At one time this season, both Auburn and LSU were ranked in the top 10 in the country, and both appeared to be legitimate threats to contend for the SEC West crown.

Fast forward to Tuesday, and the two sets of Tigers have combined to lose seven games so far this year (Auburn is 7-3, LSU 7-4). Neither team is going to win the West or reach a New Year’s Six bowl, and fans of both teams will view these seasons as a disappointment no matter what the teams achieve in the final weeks of the season or the modest bowl games they’ll appear in this winter.

So, as with any team that falls short of preseason expectations, it’s time for Auburn and LSU to take a long, hard look in the mirror and ask the question no team ever wants to ask itself during the season:

“What can we do to start building toward next season?”

It goes against the culture of college football for a team to turn its focus to the following season while the current season is still ongoing. Looking ahead to next year is synonymous with giving up on the current season, and this can be a tough pill for the players, coaches, administrators, fans, etc. to swallow.

In baseball, teams eliminated from playoff contention will dedicate an entire month of the season to playing unproven prospects and developing for the future, even if it hurts their record in the present. In college football, however, a team would rather aggressively pursue just one more win in the season at hand than start preparing for potential success in the future.

It’s time Auburn and LSU take a page out of baseball’s playbook and start working toward successful seasons in 2015.

Let’s be honest — if Auburn wins out and finishes 10-3 with a win in the Outback Bowl, would it really be that much different than finishing 8-5 with a loss in the Belk Bowl? Ultimately, fans will see the season as a disappointment not because of the five losses, but because Auburn was unable to defend its SEC championship in Nick Marshall’s senior season.

That’s why these teams must take the baseball approach and begin looking toward the future. At best, Auburn and LSU’s seasons will be considered mediocre by the exceedingly high standards set within those two programs. So why not forfeit to mediocrity this season in order to avoid it next season?

Both Auburn and LSU have supreme quarterback talents sitting on the bench in Jeremy Johnson and Brandon Harris, and its time for those signal callers to take their turn at the helm of those offenses. After all, the further along Johnson and Harris can develop this year, the better off their teams will be when next year arrives.

Auburn

Johnson is going to be Auburn’s starter next year regardless of whether he plays another snap this year or not. Nick Marshall is a senior and he won’t be back next year. Johnson is a former four-star recruit who tore a talented Arkansas defense apart in Week 1 while Marshall served a suspension during the first half of play. Johnson completed 12 of 16 passes that day for 243 yards and two touchdowns; again, he only played the first half.

He was listed as a “pro-style quarterback” coming out of high school, and he’s certainly built like one — standing 6-foot-5 and weighing 230 pounds. He can run better than most at that size, but ultimately he’s about as polar-opposite a player to Marshall as you’ll find at the quarterback position.

Auburn is obviously going to have to make some changes on offense in altering its scheme for Johnson’s skill set as opposed to Marshall’s. Most consider Marshall an athlete that happens to play quarterback. Johnson is a big, strong-armed quarterback capable of leading an offense that’s as explosive through the air as Auburn has been in the run game under Gus Malzahn.

If Auburn is going to overhaul its offense and implement a new quarterback next season, why not get a headstart on the process in 2014? The Tigers play Samford of the FCS this week, then close with Alabama before a bowl game. If there was ever a tailor-made moment to get Johnson some more live reps outside of practice, this week is it.

Playing Marshall for a majority of the snaps against Alabama makes sense, as that rivalry extends well beyond either team’s record this season. Auburn could be 0-11 entering that game and it would still treat the Iron Bowl like there’s a national title on the line. Those kinds of rivalries are what make college football so spectacular, and sitting Johnson for Marshall against the Tide makes all the sense in the world even if it doesn’t help Auburn beyond that one game.

But Johnson should start for the Tigers against Samford, and he should at least split reps 50/50 with Marshall in the bowl game. Allow Marshall to see the field in his final career game, sure, but have a plan for Marshall to “pass the torch” to Johnson at halftime of the bowl game, allowing the sophomore an opportunity to see more live action before the offseason.

