Chizik weighs in on gus

[aubiefifty 16,766]

oanow.com

‘It’s a real challenge’: Chizik weighs in on Malzahn balancing efforts as head coach and play-caller

Justin Lee | Auburn Reporter Opelika-Auburn Newsjlee@oanow.comFollow on Twitter @AUBlog|@ByJustinLee

5-6 minutes

As Gus Malzahn assumes play-calling duties again for the Auburn offense, he faces “a real challenge” in balancing responsibilities as a gameplanner and as a head coach, former Auburn head coach Gene Chizik said Wednesday.

Malzahn announced recently he’ll call plays for Auburn again moving forward upon the hiring of the team’s new offensive coordinator Kenny Dillingham, who was named to his new post Sunday night.

Malzahn served as Auburn’s offensive coordinator and play-caller under Chizik at Auburn from 2009-11.

Chizik spoke Wednesday as a guest on ESPN 106.7’s The Lunch Break aired locally in Auburn, offering insights on how Malzahn will have to balance those efforts — saying Malzahn is as good as there is in college football as a play-caller when he’s focused on that, but that responsibilities as a head coach can tug at that focus.

“Gus is as good as there is in the business,” Chizik said on the show. “Where it gets a little bit hairy for guys is when you sit in that seat and you have so many other things pulling at you. And people are going to go, ‘Like what? Like what?’ Well, there’s a million things.

“Everything from the AD calling you out, having to get your input on facility plans, to any discipline issues — I mean, it never ends. It never ends.”

Malzahn called Auburn’s plays throughout his time as the Tigers’ offensive coordinator under Chizik, and through his first three seasons back on the Plains as Auburn’s head coach starting in 2013.

Several games into the 2016 season, Malzahn announced publicly that he’d be handing over play-calling duties to then-offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee.

After Lashlee left Auburn at that season’s end, Malzahn brought in an established name as an offensive coordinator in Chip Lindsey in January 2017. Lindsey held the position until last week when he took over the same position at Kansas.

Auburn announced the hiring of a rising name this time, instead, in the 28-year-old Dillingham, while making it clear Malzahn would call plays for Auburn again as Dillingham joins the staff.

Dillingham served in a similar role at Memphis, where offensive-minded head coach Mike Norvell called plays with Dillingham’s assistance.

Chizik, though, knowing firsthand the rigors of being a head coach at a major college program and free to speak on it openly, said Malzahn will face a balancing act when he returns to play-calling duties.

On top of the CEO side of things that could bring a coach into the athletics director’s office, Chizik pointed to recruiting, spelling out a hypothetical scenario:

“I’m in a meeting right now and we’re finishing up a third down gameplan, but Freddie is on the phone, who’s a five-star, and him and his parents want to talk to you for an hour — and if you don’t talk to him right now, then you may not get him,” Chizik detailed. “Right? And you’ve got to battle Georgia and Alabama and everybody else.

“I could go on and on and on with a list of things that pulls a head coach away from his laser focus on gameplanning and calling plays. And it’s real. It’s a real challenge,” Chizik went on.

“When Gus is locked and loaded in, he’s as good a gameplanner, he’s as thorough, as anybody out there, and he’s a great game day play-caller. For whatever the reasons, he felt like he had to give that up and got away from it. He apparently feels like he’s going to get back to it.

“We’ll see how it unfolds.”

Malzahn was Auburn’s play-caller as offensive coordinator in 2010 when Auburn won the national championship under Chizik. He called plays in 2013 when the Tigers got back to the national championship game in his first season as the team’s head coach.

Dillingham will come to Auburn after studying under Norvell, who was the offensive coordinator at Arizona State where Dillingham served as a graduate assistant before Norvell took the head coaching job at Memphis three years ago and Dillingham followed him there.

Dillingham spent one season in Memphis as a graduate assistant, before being promoted to quarterbacks coach and tight ends coach before the next season, then serving as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach this season.

He spent game days in the coaches’ box looking over the field and on headset with Norvell, who was roaming the team’s sideline.

The Daily Memphian detailed the dynamic between Norvell and Dillingham in Norvell’s play-calling system in a story published in late October.

“I just communicate what we’re seeing,” Dillingham was quoted as saying then. “Usually we’re on the same page. It’s my job just to be his eyes in the sky which has been my role on game day for three years now.”

Dillingham could work in a similar role with Malzahn at Auburn.

Since being named Auburn’s new OC, Dillingham has been off on the recruiting trail for Auburn. College football’s early signing period opens Dec. 19.

Auburn is set to play Purdue in the Music City Bowl on Dec. 28 in Nashville, Tenn.

