The video starts with the beginning of Nina Simone’s “Feeling Good” being played in a weight room and cuts to Auburn coach Gus Malzahn working out. In between reps, we flash to a team meeting where the coach tells his team the following:

“I’m going to start sharing my heart. You are going to know me better than you have known me before. I’m going to put everything out there. That’s what you deserve.”

The music has really kicked in now as Malzahn, entering his 7th year in charge of the Tigers, does a set of leg squats and then catches his breath. It is a production, alright, and one that assumingly has been packaged to present a new Gus, a new coach, a new season.

Will it even matter in the end?

We have seen this act before. In 2016, he blamed the “CEO duties” of being a head coach on a disappointing 7-6 season in 2015 that started with the Tigers ranked in the top 10. In 2017, he promised to be more hands-on as he had lost control of the offense, seemingly hiring Chip Lindsey to come in and run the plays that he called.

What is behind all of these personality changes? Of course, with his job on the line this season after another unforgettable year in which Auburn failed to live up to expectations, this could be seen as an attempt to go all in and go out the way you want to go out, if that is the case. Seriously, what does Malzahn have to lose to being more open? The expectations he faces won’t disappear, the fact that he needs to win big will not go away and maybe this is the guy he needs to be to reach his players.

This version of Malzahn might be the true Malzahn, something he needed to unleash years ago. While there are some things he keeps tight to his vest, he actually seems to be enjoying himself and looks at this season as a chance to prove the doubters wrong.

Auburn players have noticed.

“He’s been in the weight room when we down there for player run practices,” senior defensive end Marlon Davidson said about his coach. “He’s doing curls and stuff and I’m like ‘Man? Am I seeing this?’ He’s just different, he’s a different person now. Like Coach Malzahn in 2016 to 2019 is totally different.”

Yet all the changes, all the working out and listening to rap music and opening up about his feelings will be for naught if the Tigers don’t perform well on the field.

As usual, Auburn has enough talent to have a great season and, with Malzahn back to calling the plays, the offense should be less conservative. Expecting more Purdue-like performances might be overly optimistic, but Auburn fans would settle for something in between that and the ho-hum efforts against Tennessee and Mississippi State.

A brutal schedule awaits the Tigers, though, and with that comes a chance for this team to be good yet end up with another 8-4 record.

The details will dictate the manner in which fans accept a record like that.

This will be Malzahn’s fork-in-the-road season, and right now it seems he will be either staying or leaving on his terms and in his style.

It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, it’s a new life for the Auburn coach. The only question is if he will end this season feeling good.