As former players, former coaches, prognosticators and pundits alike weigh in on the state of Auburn's football program following its horrendous offensive collapse at LSU, Gus Malzahn is sticking by his coaching staff.

Asked if he had full confidence in his staff following Saturday's 27-23 defeat in which Auburn blew a 20-0 lead, the first AP top-10 team to do that against an unranked opponent in 182 tries since 2013, Malzahn answered affirmatively.

"Yeah I do," he said. "It's the end of the world, OK? I'm frustrated we got beat. We were up. I'm very disappointed but we're going to rebound. So I'm not going to say I'm frustrated with our coaches, our players. No; we're going to rebound and that's what we're going to do."

Malzahn and the few offensive players made available for interviews after the debacle in Baton Rouge cited execution more than play-calling as the issue with Auburn's offense, which gained just 66 yards in the second half including just six passing yards.

But play-calling, which was already a point of contention among a disgruntled fan base during the worst offensive performance in Malzahn's coaching career in the loss to Clemson, has been critiqued far and wide since.

Auburn (5-2, 3-1 SEC) ran 17 straight times on first down and went just 3 of 14 on third downs.

Jarrett Stidham, who was 9 of 26 for 165 yards with a touchdown, was either throwing deep or quick screen passes with little in between.

Asked if there were missed opportunities in the passing game outside of deep throws, Stidham again cited execution.

"We just didn't execute the play," he said. "There's numerous plays where if it was an RPO, it just, like I said, there wasn't the right amount of execution on a lot of plays collectively as a group. So, we looked at the film and we're going to get better from it. We're past it, we're ready to move on."

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While those outside the program far and wide put Malzahn, who is making $4.725 million and is signed through Dec. 2020, on the hot seat and question his leadership of the program moving forward, Stidham and other players considered to be leaders on the Auburn roster are trying to stay positive and focus on the task at hand.

"I think the main thing is just to keep everybody on the same page, keep everybody upbeat and positive because right now we're sitting second in the West and we've just got to take it week by week," Stidham said. "All of our goals that we want to accomplish are still there. We've just got to get better each week and try to stay positive and do the best we can."

James Crepea is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @JamesCrepea.