TAMPA | Gus Malzahn knew he needed a new plan, a new way to motivate his team after a disappointing home loss to Georgia, which knocked Auburn out of any championship aspirations.
He quickly reset the goal to winning 10 games and just over six weeks later the Tigers are on the cusp of achieving that objective.
“It’s what we’ve been talking,” Malzahn said. “A month ago we said a 10-win season is our goal. We won the last two and this would be the 10th. It’s very important to our team and very important to send our seniors out with a legacy of a 10-win season at Auburn with the schedule that we played, which is the toughest in college football.”
No. 12 Auburn got to this point with wins over Samford and No. 5 Alabama to close out the regular season 9-3. A win against No. 18 Minnesota in Wednesday’s Outback Bowl will give the Tigers a lot of momentum going into the offseason and send the seniors out with a big win and notable achievement.
"Yeah, 10 wins. Ten wins, that's why most of the seniors came back and wanted to play this game,” senior safety Jeremiah Dinson said. “It's bigger than us. We get this win right here, we know it gives the next bunch momentum going into next year. We just wanted to finish it out. Man, this 10th win is big, big in this program. We know what it means to this program.”
Senior defensive tackle Derrick Brown set the stage for this bowl game when the projected high first round NFL Draft pick announced he would play in the bowl game. The rest of Auburn’s seniors soon followed and all 25 will be suiting up against the Golden Gophers.
“Everybody is focused. All the older guys are focused on trying to get this 10th win. That’s it. That’s all there is to it,” said Brown.
Auburn has won 10 games just 14 times in school history including twice under Malzahn in 2013 and 17. Shug Jordan had three 10-win seasons in 1957, 72 and 74 while Pat Dye had four: 1983, 86, 88 and 89.
“We want to get our 10 wins for Auburn. We want to do it for the seniors, for all the guys that are leaving and going on with their future lives and stuff. We want to do it for those guys,” said senior running back Kam Martin.
Kickoff at Raymond James Stadium is scheduled for noon CT on ESPN.