[DAG 33,980]

10 minutes ago, aubiefifty said:

oanow.com

‘It’s a real challenge’: Chizik weighs in on Malzahn balancing efforts as head coach and play-caller

Justin Lee | Auburn Reporter Opelika-Auburn Newsjlee@oanow.comFollow on Twitter @AUBlog|@ByJustinLee

5-6 minutes

As Gus Malzahn assumes play-calling duties again for the Auburn offense, he faces “a real challenge” in balancing responsibilities as a gameplanner and as a head coach, former Auburn head coach Gene Chizik said Wednesday.

Malzahn announced recently he’ll call plays for Auburn again moving forward upon the hiring of the team’s new offensive coordinator Kenny Dillingham, who was named to his new post Sunday night.

Malzahn served as Auburn’s offensive coordinator and play-caller under Chizik at Auburn from 2009-11.

Chizik spoke Wednesday as a guest on ESPN 106.7’s The Lunch Break aired locally in Auburn, offering insights on how Malzahn will have to balance those efforts — saying Malzahn is as good as there is in college football as a play-caller when he’s focused on that, but that responsibilities as a head coach can tug at that focus.

“Gus is as good as there is in the business,” Chizik said on the show. “Where it gets a little bit hairy for guys is when you sit in that seat and you have so many other things pulling at you. And people are going to go, ‘Like what? Like what?’ Well, there’s a million things.

“Everything from the AD calling you out, having to get your input on facility plans, to any discipline issues — I mean, it never ends. It never ends.”

Malzahn called Auburn’s plays throughout his time as the Tigers’ offensive coordinator under Chizik, and through his first three seasons back on the Plains as Auburn’s head coach starting in 2013.

Several games into the 2016 season, Malzahn announced publicly that he’d be handing over play-calling duties to then-offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee.

After Lashlee left Auburn at that season’s end, Malzahn brought in an established name as an offensive coordinator in Chip Lindsey in January 2017. Lindsey held the position until last week when he took over the same position at Kansas.

Auburn announced the hiring of a rising name this time, instead, in the 28-year-old Dillingham, while making it clear Malzahn would call plays for Auburn again as Dillingham joins the staff.

Dillingham served in a similar role at Memphis, where offensive-minded head coach Mike Norvell called plays with Dillingham’s assistance.

Chizik, though, knowing firsthand the rigors of being a head coach at a major college program and free to speak on it openly, said Malzahn will face a balancing act when he returns to play-calling duties.

On top of the CEO side of things that could bring a coach into the athletics director’s office, Chizik pointed to recruiting, spelling out a hypothetical scenario:

“I’m in a meeting right now and we’re finishing up a third down gameplan, but Freddie is on the phone, who’s a five-star, and him and his parents want to talk to you for an hour — and if you don’t talk to him right now, then you may not get him,” Chizik detailed. “Right? And you’ve got to battle Georgia and Alabama and everybody else.

“I could go on and on and on with a list of things that pulls a head coach away from his laser focus on gameplanning and calling plays. And it’s real. It’s a real challenge,” Chizik went on.

“When Gus is locked and loaded in, he’s as good a gameplanner, he’s as thorough, as anybody out there, and he’s a great game day play-caller. For whatever the reasons, he felt like he had to give that up and got away from it. He apparently feels like he’s going to get back to it.

“We’ll see how it unfolds.”

Malzahn was Auburn’s play-caller as offensive coordinator in 2010 when Auburn won the national championship under Chizik. He called plays in 2013 when the Tigers got back to the national championship game in his first season as the team’s head coach.

Dillingham will come to Auburn after studying under Norvell, who was the offensive coordinator at Arizona State where Dillingham served as a graduate assistant before Norvell took the head coaching job at Memphis three years ago and Dillingham followed him there.

Dillingham spent one season in Memphis as a graduate assistant, before being promoted to quarterbacks coach and tight ends coach before the next season, then serving as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach this season.

He spent game days in the coaches’ box looking over the field and on headset with Norvell, who was roaming the team’s sideline.

The Daily Memphian detailed the dynamic between Norvell and Dillingham in Norvell’s play-calling system in a story published in late October.

“I just communicate what we’re seeing,” Dillingham was quoted as saying then. “Usually we’re on the same page. It’s my job just to be his eyes in the sky which has been my role on game day for three years now.”

Dillingham could work in a similar role with Malzahn at Auburn.

Since being named Auburn’s new OC, Dillingham has been off on the recruiting trail for Auburn. College football’s early signing period opens Dec. 19.

Auburn is set to play Purdue in the Music City Bowl on Dec. 28 in Nashville, Tenn.

So another Rhett Lashlee ? Hopefully it will at least play dividends from being of a different mindset.

[gravejd 3,270]

If Dillingham does go into the box then i guess Malzahn will be huddling with QBs and the offense while the defense is on the field? Or will Kodi handle that as passing-game coordinator? I'm curious how they will split the job requirements and should make for an interesting dynamic. Hope its successful however they try it

[Win4AU 4,052]

In Gus’s time as a head coach/playcaller from 2013-2016 there are only 2 games that I would put squarely on play calling as being the reason for loses and that was 2014 UGA and 2016 Clemson.  You can blame player development, injuries, bad defense, and lack of depth which a lot of is on Gus but I’m not sure you can say it was play calling.  I’d be interested to hear any other opinions on games Gus blew from a play calling standpoint.

