the X's and O's of Malzahn's Offense

[Tiger 8,823]

17 minutes ago, AUsince72 said:

I think you're fine.  After all, you're among friends here....

Personally, I think most of us have moved beyond the bashing of Gus (contrary to what a small handful on this board feel) but we are all simply putting forth our hopes, expectations and what we hope NOT to see anymore.  I think 99.9% of us WANTS Gus to succeed and become that absolute full-time bully that we saw during Amen Corner last year.  But, still, we all DO have expectations and hopes.  Nuff said on that.....

One thing I'd like to respond to as far as this "10 wins" thing...  10 wins in 1985 was phenomenal.  That usually meant you only lost 1 or 2 games, good chance you won your conference and probably won your Bowl game.

If I have to accept the fact that the Wishbones and Power I formations are basically dead and replaced with Spreads and Hurry-ups then we also need to accept that 10 wins today means you've probably lost 3-4 games, did not win your conference and possibly lost your Bowl game to a vastly inferior opponent.

Agree, but that's why I'll maintain 10 regular season wins is where the mark should be. We've won a freakin national title this decade (almost 2!) this is not far-fetched idea IMO.

[AUsince72 11,084]

33 minutes ago, Tiger said:

Agree, but that's why I'll maintain 10 regular season wins is where the mark should be. We've won a freakin national title this decade (almost 2!) this is not far-fetched idea IMO.

I'd like to agree but unfortunately we just had 10 Reg Season wins and yet....here we are . 

Point being, yes 10 reg season wins is fine, but if it stops there, it becomes "only" 10 wins.  And in the 21st century that will probably not win championships.

EDIT: I'd like to add that to me, the Nat'l Championship is not THAT important.  Don't get me wrong, I'd love for my beloved Tigers to win another and am proud of the ones they have.  But until they make it an 8 team playoff it's still just too subjective (as bammer proved again this past year).  

But, to me the SEC Championships are the crown jewel.  ...and attainable every year.  Plus, they're won "on the field".  Nobody can dispute them.  Auburn is more than capable of producing it's fair share of SEC Championships.

[keesler 5,924]

I'd just like to see Gus start winning 10 games consistently including the dang bowl games. That benchmark is not insurmountable in the college football climate today.  Build on those 10 W's + bowl wins and your program's competing for championships on the regular.  The talent is there, depth is there, facilities are there, job security is there, you have your coaches on staff, fan support and booster backing is there.  NOW GET IT DONE!

[Tiger 8,823]

1 minute ago, AUsince72 said:

I'd like to agree but unfortunately we just had 10 Reg Season wins and yet....here we are . 

Point being, yes 10 reg season wins is fine, but if it stops there, it becomes "only" 10 wins.  And in the 21st century that will probably not win championships.

 

10 regular season wins is a good season to me. With our schedule we can actually play our way into the playoffs with 10 regular season wins, as this past year showed us, when things break right. I will always applaud a 10 win regular season as I think anyone would consider it a good year even if we don't make the playoffs.

Now, what many of us are clamoring for is to get back to greatness. It's absolutely unrealistic to expect that every year, but I think what a lot of us are hoping for are instead of sandwhiching great years (2010, 2013) with mediocre seasons, maybe surround them with good seasons instead. Or even 9 regular season wins would keep Gus off the hot seat. But when we dip down into 6, 7, 8 win seasons that's just unacceptable for a program that has realistic national title goals.  And what the problem is that mediocre-Gus shows up far too often (Clemson, LSU 2nd half, SECCG, and UCF) for anyone to comfortably feel like he's turning the corner and getting us to consistently good. 

