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Gus Malzahn shares why he believes the conference-only schedule will prove to be an advantage for Auburn
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Things got tougher across the board for every Southeastern Conference team when the league announced its plan to play a conference-only, 10-game schedule this fall.
While things may have gotten tougher on The Plains with Auburn picking up extra matchups at South Carolina and at home against Tennessee, Gus Malzahn believes his program is in a better position to adapt to the new schedule than perhaps any other league team.
The SEC certainly didn’t do Auburn any favors when it came to the updated schedule as the Tigers open the season at home against a Kentucky team that continues to garner support as one of the sleeper teams of the SEC this fall before traveling to Georgia for the second weekend of the season.
If you missed the news, Auburn announced this week that the capacity of Jordan-Hare Stadium would be limited to 20 percent this fall. While that is unfortunate, the school has made the decision to open up the first game of the season to as many students as possible for when Kentucky comes to town.
That’s something Malzahn believes could help the Tigers to open the season against the Wildcats.
“You know, when I heard that we were gonna be students only, I think that’s going to be an advantage for us,” Malzahn said during his recent media availability. “I know our students will be very creative and I think it can be an advantage for us.”
When it comes to the overall schedule being an advantage for the Tigers, the way Malzahn sees it, his program is accustomed to playing one of the nation’s most difficult schedules.
That’s not something others in the league could say (shots fired at Alabama here by Malzahn?) and the Auburn coach believes that will be another advantage for the Tigers this fall.
“As far as the schedule goes, I’m looking at this thing as a positive,” Malzahn continued. “You know, if you look since we’ve been here, we can make a great argument that we’ve had the toughest schedule of anybody in our league. So one thing that it will not be a shock to our system, you know, playing a tough schedule with a lot of SEC games.
“And I think there’s teams in our conference that it’s going to be a shock to their system because they hadn’t played the tough schedules like we have, and so we’re looking at that as an advantage. And I think it will be for us.”
Malzahn makes a good point there.
A graduate of the University of Tennessee, Michael Wayne Bratton oversees the news coverage for Saturday Down South. Michael previously worked for FOX Sports and NFL.com
