Botch is the obvious number one here, but I'm not so sure that Bielema is really second. Freeze's entire fate hinges on the NZAA investigation, but I would rank Sumlin second and Malzahn third. Sumlin has now had several years - starting with JF2 in 2013 - where he's the hot promiscuous girl at the new school only to find out when it gets late that she's really nothing near as good as her promise early in the evening. I think if they don't move forward this year he's in serious trouble.
And Malzahn? Well, he lucked out yet again in the "Loser Fires The Coach" Bowl against LSU. In essence, Gus had one month of a good football team last October. He beat ULM (whoop de do), thumped Mississippi State, routed Arkansas after a bye week while the Hawgs were coming off consecutive rough house games with Alabama and Ole Miss, and beat a fading Ole Miss.
After that? He barely survived Vandy, lost to an inept UGA team that's only TD was a pick six, mauled nobody Bama ATM, and played a decent first quarter against Alabama - then got sucker punched by Joe Mixon (yeah, I had to).
Flip the Arky and LSU games and the time of year they were played, and that 8-4 season is likely 6-6. I'll spot them the fact that injuries down the stretch hurt them, particularly Pettway, but this is the usual m.o. for an Auburn coach - come set the world on fire early in your tenure......and then spend the rest of your career on the Plains failing to meet expectations above a four-loss season.
Malzahn's SEC record is 18-14. Remember that he STARTED 7-1, so he's 11-13 since the Kick Six...then remember how many of those SEC games have been "pull them out of your backside at the very end" and it will only take one unlucky year (Chizik 2012 2.0) to send Gus packing.
In all honesty, he reminds me of Houston Nutt as far as the 'best new thing.' Nutt had a 42-38 SEC record at Arky. He started 5-0 then fell victim to the Clint Stoerner fumble and Ryan Hazlewood's career day of Bulldog FGs in 1998.
Take away his start - aided by food poisoning decimating Alabama, catching Auburn with an interim head coach following Buster Brown's resignation, and the fact Ole Miss' coach was spending more time planning his exit from Oxford than preparing to play anyone...and Nutt was always a mediocrity.
I suspect Malzahn ends up the same way - the real question being whether or not his QB pans out this year. They've been searching for a QB ever since Nick Marshall left and even Nick lost his last 3 SEC games (and would have been four if not for the fortuitous injury to Laquon Treadwell crossing the goal line).
If the bills come due for the lucky wins all in one season - as happened to Gene "It's A God Thing" Chizik - Gus might be on the bus himself.
And unlike most folks here (not named Gray Tide), I'm not even an overly harsh critic of either Auburn OR Malzahn. But I do think he's on a warmer seat than some imagine. Remember - this is a school that fired one coach less than two years after winning a national title, had another one lined up and ready to fire leading to his resignation only six games after winning the SEC West for the first time ever, and plotted the demise of another than only failed because it got exposed.