I want to be clear, I think we had a good season last year. We won the division and beat our 2 main rivals in the process. I like how our regular season's overall body of work ended up. I thought that Gus had turned the corner and put away his coaching demons for good with how we capped off the regular season. We were fooled though, and losing to a mid-major like UCF really is a poor way to enter the off-season. I think that is why there is some frustration even though we're coming off of a 10 win season. We thought we didn't have to see our offense look so Gussed up after the LSU game, but it just amplified the frustrations after feeling like "ok we've finally weathered the on-the-job-training storm!" only for the rug to be pulled out from under us. I know I'm kind wandering here but hopefully I got my point across lol

[AUsince72 11,084]

4 minutes ago, Tiger said:

10 regular season wins is a good season to me. With our schedule we can actually play our way into the playoffs with 10 regular season wins, as this past year showed us, when things break right. I will always applaud a 10 win regular season as I think anyone would consider it a good year even if we don't make the playoffs.

Now, what many of us are clamoring for is to get back to greatness. It's absolutely unrealistic to expect that every year, but I think what a lot of us are hoping for are instead of sandwhiching great years (2010, 2013) with mediocre seasons, maybe surround them with good seasons instead. Or even 9 regular season wins would keep Gus off the hot seat. But when we dip down into 6, 7, 8 win seasons that's just unacceptable for a program that has realistic national title goals.  And what the problem is that mediocre-Gus shows up far too often (Clemson, LSU 2nd half, SECCG, and UCF) for anyone to comfortably feel like he's turning the corner and getting us to consistently good. 

I want to be clear, I think we had a good season last year. We won the division and beat our 2 main rivals in the process. I like how our regular season's overall body of work ended up. I thought that Gus had turned the corner and put away his coaching demons for good with how we capped off the regular season. We were fooled though, and losing to a mid-major like UCF really is a poor way to enter the off-season. I think that is why there is some frustration even though we're coming off of a 10 win season. We thought we didn't have to see our offense look so Gussed up after the LSU game, but it just amplified the frustrations after feeling like "ok we've finally weathered the on-the-job-training storm!" only for the rug to be pulled out from under us. I know I'm kind wandering here but hopefully I got my point across lol

Putting it all this way... Yes, I agree.  We're simpatico!

[jAUSon 2,836]

7 hours ago, McLoofus said:

Not to discount the rest of your post, but I just wanted to focus on this part.

We did not compete against Clemson. We did not compete in the 2nd half against LSU. We did not compete against uga once RB1 got hurt. In any given season, there are 3-4 games that we could understandably lose. But there is never, ever an excuse for an Auburn football team to not even compete. 

In a nutshell.

[BigWhiskey91 632]

23 hours ago, Mike4AU said:

I will now bow out of this discussion.  I am not a fan of Gus, but I don’t want to become one of “those guys” who constantly fill the airwaves with criticism of him. Doing so simply does not serve any useful purpose.  He clearly is our guy for several years, thanks to the diamond encased contract he got recently.  Let’s hope his bank account doesn’t have a negative impact on him. 

No need to bow out. I wasn’t saying that he is a saint either. I was simply saying that you have to acknowledge everything that happened. 

Simply put, the 2017 team was very dominant when full strength but was very fragile when it came down to production dependencies. Auburn was very reliant on the short passes and KJ to setup the deep ball. What made the UGA game and Iron Bowl so fun to watch was that we threw the ball to open up the run game. Something we really haven’t done before. This kept KJ fresh late in the game and allowed Auburn to lean on him when our opponent was gassed. 

I fully agree that we screwed our shot against UCF. Auburn knew they should’ve been in the playoff and it showed they were sulking. Malzahn shares that blame because it’s his job to have those boys ready to play. 

I can’t really fault AU for its loss against UGA. The team held on for as long as they could. We entered the 4th quarter down one score. Our best efforts up that point resulted in 1 TD, redzone fumble and a blocked FG. Nothing was going right and KJ wasn’t even close to 100%. We knew that going in though and we could argue that Kam Martin should’ve been prepped for it. Hell, Kam should’ve been getting way more reps throughout the season but it is what it is. Hopefully we adjust going forward just like we adjusted after LSU. 

[AUBwins 10,075]

On 6/21/2018 at 7:42 AM, bigbird said:

And you still add to your nearly 11,000 likes lol. 

[bigbird 60,514]

18 minutes ago, AUBwins said:

And you still add to your nearly 11,000 likes lol. 

[GwillMac6 20,671]

44 minutes ago, bigbird said:

 

 

[AUsince72 11,084]

1 hour ago, bigbird said:

 

 

25 minutes ago, GwillMac6 said:

 

 

[WarEagle1982 449]

This is my thought on Malzahn’s Xs and Os

[doc4aday 1,887]

I think we will have a better passing game even with 2 key players likely out for the season.  I do not expect us to be the best passing team in the conference by any means, but enough to make the offense click better than in 2017. Enough improvement in the passing game should make us a better offense than 2017.  We have enough talent to compete with any team in the SEC no doubt. My guess is a 9-3 or 10-2 season is very possible.  Maybe better and hopefully not less. The west is going to be tougher but we should hold out own with any team we play.

I  think Chip will have more input with the overall play calling schemes especially in the passing game. Keeping JS healthy is the key to the success of the season.

[API 95]

On 6/19/2018 at 3:25 PM, Tiger said:

What makes me most pissed is Bama lost the game, but really won it by injuring Kerryon's shoulder and getting a free pass through SEC Championship weekend. 

faskjhdfskjfaddaskjfhas

Yes, that is the result of me banging my forehead on the keyboard

Truer words were never spoken.

[CCTAU 3,324]

We used to have some Ys to go with the Xs and Os.

 

Now the only Ys we get are:

 

Y the hell did he run THAT!

?

[McLoofus 35,182]

15 minutes ago, CCTAU said:

We used to have some Ys to go with the Xs and Os.

Now the only Ys we get are:

Y the hell did he run THAT!

?

Um, that is a super solid joke right there. Holy crap. Well done. 

[Tiger 8,823]

I watched the 2009 West Virginia game last night with my dad. Boy, do I not miss having a defense that gives up tons of yards and points. That game the WV QB gifted our D some turnovers but it was painful to watch on the defensive side of the ball for the most part. But one thing I didn't remember much about that game, or season possibly, was how poor our offensive line was. Chris Todd had someone in face on almost every play.

One thing I noticed is how we incorporated both Onterrio McCalleb and Ben Tate into the offense. We would rotate them pretty often and didn't limit O-Mac to just outside runs or speed sweeps. We let him run inside too. Mario Fannin was also in the mix. He had a 82 yard touchdown catch where he left everyone in the dust. We were using 3 backs actively in the run and pass games.

I also noticed on plenty of 3rd and longs where Gus called plays that actually gave us a chance to get the conversion. No scared playcalling. We attacked the intermediate-middle of the field through the air wayyyy more than we do now.There was also a glorious absence of repeatedly running up the gut. I miss that guy.

Oh also, Darvin Adams was a fantastic WR for us. He extended so many drives when we needed it.

[McLoofus 35,182]

4 minutes ago, Tiger said:

Oh also, Darvin Adams was a fantastic WR for us. He extended so many drives when we needed it.

Not sure if everyone remembers that he made incredible catches in both the Kentucky game and the IB in 2010 without which we quite likely would have lost both. Almost definitely that 4th down catch in the IB. 

[Tiger 8,823]

3 minutes ago, McLoofus said:

Not sure if everyone remembers that he made incredible catches in both the Kentucky game and the IB in 2010 without which we quite likely would have lost both. Almost definitely that 4th down catch in the IB. 

Dude he was sooo clutch. I also loved how he seemingly ran a variety of routes rather than what we see now out of our WRs.

 

Side note, I really miss kickoff returns!! Not a single kickoff reached the end zone that night and it made me realize how exciting and game-changing KO returns can be.

[AUsince72 11,084]

1 hour ago, McLoofus said:

Not sure if everyone remembers that he made incredible catches in both the Kentucky game and the IB in 2010 without which we quite likely would have lost both. Almost definitely that 4th down catch in the IB. 

I remember well.  Everything about him was slick in 2010.  He was clutch....then he was cool.

LOVED me some Darvin...

[AUsince72 11,084]

1 hour ago, Tiger said:

I watched the 2009 West Virginia game last night with my dad. Boy, do I not miss having a defense that gives up tons of yards and points. That game the WV QB gifted our D some turnovers but it was painful to watch on the defensive side of the ball for the most part. But one thing I didn't remember much about that game, or season possibly, was how poor our offensive line was. Chris Todd had someone in face on almost every play.

