AUBURN, Ala. – Jay Jacobs, in his 12th year as Auburn’s athletics director, has seen the best and worst of college football.

In January of 2010, Jacobs celebrated as Gene Chizik won a national championship in his second season as head coach. Less than two years later, he told Chizik it was time to go after the worst Auburn season in 60 years and hired Gus Malzahn

In the 2013 season, Jacobs saw Malzahn’s first Auburn team win the SEC championship and narrowly miss a national championship. As the 2016 Tigers prepare for Saturday’s game against LSU at Jordan-Hare Stadium, a 1-2 start has sparked widespread speculation about Malzahn’s future as Auburn’s coach.

Since midway through the 2014 season, Auburn and Malzahn have won just two of 12 Southeastern Conference games, have lost six straight home games to SEC opponents and seven straight to Power-5 opponents.

Jacobs says he doesn’t follow social media, but he’s far from oblivious to the gathering storm. And he says things must turn around.

“We have to stop losing games we should win,” Jacobs told AuburnUndercover. “No disrespect to our opponents, but when we have a chance to win, we have to win. We have to get better on offense and continue playing well on defense.”

Auburn struggled mightily on offense in falling 19-13 to Clemson in the season-opener and 29-16 to Texas A&M last Saturday. Both games were at home.

“There is nobody more frustrated in trying to figure out a winning solution than Gus,” Jacobs said. “He’s working day and night with his assistant coaches to put these kids in position to win.”

But the bottom line, Jacobs said, remains the same: “We have to win games.”

After last season’s team went 6-6 in the regular season and finished 7-6 with a victory over Memphis in the Birmingham Bowl, Jacobs expressed support for Malzahn but said on WJOX-FM in Birmingham “there's no excuse for going 6-6 at Auburn, even though you lost a couple of games by one possession or less.”

Last summer, Malzahn's contract was extended by one year, through 2020. His buyout is $8.95 million, lower than at least 10 other SEC head coaches.