Auburn has known who it will play next season for some time now. But, finally, the dates for next season are set as Auburn’s 2019 football schedule, released on Tuesday by the Southeastern Conference. Auburn will open the 2019 campaign in Dallas against Oregon on Aug. 31. This will be the first time Auburn has opened the season in August since 2014. Auburn and Oregon have not met since Auburn beat the Ducks to win the National Championship in the 2010 season. Auburn head coach Gus Malzahn was Auburn’s offensive coordinator during the 2010 championship game.<doc-sep>Auburn Tigers Head coach: Gus Malzahn (45-22, sixth year) 2017 record and S&P+ ranking: 10-4 (10th) Projected 2018 record and S&P+ ranking: 9-3 (fifth) Five key points: Auburn has beaten three S&P+ top-10 teams in the last two seasons. Unfortunately, they’ve lost to six. Brutal schedules tend to catch up to you. Still, Malzahn has built an increasingly steady ship, and S&P+ sees AU as either the favorite or the slightest of underdogs in 11 of 12 games this fall. The offense will hum as long as it gets a bare minimum out of Kam Martin and the run game. QB Jarrett Stidham and a loaded receiving corps could be fantastic. Under Kevin Steele, the defense has twice been a top-10 unit, per S&P+. Depth is shaky in the back, but there’s plenty of star power for a third consecutive top-10 ranking. AU faces four projected top-15 teams, all away from Jordan-Hare Stadium. No game is un-winnable, but the Tigers will need their A game constantly. Bill C’s annual preview series of every FBS team in college football continues. Catch up here! Malzahn enters as the assistant dean of the SEC. Only Nick Saban has been a head coach longer. (Kentucky’s Mark Stoops entered in 2013 too, but we’ll say the tie goes to Malzahn because he has more wins.) Logically, this makes sense. He’s been around in a business that tends to be the opposite of long-term. But intuitively ... this is Auburn, right? The school that shoved Gene Chizik out two years after a national title? Auburn doesn’t do stable, right? In truth, Auburn is one of the steadier jobs among its peers. Chizik aside — his four years were a whirlwind replete with a hostile welcome, a title, and a fall off a cliff — this job tends to stay in the same person’s hands for a while. Tommy Tuberville, Terry Bowden, and Pat Dye stayed for an average of 9.3 years. Doug Barfield lasted five despite a .500 record, and Shug Jordan lasted a quarter-century. Malzahn is one of only seven to hold the full-time job since World War II. There’s drama, mind you — plenty of it — but changes are rare. Despite long tenures from Bear Bryant and Nick Saban, Alabama has employed nine in that span. LSU: 12. Georgia: also seven. There’s a chance, then, that Malzahn is only getting started on the Plains. And that’s a great thing in basically all ways but one. In five seasons, Malzahn has beaten Saban-era Alabama twice — the only other active coach to have done that is Urban Meyer — won two SEC West titles and a championship game and made one national title game. Based on preseason AP rankings, he’s exceeded expectations three times and finished in the postseason top 10 twice. This is all with what might be the hardest average schedule in the country. Adjusting for opponent, he’s finished 13th or better in S&P+ four times. The only environment in which this isn’t a massive success is one in which Saban is your chief rival. Saban has two national titles and five top-10 finishes in the same time period. The way 2017 played out was particularly cruel. Auburn beat No. 2 Georgia and No. 1 Alabama to wrap up a division title and rise from 14th in the CFP rankings to second. The Tigers were positioned to become the first two-loss team to reach the Playoff and trailed Georgia by just six heading into the fourth quarter of the SEC title game. But Georgia scored twice ... and then Auburn had to watch one main rival (the Dawgs) play the other (the Tide) for the title. The Tigers then lost to UCF in the Peach Bowl, too. But hey, at least that meant UCF could antagonize Bama. It was the latest rough finish. Auburn lost three of four to end 2016, four of seven in 2015, and four of five in 2014. Back-loaded schedules keep changing how we view AU’s seasons. The 2018 Tigers face three teams in the projected S&P+ top six, all away from home, and two — No. 6 Georgia and No. 2 Alabama — come, as usual, in the last three weeks of the regular season. There are four other projected top-25 teams as well. Auburn is loaded, mind you. The Tigers are projected fifth and return quarterback Jarrett Stidham, his top five wide receivers (though a couple are still trying to come back from knee injuries), and a majority of the two-deep from a defense that has ranked ninth or better in Def. S&P+ in each of coordinator Kevin Steele’s first two seasons. The run game requires retooling, but running isn’t generally one of Malzahn’s issues. This is going to be ... a pretty Auburn season, in other words. The Tigers are going to have a chance in every game and should go at least 9-3. But I guess that only matters so much if Saban is lifting another trophy afterward. Offense Stidham’s first season after a transfer from Baylor was sketchy at the start and finish, but amazing in the middle. Over the first two and last two games of the season, he completed 58 percent of his passes at 10.4 yards per completion with a 114.1 passer rating. Over the 10 games in the middle: 71 percent, 13.8 per completion, 169.4 rating. He also averaged 5.4 yards per non-sack carry over just enough rushes to punish defenses for over-pursuing the running back. He was brilliant against Georgia (the first time) and Alabama, too. With Stidham, Auburn improved from 44th to 10th in Passing S&P+. Considering the following, it is quite conceivable that the Tigers could improve further: Wideouts Ryan Davis, Darius Slayton , Will Hastings , Eli Stove , and Nate Craig-Myers return after combining for 187 catches, 2,602 yards, and 17 touchdowns. Stove also rushed 30 times (mostly on jet sweeps) for 315 yards and two more scores. Stove and Hastings suffered torn ACLs early in the offseason, but indications are that both are on schedule to be healthy by at least the midway point of the season. , , , and return after combining for 187 catches, 2,602 yards, and 17 touchdowns. Stove also rushed 30 times (mostly on jet sweeps) for 315 yards and two more scores. Stove and Hastings suffered torn ACLs early in the offseason, but indications are that both are on schedule to be healthy by at least the midway point of the season. Stove is an important horizontal weapon, but so is Davis, who more than doubled any other player’s receptions total with 84. Slayton (22.2 yards per catch) and Craig-Myers (17.8), meanwhile, are two of the SEC’s better vertical threats. And with sophomore Marquis McClain and three four-star freshmen ( Matthew Hill , Anthony Schwartz , and Seth Williams ), plus maybe some cameos from cornerback Noah Igbinoghene , Auburn’s got one of the most loaded receiving corps even without the two ACL victims. and three four-star freshmen ( , , and ), plus maybe some cameos from cornerback , Auburn’s got one of the most loaded receiving corps even without the two ACL victims. The sack rate can’t get much worse. Auburn ranked 94th in Adj. Sack Rate, as Stidham sometimes proved a little too willing to hold onto the ball. Tackles Austin Golson and Darius James are gone, which can’t help, but Auburn thrived even with some sacks, and junior Prince Tega Wanogho did start seven games. This isn’t likely to become more of an issue. Coordinator Chip Lindsey’s first season saw an aerial shift in the run-pass ratio, but most of that was because Lindsey trusted Stidham on passing downs. On run downs, Auburn still ran, even with an injured RB stable. Backs Kerryon Johnson and Kamryn Pettway combined to miss 11 games (nine from Pettway, two from Johnson), and their combined per-carry average slipped from 5.4 to 4.7. They rarely lost yardage — Auburn was ninth in stuff rate (avoiding run stops at or behind the line) — but the explosiveness was minimal.<doc-sep>Week two of the college football season was mostly devoid of stellar matchups, but as we arrive in week three, that’s all changing. Today we have a pair of games pitting two teams in the top 15 against one another — one comes in a conference opener for two teams with same mascot while the other is technically a neutral-site game but is played in the backyard of the lower-ranked school. The first matchup is in the SEC West, where LSU and Auburn each look to claim a quality victory in the division. With both teams still looking up at defending champions Alabama, this game should put an early stamp on which team will be the Crimson Tide’s top competition in the division. A non-conference battle is the other game on the schedule, with #4 Ohio State traveling to Texas to play TCU at Jerry World in Arlington. Sure, it’s technically a neutral-site game, but AT&T Stadium is just 18 miles from the center of TCU’s campus in Fort Worth. For fans of the Wisconsin Badgers, tune in for a mid-afternoon test against BYU. The Cougars were no match for Wisconsin in Provo a year ago, but they are 1-1 against Pac-12 foes so far this season, beating Arizona 28-23 in week one before losing last week to California (coached by former Wisconsin defensive coordinator Justin Wilcox) 21-18. Non-Wisconsin fans should tune in just to hear the name of BYU’s top running back, Squally Canada. Here’s a selection of the best games on today’s slate, or