Just 4 weeks into the 2019 college football season, Gus Malzahn has Auburn all the way up to No.  7 in the polls. The Tigers have defeated 2 ranked teams with a true freshman quarterback and emerged as a serious contender for the SEC and national title.

The Malzahn detractors — that portion of the fan base that, let’s face it, will only be happy with him if he outscores Alabama 86-0 and wins 5 national championships in a row — have been quiet. But, oh my friend, you know that they are just waiting for a moment of weakness to pop their heads up out of the sand and start making noise again.

Auburn barely beats Mississippi State? “Malzahn has got to go!”

Florida defeats the Tigers next week in The Swamp? “Told ya he couldn’t beat a top 10 team on the road. Get rid of him!”

Even after the big win at Texas A&M in Kyle Field this past Saturday, you could hear rumblings. He apparently got conservative. He didn’t play Joey Gatewood enough. He’s the reason that Bo Nix missed those wide open receivers downfield. Why were the Aggies one stop away from getting the ball and a chance to tie the game?

Let me repeat: Malzahn had just taken his team into College Station, as underdogs, and walked out of the 102,000-plus seat stadium with a win. This is after beating a talented Oregon side (have you seen what the Ducks have done since the opening loss?) in a neutral-site game.

Yet a fraction of Auburn’s fan base will never be satisfied. If Auburn wins the next 2 games, which looks like a good possibility, that stubborn portion of fans will sit and just wait for the Tigers to lose for the 10th consecutive time in Baton Rouge.

Win that game? Still no credit unless he follows that up with wins against Georgia and Alabama.

If you ever watched early episodes of “The Simpsons” (you know, back when it was good), you will remember a character named Frank Grimes. Old Grimey, as Homer loved to call him, did his job but never received the accolades that Homer just happened to luckily run into. The bosses never acknowledged him for his success, and that drove Grimes crazy.

Malzahn is Frank Grimes. A guy who busts his hump to get the job done and receives little recognition, though I seriously doubt, unlike Grimes, the coach goes insane. I doubt Malzahn cares about his critics. Instead of worrying about what lies ahead, this is a time that fans should come to appreciate what he has actually accomplished.

Listen, I have criticized Malzahn at times as well, but let’s ask a serious question: Who could the Tigers realistically hire that could have done better over the past 6-plus years? We have seen what can happen at major programs, the likes of Florida, Florida State, Nebraska, USC and, gulp, Tennessee, when you get the wrong guy. What coach would want to come to The Plains after seeing how Malzahn was treated by his fan base and, most important, the boosters who seemingly already want him out.

The coaching job at Auburn has always been one that didn’t exactly have the best security. One bad year (and yes, they were horrible years) and you are out. Tommy Tuberville felt this — almost twice — and Gene Chizik was canned just 2 years after winning the 2nd national title in school history.

Were those firings for good reason? Probably, but it shows you the small line that Malzahn and his predecessors must walk at all times. And that’s before you even consider the challenge of uprooting Nick Saban and Alabama in your own state.

There have already been rumors of one major booster, who has everyone’s ear in the hiring and firing process, reaching out to other coaches. How reliable those rumors are can be questioned, but this is Auburn, a school that once got its university president and athletic director fired due to a secret plane flight to Louisville to visit Bobby Petrino on the private plane of … shocking … a booster.

It will be interesting how the next couple of months play out for a man who has brought a lot of success to the Auburn program. The Tigers’ schedule is brutal and getting through it even with 1 loss must be considered a smashing success.

Yet there remains the part of the Auburn fan base that will remain lukewarm on the fact that Malzahn returns for another season. This is nothing new and will never stop until the next Nick Saban or Dabo Swinney shows up and is the one leading Tiger Walk, and the Tigers, to multiple titles.

Tigers’ fans should be ecstatic right now, especially with the man they see running things. Malzahn, in his press conference on Tuesday, was passionate and showed a side of him I have rarely seen. Auburn also boasts the best résumé through the first month of the season, the defense has proven to be as good as made out to be and the offense is coming around. Instead, the detractors of Malzahn are not satisfied.

They may never be.