Auburn will have a month to prepare for whatever bowl it’s sent to, giving Malzahn and his staff plenty of time to integrate a handful of new looks Auburn might use next season when Johnson is quarterbacking the team full-time.

The best-case scenario is Johnson finds a rhythm commanding the offense, and that rhythm is carried over into next season. The worst-case scenario is Johnson plays poorly in a mediocre bowl game then has nine months to forget about it before next season.

It’s a low-risk, high-reward situation for Auburn to turn to Johnson in the final weeks of the season. The hardest part will be admitting the failures of this season — three losses in the first 10 games of the year and the inability to defend last year’s conference title.

But if Auburn can swallow its pride and begin looking ahead to the future, it could be in much better shape when next year begins.

LSU

The dynamic between LSU’s two quarterbacks is a bit different than Auburn’s quarterback situation in that current starter Anthony Jennings is only a sophomore, and he’ll have two years of college eligibility remaining after this year.

Turning to Harris, a former five-star recruit, would essentially mean benching Jennings, not just replacing him on his way out of the program the way Auburn could do with Marshall and Johnson.

However, as my colleague Brett Weisband said in another column this week, “LSU rarely lands top quarterback prospects, and they have one in Harris. (Les) Miles can’t afford to blow it this time around. He’s already wasted one year of Harris’ promising career, choosing to watch his offense suffer under Jennings’ direction instead of giving the talented freshman a chance.”

Related: LSU’s quarterback saga continues

Jennings has completed fewer than 48 percent of his passes this season, and he’s thrown just nine touchdowns to six interceptions despite starting 10 of LSU’s 11 games and seeing time in all 11. As a result, the Bayou Bengals rank 13th in the SEC in scoring offense as well as in passing offense.

With those putrid numbers and a five-star prospect sitting on the bench, why not turn to Harris after the bye for the season finale against Texas A&M? If Harris is going to be the future of the offense, and judging by Jennings’ play this year he is, why not let the future start a little earlier than anticipated?

The Aggies defense ranks 12th in the SEC in passing defense, so it’s no guarantee Harris would even struggle in that game with two weeks to prepare. And even if he does play poorly like he did in his first and only start against Auburn, is the difference between 7-5 and 8-4 really that monumental that LSU fans would rather keep Jennings under center?

Playing Harris could help LSU get back to the 10-12 win range as soon as next year. Sticking with Jennings leaves LSU susceptible to finishing in the 7-9 win range again next year.

Fans weary over Harris’ play against Auburn must understand Harris was thrust into that situation with little warning and even less time to prepare. If called upon to start against A&M and again in the bowl game, he’d have two weeks to prepare for the Aggies and a month to prepare for the bowl. That alone makes all the difference when dealing with a freshman quarterback.

Plus, even if he struggles it’s better he do so now than in meaningful games down the line. All young quarterbacks must take their lumps at some point, and LSU would be better of allowing Harris to take his at the end of an already disappointing season.

Like with Auburn fans, a move to Harris would require LSU fans to swallow their pride and accept that building toward next year is more productive in the long-run than trying to salvage this season. Harris may have more upside than any LSU quarterback in the Les Miles era, but upside can’t turn into results unless he sees the field.

The future is now for two of the SEC’s longtime power programs, and reaching the end of the season without lofty goals still ahead is new to those teams, their coaches and their fans.

Auburn and LSU’s season were jam-packed with highs and lows, but their fates have been sealed. Neither is winning a title, both are destined for average bowl berths, and both must start assessing how to avoid this kind of disappointment next season.

That all begins by turning to Johnson and Harris sooner rather than later. If both programs hope to return to prominence next season, that path begins now. The quicker both signal callers can establish themselves in the SEC, the further ahead Auburn and LSU will be in comparison to teams like Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina, which will all have to change quarterbacks next year as well.

Like it or not, it’s Johnson and Harris’ time to shine. And the sooner the Tigers realize that, the better off they’ll be.