The Auburn football team dealing poorly with high expectations and performing well under low expectations has a long history.
It's a familiar topic to Auburn fans. Ask one if they would rather be ranked highly to start the season or be overlooked, they'll almost all tell you they'd rather no one be paying attention to Auburn. Auburn does the best when little is expected. The Tigers rarely live up to those high expectations.
That's been the narrative for my entire memory as an Auburn fan. 2003 and 2004 are examples we always point to. 2010, 2013, and 2014 are others.