Malzahn's Weekly Presser - Louisiana-Monroe Game

[Mims44 1,867]

Maybe he doesn't want to spend 20 hours in film room to give him more time to update his resume...

 

 

Soooo glad there isn't a "dislike" button.

[Strychnine 1,802]

6 hours ago, alexava said:

Winning will do a lot for one's mood or tranquility. 

 

Winning will do a lot for people's perception of your competence.

[Strychnine 1,802]

13 hours ago, CleCoTiger said:

Prior to going zone read/inverted veer/inside power at AU so much of the time, the so-called "Malzahn offense" was much more diverse. Lashlee ran this playbook as a QB for Malzahn and in a lot of games they came out slinging it. (In fact, Chris Brown of SmartFootball was more than a little skeptical of the idea of Gus as a smash mouth/run first kind of coach when Gus came to AU with Chiz in 2009.) 

Take a look at StatTiger's "Notes on Red Zone Offense" from earlier today and look at the success rates for TD's in the red zone in 2009 (with Chris Todd at QB) vs. Cam Newton in 2010 and Marshall in 2013/14.  Straight up, I will tell you that I did not expect to see what Stat's numbers show to be so. I would have figured that the highest red zone TD percentage would have been Cam first, Marshall second and the AU offense with Todd somewhere on down the list. I would have been incorrect.

I don't know that CRL needs to "think outside the box" so much as just take out all the toys that are already in the box and play with 'em. And I think Herb Hand, Malzahn's co-OC at Tulsa, is gonna be a big help. I hope they're like two giddy boys with a load of good presents on Christmas morning. We'll see,..

 

I know his high school offensive implementation was known for throwing it a lot, as was also done while he was at Tulsa.  Rhett Lashlee has said as much himself.  Frankly, I was relieved at the prospect of having an offensive coordinator that thought beyond the word "smashmouth" when he was hired by Chizik.  I expected to see an offense that looked more like a high-tempo Air Raid than what we have now.  Like many others, I thought that perhaps Chizik was holding back the tempo, and expected to see it when Gus was hired to replace him.

Every iteration that I have seen of Gus' offense has one thing in common:  it works best when operated fast.  The team is obviously disciplined with tempo, as they always line up quickly.  What I think needs to go is the concept of lining up quickly, and then often waiting 30 seconds to snap the ball while the coaches play peekaboo with the defense.  His offense is simple, and it is simple because a simple offense is required in order to execute it rapidly.  The eye-candy is far less effective at consistently confusing defenses when the tempo is not already pushing them back on their heels.  Personally, I do not really think the playcalling is as much of a problem as the lack of tempo.  Auburn Fast is a myth.

I hope Herb Hand ends up being a helpful hire, rather than a case of nepotism.  The jury is certainly still out on that one.  That said, I do not think Gus, or anyone on the staff is going to have an epiphany of better plays or playcalling, and I do not think they need to.  Concentrating more on executing the offense fast and spending less time looking at the sidelines while the coaches try to dissect the defense would probably be the most effective of anything they could do.

[McLoofus 35,182]

15 hours ago, CleCoTiger said:

(In fact, Chris Brown of SmartFootball was more than a little skeptical of the idea of Gus as a smash mouth/run first kind of coach when Gus came to AU with Chiz in 2009.) 

I think most of us were. Heck, I was still arguing with Auburn bloggers as last as 2014 about whether or not Gus ran a "spread offense". (No, being in the shotgun and running hurry up doesn't make an offense "spread". But up until sometime before Ben Tate trucked Eric Berry, I was still wondering.)

Random question: I feel like I've seen more pictures of Gus smiling this week than I've seen since 2013... I'm imagining that, right?

 

[bg5 536]

I wonder if any of this is part of his plan to get A. Briles to Auburn. If A. Briles comes in Gus is going to have to let him run his Offense. If Gus let's it go now Briles will know that he is serious about turning the O over to him. It need to be done either way I just wonder if this has any part in it.  

[lionheartkc 6,150]

24 minutes ago, bg5 said:

I wonder if any of this is part of his plan to get A. Briles to Auburn. If A. Briles comes in Gus is going to have to let him run his Offense. If Gus let's it go now Briles will know that he is serious about turning the O over to him. It need to be done either way I just wonder if this has any part in it.  

Odds are, papa Briles will stick to head coaching gigs and we're still working the angle on his son.

[AUBwins 10,074]

5 hours ago, Mims44 said:

Maybe he doesn't want to spend 20 hours in film room to give him more time to update his resume...

 

 

Soooo glad there isn't a "dislike" button.

Does that make you feel better?

[AuCivilEng1 10,998]

I think he's letting Rashlee try to save his job. Rashlee is either going to sink or swim. If he sinks, Gus will make changes and if he swims, Gus has an excuse to keep him around. 

