A coach comes out of nowhere and takes an Auburn team straight to the national championship game. Then he flames out within two years and gets the boot.

Auburn has seen it before with Gene Chizik. He won a national title in 2010 and was fired within two years.

Are we about to see something similar once again?

Gus Malzahn showed up on The Plains and had a magical season in 2013, winning the SEC and earning a trip to the national championship game against Florida State. The Tigers came up short, but still it was an incredible season, and something sure to build on.

But the Chizik/Malzahn parallels are hard to ignore. They are nauseatingly similar.

Chizik arrived from Iowa State with very little fanfare. But in two years he won a national title with Cam Newton. But Auburn slipped to 8-5 and then 3-9, and Chizik was sent packing.

That’s just the way it goes. Because in the SEC, you either contend for titles or find other employment. That line of thinking goes all the way back to Phillip Fulmer at Tennessee and remains alive and well today. Just ask Mark Richt, or Les Miles, or even Will Muschamp, who has left his Auburn defensive coordinator job to take a second turn as a head coach in hopes that South Carolina will be a better fit than Florida.

After Chizik, in stepped offensive guru Gus Malzahn and the Tigers are back in business. In one year, Malzahn took the 3-9 Tigers to the national championship game.

And then, oh no, here we go again. An 8-5 season followed. Sound familiar? This season was supposed to be a rebound year, with the Tigers ranked No. 6 in the preseason. Instead the Tigers went 6-6 and finished dead last in the SEC West, winning just two league games.

It wasn’t as bad as Chizik’s 3-9, but it might as well have been. The Tigers were woeful in 2015. Field-goal victories over Jacksonville State and Kentucky typified a dreadful campaign. Thank goodness Idaho showed up in the next-to-last game on the schedule. The Vandals provided Auburn with six wins and a bowl berth. The Tigers will play Memphis in the Birmingham Bowl with an opportunity to at least salvage a winning season.

But where does Auburn go from here? Can the Tigers still turn it around in 2016, or is Malzahn in trouble?

When your in-state rival is winning or contending for national championships, mere winning seasons don’t cut it. Since 2008, Auburn has won just two Iron Bowl games against Alabama. That doesn’t get it done, either. Malzahn won his first Iron Bowl on the crazy “Kick-Six” but has lost his last two. The heat has been turned up on his seat.

The Tigers were devastated by injuries this season, so maybe Malzahn gets a pass. But with Muschamp bolting to South Carolina,  he’ll have to break in a new defensive coordinator, someone who will improve upon a paper Tigers defense that ranked next-to-last in the SEC. Only South Carolina was worse.

Malzahn must fix an offense that didn’t fare much better. The Tigers were 10th in the SEC in total offense. But actually, it was the passing game that brought everything to a halt. Only three SEC teams threw for fewer yards.

Auburn QBs Jeremy Johnson and Sean White are better than what they displayed this season. Johnson completed 71 percent of his passes over five games as a freshman and 76 percent in six games last season. This was supposed to be his breakout year. But he slumped to 60 percent in 2015, which wouldn’t be a bad percentage if not for an 11-yard average per completion.

Throwing the ball downfield was a lost cause. Johnson threw for nine touchdown passes but also tossed seven interceptions over nine games. Sophomore Sean White did what he could in six games before suffering an injury. White threw for 1,064 yards, 22 more than Johnson, but tossed just one touchdown pass while suffering two interceptions.

Malzahn will survive if he corrects the problems at quarterback and lures in a defensive coordinator that can whip the Tigers into shape, and fast. That’s a tall task for any coach. But winning big and winning consistently has become the standard in the highly-competitive SEC.

If he can’t get it done next year, Malzahn runs the risk of following in the footsteps of his predecessor.