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Auburn head coach Gus Malzahn has been pleased with the Tigers' attitude change over the course of 15 spring practices. (Mark Almond/AL.com)

-- Two months remain, two months before the 2013 college football season kicks off in earnest and

Gus Malzahn

's first campaign at Auburn gets underway against Washington State.

Beginning with that season-opener against the Cougars, AL.com's Auburn beat will spend the next two weeks breaking down each of the Tigers' 12 opponents in-depth.

But from a glance, Malzahn has drawn the most favorable first-season schedule of any of the SEC's four new head coaches, although no schedule that features Alabama, Georgia, LSU and Texas A&M is ever going to be easy.

“There’s no doubt there’s some challenges, but the good thing is, Auburn’s a great place," Malzahn said at the SEC spring meetings in Destin. "It’s the best conference in college football, and we’re able to plan in place and feel good about it.”

At Arkansas,

Bret Bielema

has to face both Florida and South Carolina in addition to the brutal SEC West slate.

Butch Jones

and Tennessee are headed to the Pacific Northwest for a non-conference road game against perennial power Oregon. Kentucky's

Mark Stoops

has to play a traditional non-conference game against a possible top-5 team in Louisville, and the Wildcats drew Alabama.

But Malzahn has a chance to build some momentum before the Tigers face the heavyweights.

For starters, the Tigers have eight games at home, beginning with a season-opener against a rebuilding Washington State program that should be nothing like the test Clemson presented at a neutral site last year. In fact, there's

in a non-conference slate that includes the Cougars, Arkansas State, Western Carolina and Florida Atlantic.

Malzahn has already pointed out that the Tigers may not always follow that formula. Under the new head coach, Auburn will evaluate its schedule on an annual basis.

"We'll take that year-by-year," Malzahn said. "That's how it is right now, and we'll see how everything pans out in the future."

Five of Auburn's first six games are at home, the lone outlier being a Sept. 21 trip to LSU, immediately followed by a bye week before Ole Miss makes the trip to the Plains.

And although any team with an SEC schedule is going to be a grind, Auburn gets both Georgia and Alabama at home, plus road trips to Arkansas and Tennessee, a pair of other teams trying to pick themselves back up after disappointing seasons that resulted in a coaching change.

Auburn's Tre Mason runs away from Ole Miss' Charles Sawyer (Julie Bennett / al.com)

Throw in the extra bye week this season -- a bye that falls between Auburn's rivalry showdowns with last season's SEC Championship Game participants -- and the Tigers drew a schedule that offers some opportunity.

Two months from now, Malzahn will get a chance to start carving into it.

"Four years ago, we were in a similar situation when we got to Auburn the first time," Malzahn said in May. "We’ve got a plan in place."

For a look at the team-by-team previews, check back on AL.com for a daily glimpse at one of Auburn's opponents.