[Tiger 8,818]

18 hours ago, AcUmen said:

The short guy across the state is a good example of how successful one can be by being a CEO.  Do you think he sits there calling defensive plays?  No.  What he does well is building his organization off-the-field and ensuring that bammer has all the advantages when it comes game time.  He hires the best assistants who do the day-to-day coaching stuff.  Essentially he is an evaluator of people.

I wasn't insinuating we need a HC to call plays. Your post is spot on otherwise IMO. That's why hiring dynamic coordinators usually does not mean success as HCs. The skill-set required for both is much different. I see Saban has been a DC at 2 different places (one in NFL and one in NCAA), I'm not sure how those defenses were but I'd assume they were good enough for him to get HC looks. But his strength is obviously being a CEO, which is why he's so successful as a HC. I'm really hoping Gus' ceiling is not OC. For example Dabo has never even had an opportunity to call plays, he could very possibly be bad at it, but he's proving to be a fantastic HC because he knows how to manage and how to pick the right people for the right positions on his staff. I'm hoping Gus has that in him. A HC is ultimately fired for putting the wrong people on his staff and dies with his personnel decisions while an OC is ultimately fired for calling bad/ineffective plays.

Forgive me if it feels like I'm rambling lol

[Barnacle 9,064]

14 hours ago, Randman5000 said:

That's probably what it was but maybe it took some outside influence for him to do it?

I don't doubt there is outside influence. There is always outside influence, especially in the college game. I don't believe that he was told specifically to stop calling plays, no. There's no doubt that he knows he had to change something, though. And I don't think he needed outsiders to tell him that. 

Another thing is that after reviewing the Clemson film, Gus said the defense played much better than he realized. This gets back to my point. I think he saw the film and realized he coached the game completely wrong. He was so intent on executing his game plan that he lost sight of how the game was actually playing out. 

[msza 228]

1 hour ago, AuCivilEng1 said:

I think he's letting Rashlee try to save his job. Rashlee is either going to sink or swim. If he sinks, Gus will make changes and if he swims, Gus has an excuse to keep him around. 

Which is exactly how it should be.

[McLoofus 35,182]

8 minutes ago, Barnacle said:

Another thing is that after reviewing the Clemson film, Gus said the defense played much better than he realized. This gets back to my point. I think he saw the film and realized he coached the game completely wrong. He was so intent on executing his game plan that he lost sight of how the game was actually playing out. 

He damn sure learned his lesson about taking the 3 points, didn't he? Not saying the circumstances were apples to apples, buuuuuuut...

[bg5 536]

1 hour ago, AuCivilEng1 said:

I think he's letting Rashlee try to save his job. Rashlee is either going to sink or swim. If he sinks, Gus will make changes and if he swims, Gus has an excuse to keep him around. 

I think Lashlee will be gone no matter what. Whether he does great or not. I think he knows it's time to move on.

[Barnacle 9,064]

20 hours ago, McLoofus said:

He damn sure learned his lesson about taking the 3 points, didn't he? Not saying the circumstances were apples to apples, buuuuuuut...

No, they weren't apples to apples, and I do think at some point you need to be able to challenge your offense to get one yard when they need it. 

[AUsince72 11,084]

39 minutes ago, Barnacle said:

No, they weren't apples to apples, and I do think at some point you need to be able to challenge your offense to get one yard when they need it. 

He did challenge them at the end of the first half.  They failed the challenge.  Thus Daniel Carlson became the hero.

Here's my "Master of the Obvious Moment"..... I think in this particular game, FG's were the right call.

However, you're correct in the grand scheme of things.  This offense (especially those who's job it is to block) needs to toughen up mightily!
This may be the most interesting ULm game of all time...

[McLoofus 35,182]

49 minutes ago, Barnacle said:

No, they weren't apples to apples, and I do think at some point you need to be able to challenge your offense to get one yard when they need it. 

If we're talking about Clemson- which I was- then, IMO, an intelligent head coach acknowledges that his defense was playing well enough to make 3 points very valuable and a much safer bet with regards to the final score favoring the good guys than trying to convert 4th downs with his offense that hadn't done jack sh** all night. 

[Barnacle 9,064]

51 minutes ago, AUsince72 said:

He did challenge them at the end of the first half.  They failed the challenge.  Thus Daniel Carlson became the hero.

Here's my "Master of the Obvious Moment"..... I think in this particular game, FG's were the right call.

However, you're correct in the grand scheme of things.  This offense (especially those who's job it is to block) needs to toughen up mightily!
This may be the most interesting ULm game of all time...

Yessir, that's what I was pointing out. I was justifying his going for it on 4th down at the end of the first half of the Clemson game. 

[Barnacle 9,064]

53 minutes ago, McLoofus said:

If we're talking about Clemson- which I was- then, IMO, an intelligent head coach acknowledges that his defense was playing well enough to make 3 points very valuable and a much safer bet with regards to the final score favoring the good guys than trying to convert 4th downs with his offense that hadn't done jack sh** all night. 

Oh, I completely agree with you McLoofus, and that's the lack of awareness I was referring to. To me, the Clemson game wasn't about challenging his offense, it was Gus acting like a mad-man desperately trying to get in the end-zone for fear of getting outscored by Clemson's offense. It was like he had no idea how much of an advantage our defense created that night, and how valuable field goals actually were. That's why I think he finally looked at the film and for the first time realized "oh, our defense kept us in the game drive after drive, yet I called the game like an a**hole." Maybe I shouldn't be so heavily invested in the offense. 

I think for him, especially when things aren't clicking on offense, he doubles down hard. Not just on whatever his gameplan is, or what he thinks theoretically should work - like calling dives on 80% of first down plays - but doubling down on his focus to make it work. Just looking at his face during that game - my God. He went Tin Cup on that sh**. Like, "I don't care what's happening around me, or what other people are telling me, or the fact that I'm losing us this game, we're going to keep hitting the ball into the water until I prove that I can do it." 

[McLoofus 35,182]

43 minutes ago, Barnacle said:

Oh, I completely agree with you McLoofus, and that's the lack of awareness I was referring to. To me, the Clemson game wasn't about challenging his offense, it was Gus acting like a mad-man desperately trying to get in the end-zone for fear of getting outscored by Clemson's offense. It was like he had no idea how much of an advantage our defense created that night, and how valuable field goals actually were. That's why I think he finally looked at the film and for the first time realized "oh, our defense kept us in the game drive after drive, yet I called the game like an a**hole." Maybe I shouldn't be so heavily invested in the offense. 

I think for him, especially when things aren't clicking on offense, he doubles down hard. Not just on whatever his gameplan is, or what he thinks theoretically should work - like calling dives on 80% of first down plays - but doubling down on his focus to make it work. Just looking at his face during that game - my God. He went Tin Cup on that sh**. Like, "I don't care what's happening around me, or what other people are telling me, or the fact that I'm losing us this game, we're going to keep hitting the ball into the water until I prove that I can do it." 

Do people get paid for good forum posts? I think you should get paid for this. Do you have an agent? 

Seriously... great stuff. Damn. 

[Barnacle 9,064]

26 minutes ago, McLoofus said:

Do people get paid for good forum posts? I think you should get paid for this. Do you have an agent? 

Seriously... great stuff. Damn. 

Yeah, I think I should get paid for this too. Let's make that happen. I'll tell my wife. I'm not ignoring you! I'm making $$$!!!!

[AURex 1,993]

I am inclined to think (and I'm no insider, so this is just picking up on hints here and there), that CGM got the message that changes are required or he'd be out of a job at the end of the season -- and that one of the changes he will need to make is offensive coordinator for next season -- an OC who actually functions as OC.

We saw this kind of scenario play out with Les Miles. He was told last year, when they backed away from firing him, that he needed to make a change in OC and install a functional offense. He didn't do it. He kept Cam, just giving him a cut in pay. It cost him his job.

I think Gus really wanted CRL out last year, but the man couldn't land a job. Giving him the reins this year as a real OC sets him in better position for job hunting, especially if Auburn does improve on offense and win a couple more SEC games. Unless some miracles happen and Auburn offense goes ballistic and beats Ole Miss, Arkansas, UGA and Bama, IMO CRL is gone at the end of the season. If he does pretty well as OC, he might actually be able to find a job on his own this time around.

IMO, he's really trying to give his protege a chance to be successful on his own.

 

[SumterAubie 3,031]

Who woulda thunk it, that Lashlee was carrying Malzahn's weight all these years and not the other way around.   And Gus has finally recognized it.

[icanthearyou 4,462]

2 hours ago, McLoofus said:

Do people get paid for good forum posts? I think you should get paid for this. Do you have an agent? 

Seriously... great stuff. Damn. 

You're not getting paid?  My checks come in like clockwork.  Both of you are tremendous posters.  You should both PM Titan.

[lionheartkc 6,150]

11 minutes ago, icanthearyou said:

You're not getting paid?  My checks come in like clockwork.  Both of you are tremendous posters.  You should both PM Titan.

What... what?  @TitanTiger's the one with the checkbook?

[icanthearyou 4,462]

6 minutes ago, lionheartkc said:

What... what?  @TitanTiger's the one with the checkbook?

Yeah and, the free stuff from sponsors and, access to the sky box.