click here for a complete breakdown of the day’s entire schedule. Early Games #5 Oklahoma Sooners at Iowa State Cyclones Jack Trice Stadium, Ames, IA 11:00 AM CT (12 Noon ET) ABC Carrier Dome, Syracuse, NY 12:00 Noon ET ESPN #21 Miami Hurricanes at Toledo Rockets Glass Bowl Stadium, Toledo, OH 12:00 Noon ET ESPN2 Beaver Stadium, University Park, PA 12:00 Noon ET FOX Sports 1 NOTE: #18 UCF @ North Carolina and East Carolina @ #13 Virginia Tech were scheduled for 12:00 Noon ET but have been cancelled due to Hurricane Florence. Afternoon Kickoffs Notre Dame Stadium, South Bend, IN 2:30 PM ET NBC BYU Cougars at #6 Wisconsin Badgers Camp Randall Stadium, Madison, WI 2:30 PM CT (3:30 ET) ABC Jordan-Hare Stadium, Auburn, AL 2:30 PM CT (3:30 ET) CBS Boone Pickens Stadium, Stillwater, OK 2:30 PM CT (3:30 ET) ESPN Memorial Stadium, Clemson, SC 3:30 PM ET ESPN2 Southern Methodist University Mustangs at #19 Michigan Wolverines Michigan Stadium, Ann Arbor, MI 3:30 PM ET BTN Jones-AT&T Stadium, Lubbock, TX 3:00 PM CT (4:00 ET) FOX Autzen Stadium, Eugene, OR 2:00 PM PT (5:00 ET) Pac-12 Network NOTE: #14 West Virginia @ NC State was scheduled for 3:30 PM ET but has been cancelled due to Hurricane Florence Night Games Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, Oxford, MS 6:00 PM CT (7:00 ET) ESPN Sanford Stadium, Athens, GA 7:15 PM ET ESPN2 Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin’ Cajuns at #16 Mississippi State Bulldogs Davis Wade Stadium, Starkville, MS 6:30 PM CT (7:30 ET) SEC Network AT&T Stadium, Arlington, TX 7:00 PM CT (8:00 ET) ABC Darrell K. Royal—Texas Memorial Stadium, Austin, TX 7:00 PM CT (8:00 ET) FOX Rice-Eccles Stadium, Salt Lake City, UT 8:00 PM MT (10:00 ET) ESPN SDCCU Stadium, San Diego, CA 7:30 PM PT (10:30 ET) CBS Sports Network<doc-sep>
Auburn football: Tigers have gotten into position where style matters in how they win Auburn football: Tigers have gotten into position where style matters in how they win by Rob Maxwell Auburn football: What took Jalen Harris so long to leave program? Auburn football: What took Jalen Harris so long to leave program? by Rob Maxwell The 2019 Auburn football schedule is out — the SEC released the complete schedule for every league team Tuesday. Auburn plays three consecutive road games in the middle of the season, but wrap up the season with four home games in a row. The Tigers begin the season against Oregon in Dallas, followed by home games against Tulane and Kent State before getting into SEC play. Here’s the complete Auburn football schedule for 2019: Aug. 31: Oregon (Dallas) Sept. 7: Tulane Sept. 14: Kent State Sept. 21: at Texas A&M Sept. 28: Mississippi State Oct. 5: at Florida Oct. 12: OPEN DATE Oct. 19: at Arkansas Oct. 26: at LSU Nov. 2: Ole Miss Nov. 9: OPEN DATE Nov. 16: Georgia Nov. 23: Samford Nov. 30: Alabama The SEC Championship Game is scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 7, at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. The Auburn football team has its eight conference games, including six against teams from the SEC West and the two matchups from the East — Auburn’s annual game against Georgia and the Tigers will travel to Gainesville to play Florida. Auburn plays seven consecutive SEC games in 2019, but the two open dates turn that into a nine-week stretch. Auburn & Missouri are the only SEC teams that play 3 consecutive road games in 2019. Mississippi State is the only team to play back to back road games two times. — Cole Cubelic (@colecubelic) September 18, 2018 By SEC rules, every SEC member must play at least one non-conference opponent from another Power 5 conference each season. Auburn fulfilled its commitment this season with its season opener against Washington and in 2019 with the Ducks. Auburn is set in that area through 2028: North Carolina (2020), at Penn State (2021), Penn State (2022), at California (2023), California (2024), at Baylor (2025), Baylor (2026), at UCLA (2027) and UCLA at home in 2028. Toughest stretch: Even with Samford sandwiched in between, it’s difficult to ignore Georgia on Nov. 16 and Alabama on Nov. 30. Both games will be at home in 2019. No one will forget that both those teams arrived at Jordan-Hare Stadium last season ranked No. 1 at the time and Auburn defeated both of them. The three-game stretch at Texas A&M, at home vs. Mississippi State and at Florida also could be tough. All three teams will have head coaches in their second seasons — Jimbo Fisher at A&M, Joe Moorhead at Mississippi State and Dan Mullen with the Gators. The Tigers should have time after the opener against Oregon to prepare for that three-game stretch with home games against Tulane and Kent State. The game against Samford of the FCS will be the fifth time in six seasons Auburn has played an in-state FCS team.