One thing a head football coach always wants to avoid is picking a winner between two teams that he has to play again in the future.

Auburn coach Gus Malzahn was a special guest on CBS Sports for the pre-game show for Saturday’s SEC Championship. At the very end, CBS Sports sportscaster Adam Zucker set up Malzahn in a funny way to make a prediction. Here’s how it went down:

Zucker: “Coach, I thought we were out of time, but I’m told that they just put one second back on the clock. Do you have a prediction for this game?”

Malzhan, smartly, tried to play it off: “Ah, you know, I don’t know …”

CBS Sports analyst Rick Neuheisel chimed in: “”You’re a TV man now, Gus.”

While the crew was laughing, Malzahn finally relented – sort of – in a way: “I think … I don’t know. I think Georgia has a good chance of beating them. That’s all I can do there.”

Of course, Auburn played both UGA and LSU to close games this past season, and Malzahn’s Tigers will play both again next year.

Since Malzahn didn’t officially pick UGA outright, we won’t tell anybody from LSU to use it for bulletin-board material in 2020.