Auburn athletics director Allen Greene cleared the air regarding Gus Malzahn’s job status after this season.

Greene spoke with reporters briefly on Tuesday after Auburn’s weekly media availability and asserted that Gus Malzahn is “our coach for the future" amid speculation about the sixth-year head coach’s status within the athletics department this season.

“He’ll be the coach next year, and I’m confident that he’s going to — he’s already proven that we can get through adversity," Greene said. "Every team has it, and I’m looking forward to working with him for a long time.”

Malzahn, who agreed to a new seven-year, $49 million contract last December, has come under scrutiny this season amid Auburn’s on-field struggles. The Tigers started the season ranked in the top 10 and with aspirations of repeating as SEC West champions, competing for an SEC title and earning a spot in the College Football Playoff. Following an opening-week win against a top-10 opponent, Auburn climbed to No. 7 in the AP poll before a precipitous fall from the rankings.

The team has largely underperformed since then, however, beginning with a last-season loss to LSU in Week 3 followed by back-to-back September losses at Mississippi State and at home to a Tennessee program that hadn’t won an SEC game since 2016. Those losses effectively erased all of Auburn’s preseason goals, and they did nothing to alleviate the pressure surrounding Malzahn.

Auburn responded from those losses with back-to-back wins against Ole Miss on the road and then at home last weekend against then-No. 20 Texas A&M thanks to a furious fourth-quarter rally from a 10-point deficit. The Tigers sit at 6-3 overall and 3-3 in SEC play entering this week’s installment of the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry on the road against No. 5 Georgia (8-1, 6-1).

Malzahn is 51-25 overall in his five-plus seasons at Auburn, with two SEC West titles, an SEC championship, a national runner-up finish and back-to-back New Year’s Six bowl berths. His .671 winning percentage at Auburn ranks behind Terry Bowden (.731), Mike Donahue (.730), Pat Dye (.711), Tommy Tuberville (.680) and Ralph Jordan (.675) all-time in school history.

“He’s our coach for the future,” Greene said.

Malzahn, who is the nation’s fifth-highest paid coach this season with a salary of $6,705,656, also has the nation’s fifth-highest buyout. If Auburn were to fire him after this season, Malzahn would be due $32,143,750 as of Dec. 1, with 50 percent of that to be paid within 30 days of his termination and the remainder paid in four equal annual installments.

That won’t be a concern, however, following Greene’s public vote of confidence on Tuesday, when the first-year athletics director let it be known in no uncertain terms that Malzahn would be returning for a seventh season on the Plains.

“I’ve shared this before is that when you compete in this league and when you’re investing in a football program the way that we have chosen to invest in our football program, you expect to be successful more than a normal team,” Greene said. "When that doesn’t happen, it’s frustrating — for me, for Coach, our student-athletes, our fans — because we expect more, and Coach expects more. After seeing some games, I know that we’re young at some positions and I think there’s a lot of talent at those positions. I know Coach is working really hard to recruit, and the staff to recruit additional talent, which I think he’ll hit home runs in that regard.

"He’s going to continue to be a really good coach here for us, and I’m really excited to work with him, to help provide Auburn fans the type of football program that they deserve.”

Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde.