Interesting article on Borges

[Aufan59 60]

http://www.collegefootballnews.com/2004/Co...Quarterback.htm

By Matthew Zemek

The greatest coaching resurrection this season is, without a doubt, the sudden and stratospheric ascendancy of Tommy Tuberville, formerly “Mister 7-4” and boss of broken dreams. He had a quality season in 2000, leading Auburn to the SEC title game and the Citrus (now Capital One) Bowl, but that trip to Atlanta has proven to be the exception rather than the rule for a coach who, though respected throughout the Auburn family, hasn’t been able to deliver consistent results, especially when expectations are high.

 

Past MMQs Sept 20 | Sept 13 | Sept 6

This year, LSU got most of the preseason pub in the SEC West, and blessedly so, for the Tigers of the Alabama Plains were able to assume the role of a hungry challenger rather than a hunted beast. Having a different emotional outlook has given Tuberville’s team a winning mental makeup. This has been no small factor in Auburn’s rise to prominence in 2004.

But as Notre Dame showed on Saturday against Purdue, emotion can only take you so far. There has to be talent in the mix (and Auburn has that), and that talent has to be unlocked by quality coaching. Tuberville has finally unlocked his talent on offense, and the reason why Jason Campbell and Co. have at long last arrived is the biggest and smartest hire of Tuberville’s coaching life: Al Borges as Auburn’s new offensive coordinator, replacing the duo of Hugh Nall and Steve Ensminger.

Let’s cut to the quick: why has Borges succeeded where Nall and Ensminger failed?

In a word, adaptability.

 

Nall, an offensive line coach in addition to a coordinator, was the kind of coach who enters a season (and its constituent games every Saturday) with a fixed philosophy. For an offensive line kind of guy, that philosophy is run-based. Nall was essentially a college version of Joe Bugel in the NFL… with the only difference being that the Washington Redskin offensive line that Bugel coached for years was juuuuuuust a teency, weency bit better than Auburn’s O-line. With Nall providing the philosophical framework and Ensminger calling the plays, Campbell found himself boxed in at times in 2003, facing a lot of predictable passing situations when the power ground game—which every defense was geared to stop—didn’t work.

Borges, however, has quickly stamped himself as a coach who is flexible, and who doesn’t have one overriding philosophy that leaves him without a Plan B. (Rich Rodriguez of West Virginia needs to rediscover this, because he had a Hugh Nall-like performance against Virginia Tech on Saturday…)

On Saturday night against Tennessee, Borges came up with a fabulous mix of sound, well-scripted plays that exploited a young Volunteer defense, particularly its secondary. Despite having studs in the backfield, Borges was not only unafraid to entrust Jason Campbell with a downfield passing game, but he had the creativity to involve Ronnie Brown on some of those vertical routes, one of which produced a big gainer on a breathtakingly beautiful ball from Campbell. Yet, when Tennessee’s defense was opened up by the Auburn passing game, Borges would counter with the old time slobberknocker religion to gash the Vols between the tackles. It was a coordinator clinic, as Borges played a mean game of chess against the Children of the Checkerboard.

Borges’ effort between the headsets was so clinical for a number of reasons that clearly reveal quality play-calling: it adapted to the particular team and situation; it kept the defense off balance; it blended safety and aggressiveness; it was conceptually simple yet open to the possibility of big plays; and it moved pieces around, putting weapons in different attacking positions (such as the use of Brown, a running back, on downfield wheel routes).

A couple of plays illustrate Borges’ mastery in particular. The first one didn’t even register as significant in the bigger picture—it gained only four yards on 2nd and 9 for Auburn at the Tennessee 11—but it showed how Borges moved pieces around to outflank John Chavis’ Volunteer defense.

