Auburn has dreams of SEC championships under Gus Malzahn, but the Tigers have a bigger challenge closer to home.

It’s a team that wears crimson and white and boasts the best head coach on the planet.

Malzahn reinstated Auburn as a championship-caliber team during last season’s improbable run to an SEC championship and near-BCS national championship.

However, Tigers fans are reeling after a disappointing 8-4 season that began with championship aspirations. After a 7-1 start and a No. 2 ranking, Auburn came crashing back to earth during the final six weeks of the season, and finished the season swept by its biggest rivals while limping to a 1-3 finish.

Malzahn has never shied away from expectations, nor has he swept away the disappointment of Auburn falling short of its goals this season.

“The thing about Auburn is we’re going to have high expectations and that’s just the way it’s going to go,” Malzahn said following the 34-7 loss to Georgia. “You’re disappointed when you don’t reach some of your goals. That’s part of it.”

The problem — if that’s the way you choose to look at it — for the Tigers is that, for the foreseeable future, those expectations run down the heart of Paul W. Bryant Drive.

Those around the program believe Malzahn can lift it to compete perennially in the SEC, and perhaps he can. The second-year coach has arguably the toughest job in the conference, having to go toe-to-toe with the best program of this decade.

Auburn, under Malzahn’s sight, proved it can beat its in-state rival, though Alabama fans choose to view Auburn’s win in the 2013 Iron Bowl as more of an aberration. For 35 minutes on Saturday night, it looked as if Malzahn’s Tigers simply had Nick Saban’s number.

We know how that story ended, and even if Auburn had won, it wasn’t playing for the SEC West title. That ambition was lost three weeks earlier with the loss to Texas A&M.

Auburn’s path to an SEC championship goes through Alabama — whether it likes it or not — but if the Tigers can’t make it to the season finale with the division title on the line, what does it matter?

Malzahn has concerns to address inside his program, concerns that — if left unattended — will keep Auburn from beating Saban’s pristine Alabama program annually.

The Tigers have the most difficult path to Atlanta, simply due to geography.

The Auburn program and its fans expect SEC titles, but in order to accomplish that, the Tigers must first win its state title.