If you were sitting in Jordan-Hare Stadium in late 2017, you weren't just watching a football game. You were witnessing a gauntlet. Honestly, looking back at the Auburn 2017 football schedule, it feels like a fever dream or a video game played on the hardest possible setting. Most teams hope to avoid playing two number-one ranked teams in a single season. Auburn decided to play them both in the span of three weeks. And they won. Both times.
It started quietly enough.
But by November, the entire college football world was staring at the Plains. Gus Malzahn was on the hot seat—well, he was always kinda on the hot seat, wasn't he?—and the Tigers were nursing two losses that should have ended their season. Instead, those losses just set the stage for one of the most statistically improbable runs in the history of the Southeastern Conference.
The Brutal Geometry of the Auburn 2017 Football Schedule
The year kicked off with a 41-7 blowout of Georgia Southern. Easy. Routine. Then came the trip to Clemson. That Week 2 matchup was a defensive slugfest that left Jarrett Stidham hitting the turf 11 times. Eleven sacks. It was ugly. Auburn lost 14-6, and the vultures started circling Malzahn’s offense. People forget that at that point in the year, the fan base was ready to riot. The offense looked stagnant, the offensive line looked like a sieve, and the playoff felt like a distant fantasy.
Then things clicked.
Auburn went on a tear, dismantling Mercer, Missouri, and Mississippi State. They dropped 49 on State and 51 on Mizzou. The momentum was building, but then came the annual trip to Baton Rouge. Leading 20-0, Auburn somehow managed to lose 27-23 to LSU. It was a collapse of epic proportions. At 5-2, with Georgia and Alabama still looming, the Auburn 2017 football schedule looked like a death sentence rather than a path to glory.
November to Remember: Beating Number One... Twice
How do you describe what happened in November 2017? It’s hard to put into words if you weren't there. Georgia came to town ranked #1 in the College Football Playoff rankings. They had Nick Chubb and Sony Michel. They were an absolute wagon.
📖 Related: NFL Football Teams in Order: Why Most Fans Get the Hierarchy Wrong
Auburn didn't just beat them. They embarrassed them.
The 40-17 final score actually felt closer than the game was. Kerryon Johnson was a workhorse, racking up 167 yards on the ground and catching a touchdown pass from Stidham. The defense, led by Jeff Holland and Deshaun Davis, turned the Bulldogs into a one-dimensional mess. Suddenly, the SEC West was wide open.
But the schedule wasn't done with them. Not even close.
After a "breather" against ULM, the Iron Bowl arrived. Alabama was, predictably, ranked #1. It was the first time in history that a team had to face two different #1 ranked teams in the span of three weeks. The stakes were simple: win and go to Atlanta for the SEC Championship. Lose and go home.
The 26-14 victory over Nick Saban’s Crimson Tide was arguably Malzahn’s masterpiece. Stidham was surgical, completing 21 of 28 passes. The defense held Alabama to 3-of-11 on third down. It was a clinic. For a brief moment, Auburn was the best team in the country, regardless of what the rankings said. They had navigated a schedule that would have broken 99% of other programs.
A Breakdown of the Full Regular Season Results
- Sept 2: vs Georgia Southern (W, 41-7)
- Sept 9: at Clemson (L, 14-6) - The "Sack-fest" game.
- Sept 16: vs Mercer (W, 24-10) - Closer than it should've been.
- Sept 23: at Missouri (W, 51-14)
- Sept 30: vs Mississippi State (W, 49-10)
- Oct 7: vs Ole Miss (W, 44-23)
- Oct 14: at LSU (L, 27-23) - The "Heartbreak in the Bayou."
- Oct 21: at Arkansas (W, 52-20)
- Nov 4: at Texas A&M (W, 42-27)
- Nov 11: vs Georgia (W, 40-17) - Dismantling #1.
- Nov 18: vs ULM (W, 42-14)
- Nov 25: vs Alabama (W, 26-14) - The Iron Bowl masterpiece.
The Physical Toll of the Gauntlet
You can't talk about this season without talking about Kerryon Johnson. By the time the Iron Bowl ended, he was a shell of himself physically. He had carried the ball 30 times against Georgia and 30 times against Alabama. That’s 60 carries against the two most physical defenses in America in the span of a fortnight.
👉 See also: Why Your 1 Arm Pull Up Progression Isn't Working (And How to Fix It)
He suffered a shoulder injury late in the Alabama game.
That single injury changed the trajectory of the post-season. When Auburn faced Georgia again in the SEC Championship, Johnson wasn't the same. He tried to play, but he lacked that explosive "pop." Georgia, having learned their lesson from the first meeting, stifled the Tigers 28-7. It was a cruel end to the conference run. The Auburn 2017 football schedule had finally caught up to them.
Then came the Peach Bowl.
Facing an undefeated UCF team led by Scott Frost, Auburn looked emotionally and physically spent. They lost 34-27. It’s funny how history remembers that game—UCF claimed a national title because of it—but for Auburn fans, it was just the final exhale of a season that had been lived at 100 miles per hour since September.
Why This Schedule Still Matters Today
People still argue about the 2017 season. Was it a success? You beat your two biggest rivals while they were ranked #1. That’s a dream season for most. But you also lost three games and watched those two rivals play each other for the National Championship.
Talk about a gut punch.
✨ Don't miss: El Salvador partido de hoy: Why La Selecta is at a Critical Turning Point
The nuance here is that Auburn proved the "strength of schedule" argument can be a double-edged sword. They were rewarded with a jump in the rankings for their big wins, but the sheer volume of high-intensity games left their roster depleted when it mattered most. It’s a cautionary tale for the new 12-team playoff era. If you play a schedule this tough, can you actually survive four rounds of playoffs?
Probably not.
The 2017 Tigers were a lightning-in-a-bottle team. They had a transfer QB who actually lived up to the hype, a generational running back, and a defensive line that featured future NFL mainstays like Derrick Brown. They were built to win big games, but the Auburn 2017 football schedule required them to win too many big games in too short a window.
Actionable Insights for Fans and Historians
If you’re looking back at this season to understand modern SEC dynamics, here are the real takeaways:
- Depth is everything: Auburn’s fall-off in the SEC title game was almost entirely due to a lack of a secondary power back who could replicate Kerryon Johnson's production. In the modern era, you need three "starters" at RB.
- Home field advantage is real: Both the Georgia and Alabama wins happened at Jordan-Hare. The crowd noise in 2017 was measured at levels that genuinely rattled Jalen Hurts and Jake Fromm.
- The "LSU Hangover" is a myth: Auburn bounced back from the LSU loss to win five straight. Don't let one bad mid-season loss define a team's trajectory.
- Watch the trenches: If you re-watch the 2017 Iron Bowl, focus on the Auburn offensive line. They didn't just block; they dominated a Bama front that everyone thought was invincible.
The 2017 season remains a high-water mark for the Gus Malzahn era. It was a season of extreme highs and crushing lows, defined by a schedule that remains one of the most difficult ever successfully navigated by an SEC program. To truly appreciate what that team did, you have to look past the final record and look at the giants they toppled along the way.
To dig deeper into the stats of this season, check out the official SEC Sports archives or the Auburn Tigers athletics site for play-by-play breakdowns of those November upsets. Understanding the 2017 run is the key to understanding why Auburn fans always believe a miracle is just around the corner, no matter how grim things look in October.