Jay Jacobs grew up 20 miles from the Auburn campus, walked on the football team in 1980 and won an SEC title with the Tigers in 1983. Now the school's athletics director, Jacobs hired former head coach Gene Chizik—who won a national title in 2010 over Oregon.
Three seasons later, Jacobs tabbed Gus Malzahn—who ran a tempo-based, power rushing attack as the offensive coordinator of that title team—to revitalize the program. Malzahn won an SEC title and played for a national championship in his first year as the head coach in 2013 but has struggled since.