One thing I noticed is how we incorporated both Onterrio McCalleb and Ben Tate into the offense. We would rotate them pretty often and didn't limit O-Mac to just outside runs or speed sweeps. We let him run inside too. Mario Fannin was also in the mix. He had a 82 yard touchdown catch where he left everyone in the dust. We were using 3 backs actively in the run and pass games.

I also noticed on plenty of 3rd and longs where Gus called plays that actually gave us a chance to get the conversion. No scared playcalling. We attacked the intermediate-middle of the field through the air wayyyy more than we do now.There was also a glorious absence of repeatedly running up the gut. I miss that guy.

Oh also, Darvin Adams was a fantastic WR for us. He extended so many drives when we needed it.

The 2009 type offense Gus ran would be a great model for the personnel today.

With that said, I've watched a bit of ASU's offense during CCL's time there and really wish Gus would just give him the reins fully.

A true mix of their styles could really be something sustainable for AU's offense to come.

[Tiger 8,823]

4 minutes ago, AUsince72 said:

The 2009 type offense Gus ran would be a great model for the personnel today.

With that said, I've watched a bit of ASU's offense during CCL's time there and really wish Gus would just give him the reins fully.

A true mix of their styles could really be something sustainable for AU's offense to come.

Is there any particular ASU game I should try to watch? I know they were dealing with an absurd amount of injuries, if I'm not mistaken

[AUsince72 11,084]

53 minutes ago, Tiger said:

Is there any particular ASU game I should try to watch? I know they were dealing with an absurd amount of injuries, if I'm not mistaken

Probably a decent example would be the Tex Tech game.  Maybe check out the Cal game too.. especially the 2nd half.

My takeaway is that the running game is actually VERY similar to Gus'.  Except first downs aren't always followed up by dives up the middle.  Better variety of play calls on 1st down.

Keep in mind, though, ASU's QB was probably a very Gatewood-esque (or even what JJ coulda been) so the run game includes a more 2010 style..maybe next year?

He does his share of screens but there definitely seems to be more diverse intermediate routes and even some passes down the middle.

With that said, I'm not sure if choosing a game in particular is a good indicator, afterall, I would not judge AU's offensive identity solely on the 2nd half of the LSU game (bad) nor the bammer game (good).  Cuz there was a whole lot in between. I just don't feel like CCL goes all turtle shell unless he's being instructed to.

Yes, I seem to remember, they were loaded with injuries that year.

[Tiger 8,823]

5 minutes ago, AUsince72 said:

Probably a decent example would be the Tex Tech game.  Maybe check out the Cal game too.. especially the 2nd half.

My takeaway is that the running game is actually VERY similar to Gus'.  Except first downs aren't always followed up by dives up the middle.  Better variety of play calls on 1st down.

Keep in mind, though, ASU's QB was probably a very Gatewood-esque (or even what JJ coulda been) so the run game includes a more 2010 style..maybe next year?

He does his share of screens but there definitely seems to be more diverse intermediate routes and even some passes down the middle.

With that said, I'm not sure if choosing a game in particular is a good indicator, afterall, I would not judge AU's offensive identity solely on the 2nd half of the LSU game (bad) nor the bammer game (good).  Cuz there was a whole lot in between. I just don't feel like CCL goes all turtle shell unless he's being instructed to.

Yes, I seem to remember, they were loaded with injuries that year.

Yeah it's tough I mean if I look at highlights everything looks unstoppable so I don't like to judge off of those either. I may see what youtube has to offer and go from there

[McLoofus 35,182]

14 minutes ago, AUsince72 said:

He does his share of screens but there definitely seems to be more diverse intermediate routes and even some passes down the middle.

That's what jumped out at me. Even if you only do watch one half of one of those games, you'll see more of that than we've seen in any half of AU football going back at least to 2014, and it's not close. That's the kind of stuff that can lead one to reasonably conclude that Chip was on a leash last season.