Auburn is playing Northwestern in the Citrus Bowl on New Year’s Day in Orlando.

But the particulars don’t matter a whole lot.

This game is a tool for simplifying the Tigers’ search for a new head coach.

It’s an audition for interim head coach Kevin Steele to show he deserves the job on a full-time basis.

Or that he doesn’t.

It’s an opportunity for the players to show the worthiness of Steele’s candidacy through their performance for him.

Or the unworthiness.

The Tigers are understandably looking around at their options. Other candidates reportedly include Alabama OC Steve Sarkisian, Louisiana coach Billy Napier, Clemson OC Tony Elliott and West Virginia coach Neal Brown.

But Steele appears to be a serious candidate and if he is, the Auburn administration would be wise to wait on a decision for the 12 days necessary to see how Steele does in preparing the team, how he manages the bowl game itself and what the Tigers do against the Big Ten runner-up.

Steele knows this team better than any of the outsiders and the players know him much better than they know any of the outsiders.

Do the players rally around Steele? Does Steele put the players in better position to succeed and coax an emotional, focused, Auburn-worthy effort better than Gus Malzahn was able to for much of the regular season.

If the Tigers go out and perform at a level closer to expectations than that which they generally did under Malzahn, that would demand Steele be a finalist for the job. A very good bowl performance shouldn’t guarantee Steele the job, but it should elevate his candidacy regardless of the amount of enthusiasm his candidacy would or would not generate on social media or talk radio.

Let’s face it, Urban Meyer does not appear to be pining for the Auburn job.

Is there any reason to be confident that Sarkisian, Napier, Elliott, Brown or any other outsider is poised to come in and do a better job than Steele would?

If Auburn lays an egg in the bowl, then the answer is probably yes. If the Tigers play like Auburn folks believe they should play, then the answer should be no.

Clemson was impressed enough by a 4-3 record and a Gator Bowl loss from a relatively anonymous assistant named Dabo Swinney when he was named interim coach to replace Tommy Bowden to stick with him.

LSU was impressed enough by the job Ed Orgeron did after replacing Les Miles on an interim basis – a 6-2 record and a Citrus Bowl win – to consider him as a possible full-time head coach. It wanted Jimbo Fisher, but he wasn’t interested. It wanted Tom Herman, but he was interested only if Texas didn’t want him. Texas wanted him.

So LSU rolled the dice on Orgeron.

Clemson struck gold.

LSU at least caught lightning in a bottle as it won a national championship in Orgeron’s third full season.

Neither of those hirings excited the fan base.

The fan bases became excited when those teams won national championships under those coaches.

Who knows if Steele or any other candidate is likely to lead Auburn to a national championship – either in the short term or the medium term?

This is about fit.

Steele has an opportunity that no other candidate has – an opportunity to show how he handles the job for which he would like to be hired. How does he do knowing his job is on the line?

Auburn has a unique opportunity with Steele – to evaluate one candidate for this job by watching him handle every aspect of the job for which is a candidate, not for as long a time as Clemson was able to evaluate Swinney or LSU was able to evaluate Orgeron.

But a valuable amount of time nonetheless.

The performance against the Wildcats is a good test. They play good defense, they’re efficient on offense, they’re battle tested, they routinely give an honest effort.

Steele won’t be able to just take advantage of an inferior opponent because Northwestern have a strong regular season and mostly went toe to toe with Ohio State in the title game.

If the Tigers are well-prepared enough and perform well enough to win, Steele will deserve a closer look.

If the Tigers aren’t up to the challenge, then maybe Steele isn’t either.

In a COVID-altered season how this performance impacts the coaching search is all that matters in this bowl appearance.