-4 and that’s only if it beats LSU, which it hasn’t done since becoming a member of the SEC.

So, yes, Sumlin and the Aggies still could salvage the season. But after discarding all the momentum it gained in The Swamp by laying an egg on the turf at Kyle Field against Mississippi State, it will take a Herculean climb up a monumental hill.