AUBURN | Is Auburn a 5-5 team?

It sure looks that way to me. I don’t mean that as an insult or to be shocking. That’s just the way I see it, plus or minus a game. After watching three weekends of SEC football, 30 percent of the season, I think it’s reasonable to view the Tigers as a pretty average team.

Georgia’s defense makes it elite. The same with Alabama’s offense, and you just know that defense will get better because it has plenty of talent. That should be a great game this Saturday.

After those two, Florida, Tennessee and Texas A&M look like fairly good teams, which will win more than they lose.

That leaves nine more teams, which all look a lot like Auburn (except Vanderbilt), capable of winning or losing against most of the other teams in the group. In AU’s case, it had a nice win against an error-prone Kentucky, got destroyed by Georgia and was very fortunate to beat Arkansas.

When I look at AU’s remaining games, South Carolina, Ole Miss, LSU and Mississippi State — the next four — I see close contests that could go either way. Alabama looks like a probable loss while Tennessee and Texas A&M look like challenges that would probably require some breaks for AU to pull off an upset.

It's a unique year. There's not three home non-conference games to help pad the record. There's already been several big upsets and there's a continuing possibility of a team getting hit hard by positive COVID-19 tests. There's certain to be a lot of uncertainty over the next eight weeks.

Auburn’s biggest problem is the line of scrimmage. It’s offensive and defensive lines can improve over the following weeks, but I doubt it will be enough to turn this into a 7- or 8-win season.

Injuries have negatively impacted this season more than most, and the five junior college players signed for immediate help in the 2020 class have had little to no impact.

I know 6-4 will disappoint a lot of Auburn supporters. And a lot would call 5-5 or 4-6 “unacceptable,” but I’m just calling it like I see it. And it looks pretty average to me right now.

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So what would it mean to Gus Malzahn’s future if AU does finish at or near .500 this season?

Nothing, in my humble opinion.

I’m not advocating for Malzahn, but the Auburn athletic department is not in financial position to pay more than a $20 million buyout plus the other coaches’ contracts and dole out even more to bring in a new staff. If AU wants to bring in a coach from another program that has a buyout, and most do, the total cost of a change could be in the $40-60 million range.

And there’s another factor to consider. Again, not advocating, but the Tigers could be a pretty darn good football team next year, perhaps even championship contenders.

You scoff?

They were very close to a national championship in 2013, made another run four years later in 2017 and could have the right balance of talent and experience in 2021, after four more years, to be in the championship hunt again.

And you as an Auburn fan know deep within your bones that it would be so very Auburn to go 5-5 in 2020 only to bounce back and win 10-plus games and potentially a championship a year later. It’s the epitome of just Auburn being Auburn.

You know it’s true. Don’t even try to argue with me about it on the message board or Twitter.

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Moving on. Today’s musical journey takes us back 23 years and the untimely death of one of the most popular and best-selling artists of the 1970’s. Henry John Deutschendorf Jr., better known as John Denver, died on Oct. 12, 1997 when his experimental Rutan Long-EZ plane crashed into Monterey Bay. An avid pilot, the 53-year old Denver had recently bought the aircraft, which was built from a kit, and took a short checkout flight the day before.

Denver was born in Roswell, New Mexico in 1943. His father was an Air Force pilot and the family moved many times during his childhood including a brief stop in Montgomery, Ala. He was given a guitar by his grandmother at age 11 and it became his constant companion. He began playing in local clubs while attending Texas Tech as a member of the Alpine Trio. In 1969, he embarked on a solo career, composing a song eventually called Leaving on a Jet Plane, which became a No. 1 hit for Peter, Paul and Mary. Denver’s big break came in 1971 with the release of his second album, Poems, Prayers and Promises, which included the hit, Take Me Home, Country Roads.

A string of hits followed including Rocky Mountain High, Sunshine on My Shoulders, Annie’s Song and Thank God I’m a Country Boy. He appeared and starred in a number of T.V. variety shows including a regular stint with The Muppet Show during the 70’s, appeared in the movie, Oh God!, and hosted the Grammy Awards five times. His music was popular across a number of genres including contemporary, folk and country. He won an Emmy and was the CMA Entertainer of the Year in 1975, won Grammy Awards in 1997 and 98 and was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 96. He was also involved in a number of charitable organizations fighting for world hunger and the environment. In all, Denver produced 24 studio albums and had 15 Top 40 hits and 10 that made it to No. 1. Denver spent most of his adult life in Aspen, Colorado. He is a poet laureate of the state and his ashes were scattered in the Rocky Mountains.