AUBURN | Preseason, as Tommy Tuberville once termed it, is over. During the next nine weeks, Auburn will play seven consecutive SEC games

Two months from today, the Tigers will know with absolute certainty where they stand in the SEC pecking order and if they have anything meaningful to play for when Alabama visits Jordan-Hare Stadium for the Iron Bowl on Nov. 30.

Saturday’s game at No. 17 Texas A&M is the first real test Auburn needs to pass in order to stay in contention for the conference championship and college football playoff. AU doesn’t have to win them all, but losing two or more is probably enough to knock them out of the race in what appears to be a top-heavy SEC.

With No. 2 Alabama, No. 3 Georgia, No. 4 LSU and No. 9 Florida — two of them on the road — still remaining on the schedule, well, it’s kind of hard to imagine this team losing to the Aggies and bouncing back to run the table for the next six SEC games.

So is this a must-win game? Technically no, but in reality you better dang well believe it is.

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Kudos to Auburn’s offense — the players and coaches — for busting loose for 467 rushing yards including three 100-yard rushers for the first time since 1983. High fives and thatta boys all the way around. But let’s keep it in perspective. That was Kent State and Texas A&M is no Kent State.

While it’s great that the offense put up some big rushing numbers and perhaps built up some more confidence heading into this crucial stretch of games, I still have some questions, maybe doubts is a better word, when it comes to this offense.

Bo Nix attempted just 16 passes in the game and his best completion, the 49-yard touchdown to Eli Stove, came on a flea flicker. A flea flicker against Kent State. AU’s backup quarterback, Joey Gatewood, has attempted just one pass this season — a five-yard completion.

What happens if Texas A&M shuts down Auburn’s running game? And they take away the screen game too? The Aggies have a pretty salty defense, third in the SEC in total yards and rushing yards allowed — and that includes a game against the high-powered Clemson offense.

Is Auburn’s passing attack sophisticated enough, developed enough, to beat TAMU on the road if it comes down to that? Does Bo Nix and AU’s receivers have enough experience working together to beat a quality TAMU secondary? What if Nix is injured and Gatewood has to come in and quarterback a two-minute drive?

That’s a lot of questions I don’t have answers to, and I think they’re legitimate concerns when you look at what this offense has, and more importantly hasn’t done, this season.

I don’t know how this game is going to go, and perhaps a conservative approach is warranted with AU’s stingy defense. But I do know AU’s out of time when it comes to figuring things out on offense.

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Good for Auburn that’s it’s taken the first step in constructing a new football-only facility. If everything stays on schedule, the Tigers could be moved into their gleaming new digs before the 2022 season. And if not, certainly by 2023.

The current Auburn athletic complex turned 30 this June, but has been showing its age for a majority of those years, and has undergone a number of upgrades and expansions over the last two decades.

Auburn needs to construct the new Football Performance Center with more long-term goals in mind. This facility needs to represent everything that is special about the Auburn football program — its history, traditions, championships, great teams, players and coaches — and also have room to grow and incorporate future accomplishments for the decades to come.

This will be the building that represents Auburn to visiting recruits. It will be the home for Auburn’s players and coaches. It needs to create a sense of awe from the outside and inside. It needs to stand out. It needs to be special.

If you look at many of Auburn’s newest athletic buildings — the dorms and cafeteria (yea, I know it’s called the Wellness Center) to name a couple — they all look the same. Same brick, similar architectural features. It’s the same for many of the new buildings around campus too. Now, I’m no architect and perhaps tying all of Auburn’s buildings together seems like a good idea on paper, but in reality it looks plain and boring. It’s like going to a Baskin Robbins and choosing a scoop of vanilla every time.

The Auburn athletic department needs to do this one right, and not like some of the recent piecemeal work on Jordan-Hare. This is an opportunity to do something special and lasting — don’t drop the ball.

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Today’s musical journey looks back on the last 45 or so years of Eddie Joseph Mahoney’s career after he passed away Friday at the age of 70. Know professionally as Eddie Money, the Long Island native served as a New York City police officer for two years before moving to California to become a musician in 1968 and eventually settling in the San Francisco area.

Money never had a No. 1 song but two of his early singles, 1978’s Baby Hold On and Two Tickets To Paradise, were big hits and have been staples of 70’s and classic rock stations for decades. He was also a big part of the MTV generation with his highest-charting single (No. 4), Take Me Home Tonight, which featured Ronnie Spector, getting a lot of air time in 1986 and 87. He also made several guest appearances on T.V. shows including the King of Queens and the Drew Carey Show, and had his own reality show in 2018.

Money battled drug and alcohol issues throughout his career. He overdosed on barbiturates in 1980, which damaged the sciatic nerve in his left leg. He was unable to walk for a year and left with a permanent limp. The long-time smoker was diagnosed with stage 4 esophageal cancer in August and died of complications from heart surgery Sept. 13. He’s survived by his wife of 30 years and their five children.

Below is Money and Spector performing Take Me Home Tonight on the David Letterman show in 1988…