Auburn proved itself worthy of being in the national conversation after a win against then-No. 11 Oregon in Arlington, Texas, in the biggest Week 1 game of the 2019 college football season. The Tigers followed that with back-to-back easy wins against Tulane and Kent State, as expected.

While the first game will never be a barometer for how a team will perform during the rest of the season, the next few weeks will for the Tigers. The Ducks were mighty competition, but the test now turns to the SEC schedule and, whoa boy, is it a doozy.

Let’s start with this upcoming Saturday at Texas A&M. Many teams would go into Clemson’s Death Valley now and get beat badly. In fact, 95% of FBS teams would.

Yet the Aggies, in Jimbo Fisher’s second season in charge, will pose a big threat to Auburn, especially at Kyle Field. Kellen Mond is better than he looked against the ACC Tigers, and the speed and depth that wasn’t there in years past has arrived. Oh, and no longer will the Aggies be counting on outscoring opponents. They have a defense that, if Auburn doesn’t show up, could shut the Tigers down.

Of course, this is what the Tigers have been training for the entire offseason and fall camp. The win against Oregon was great — and shot Auburn into the top 10 — but this five-week stretch (at Texas A&M, Mississippi State, at Florida, at Arkansas, at LSU) will help decide if this season is special or another bid to the Music City Bowl.

The defense is there. Derrick Brown, who sat out after the first Kent State drive on Saturday, seems to be fine to play this Saturday and that makes Auburn a formidable front line. The linebackers have been better than anyone thought and the secondary is doing its job in coverage. Let me state this again: The defense will be there.

But will the offense?

After two games against Group of 5 schools, including Saturday when the Tigers put up 31 second-half points against a Golden Flashes defense that was tired at best, it is hard to judge what the Tigers will do against SEC-level competition. Was Tigers coach Gus Malzahn holding back? Will we see more Joey Gatewood? Will Bo Nix finally be unleashed in an offense where everything seems a bit tied down (the last-second throw against the Ducks being the exception)?

Mostly, will the Tigers offensive line finally take form and punish defenses?

With a 3-0 start and a win against a Pac-12 power, Malzahn has earned some credit from the Auburn fan base. That would quickly dissipate if the Tigers go 2-3 (or somehow worse) over the next five, because it only gets tougher from there with home games against against Georgia and Alabama waiting in the wings.

There will be a lot of hand-wringing across The Plains over the next several weeks and the end result could go either way. If the Tigers end up 6-0, Malzahn and company find themselves right in the conversation as College Football Playoff contenders. If it goes the other way, his job security — and big buyout — becomes the talk of news radio.

This is a fork in the road for a program, a team and a coach. What will happen? We won’t have to wait long to find out.