Inside the Tennessee red zone, Auburn had been throwing the ball with success, but then turned to a tight formation. Tennessee, used to being spread out, cluttered the tackle box. What did Borges do? He had Campbell run a mini-option wide. The play so surprised the Vol defense that Cadillac Williams, as the pitch man, was all alone on the perimeter, outside Tennessee’s level of containment. Forget the fact that Campbell delayed his toss too long, or that Cadillac might have remained too far behind the line of scrimmage for an extra second or two (that’s why the play didn’t get six points). What was instructive is that Borges put his players in position to make plays with a minimum of risk—Campbell made a very unhurried toss, and Cadillac took a pitch in open space.

The other particularly revealing play from Borges’ grab bag came midway through the second quarter, with Auburn facing 2nd and 5 at the Vol 45. Campbell, off play action, rolled right. The fact that Auburn’s mix of run and pass had been so successful up to that point made this 2nd and 5 play—and you can do whatever you like with that down and distance—a great time for Borges to fool Tennessee. Darned if that isn’t exactly what happened. Tennessee’s defense was so keyed on the run that the Vol defense flowed left on the play fake. Campbell’s rollout to the right side put him in the open, with only two people in front of him: tight end Cooper Wallace and a Tennessee defender. As Campbell ran toward the line of scrimmage, Wallace released his man, who thought it was a QB keeper. As soon as Wallace rubbed off the defender, Campbell was able to flip an easy soft toss to his tight end for one of the simplest 32-yard pass plays you’ll ever see.

You get the idea: Borges was conceptually simple, yet ever adaptable to the situation. Hugh Nall and Steve Ensminger lacked Borges’ feel for the game, and that’s why 2003 was a disaster. But it’s also why Auburn and Tommy Tuberville have done so much better in 2004.

[Ronin 2]

That's a great article that deserves a bump!

[bigsixfive 327]

Thats an excellent article, and probably the best single word to describe our new offense.... adaptable.

[DKW 86 7,419]

As a an armchair OC, all I could tell Jared and he agreed btw, was that Borges was so far ahead of us calling plays that he was setting up the D for a play two or three series down the line.

Borges is awesome. Hope he likes AU for a longtime. I know a lot of AU loves him dearly btw.

[AUloggerhead 2,227]

Nail meet Head. Matthew Zemek is dead on. The personnel haven't changed -- we lost to graduation a couple of OL, a FB and a reserve WR. They are a year older which means they've grown up & matured some more, but that fact can't explain the dramatic turnaround in our O's productivity.

Borges is the difference. He has put our best playmakers in position to shine and he has been masterful at being unpredictable. There will be no more instances of defensive players calling out our plays before we run them like last year (thank God.)

And, ... AND ... .... the best part is yet to come: DCs around the league now know that the strategy of putting 8 or 9 in the box and "forcing Campbell to beat them through the air" is going to result in their team down by 4 TDs at the half like at the UT game! When they start having to put 2 defenders on our WRs to slow the passing attack down, look out: Carnell & Ronnie -- start your engines! WDE

[AURainman 6]

....And, ... AND ... .... the best part is yet to come:  DCs around the league now know that the strategy of putting 8 or 9 in the box and "forcing Campbell to beat them through the air" is going to result in their team down by 4 TDs at the half like at the UT game!  When they start having to put 2 defenders on our WRs to slow the passing attack down, look out:  Carnell & Ronnie -- start your engines!  WDE

108622[/snapback]

You've got that right!!!

Damn, Carnell, Ronnie, AND Jason as a threat. Look out!!!

[Thanos 0]

I've always been a fan of,finding the weakness in a defense and take the opportunity of that advantage.Too many times over the years have I heard CTT say well we got to go with OUR STRENGTHS as an offense...which means we're gonna run...and here comes the slants again..

Auburn(after CTB left) hasn't really given the pass(especially the deep one's) a chance.There was a time late in Ben Leard's career at Auburn when the pass was going well,but mostly those horizontal ones

As soon as Al Borges was quoted as to what was wrong with Auburn's offense I believed him on that day.

Our Qb's and Wr recruiting just got a boost because we actually use them now.