[AUBwins 10,075]

So it sounds like we need to just make Gus OC again and bring someone else in to HC. He sure kicked tail as a coordinator. 

[PoetTiger 1,896]

37 minutes ago, Win4AU said:

In Gus’s time as a head coach/playcaller from 2013-2016 there are only 2 games that I would put squarely on play calling as being the reason for loses and that was 2014 UGA and 2016 Clemson.  You can blame player development, injuries, bad defense, and lack of depth which a lot of is on Gus but I’m not sure you can say it was play calling.  I’d be interested to hear any other opinions on games Gus blew from a play calling standpoint.

Some will say all the plays that did not work were blown...you know the old everything is cleared in hindsight rule. I agree with you the one that sticks out the most is the 2016 Clemson fiasco, which is more on game planning just as much as play calling. It was just not the best game plan to play three QB’s and have a FB throw it when you had a perfectly capable QB. Not his best moment for sure.

[Texan4Auburn 1,626]

50 minutes ago, gravejd said:

If Dillingham does go into the box then i guess Malzahn will be huddling with QBs and the offense while the defense is on the field? Or will Kodi handle that as passing-game coordinator? I'm curious how they will split the job requirements and should make for an interesting dynamic. Hope its successful however they try it

Mike Gundy would do that. Not even pay attention to the defense. This article is the type of things that made Gundy step away from play calling and Holgronson at WVU eventually stepped away also. Yes, both of them had a hard time doing it and both meddled.

Gundy compared taking away play calling to taking a video game away from a child.

[auburnphan 6,050]

Could you say any more without saying nothing not already known.

[kd4au 1,145]

Chizik is a class act if you ask me. I've always thought Gus was a good OC, the offense we saw in 09 and 10 is not what we have seen the last few years and I don't know where Gus went wrong. Maybe other coaches figured his offense out IDK but it is not the same either. If Gus could just game plan and call plays he would be ok but there's more to it than that. I just don't see him as a good coach that can evaluate recruits and develop players, he is just a x's and o's guy is how I see him.

[IronMan70 3,277]

At least this sort of role won't be foreign to Dillingham so that will give it a fair chance to succeed.

From the article,

".....while making it clear Malzahn would call plays for Auburn again as Dillingham joins the staff. Dillingham served in a similar role at Memphis, where offensive-minded head coach Mike Norvell called plays with Dillingham’s assistance."

 

 

[Weagle98 119]

3 hours ago, Win4AU said:

In Gus’s time as a head coach/playcaller from 2013-2016 there are only 2 games that I would put squarely on play calling as being the reason for loses and that was 2014 UGA and 2016 Clemson.  You can blame player development, injuries, bad defense, and lack of depth which a lot of is on Gus but I’m not sure you can say it was play calling.  I’d be interested to hear any other opinions on games Gus blew from a play calling standpoint.

Not sure I agree with this.  Sure those two games are very obvious but what about all the other games where we hardly ever threw mid range passes, never called slants when the LBs were crashing, continued to run up the middle when it was obvious they were stuffing it?  Those are bad play calls and I would say there have been dozens of games that bad play calling was the norm, just not as in your face as those 2 games.

[alexava 6,973]

I think Gus wants to stay with his system but Gus is the only person who can run his system so he has to plan and call it. But HC duties take away from planning so it may not be as effective. That has always been my concern. I think he is going to get back to it and instead of delegating the offense out he will delegate other HC duties out. You just simply cant do it all.

[alexava 6,973]

3 hours ago, DAG said:

So another Rhett Lashlee ? Hopefully it will at least play dividends from being of a different mindset.

DAG, is that your picture? I thought it was Phil Ivey.

[AU64 10,122]

1 minute ago, alexava said:

I think Gus wants to stay with his system but Gus is the only person who can run his system so he has to plan and call it. But HC duties take away from planning so it may not be as effective. That has always been my concern. I think he is going to get back to it and instead of delegating the offense out he will delegate other HC duties out. You just simply cant do it all.

My understanding is that game planning is a multi-coach task......input from all offensives coaches and then on game day someone puts the plan in action....which from here forward will be Gus it appears. 

[alexava 6,973]

1 minute ago, AU64 said:

My understanding is that game planning is a multi-coach task......input from all offensives coaches and then on game day someone puts the plan in action....which from here forward will be Gus it appears. 

I remember Trooper talking about Gus once. He said he was immersed into offensive strategy. He would be eating lunch and using the salt and pepper shakers to diagram plays on the table. being HC has took him out of that realm of obsession. he must find his way back there. He has value because of that. being a ceo and letting someone else install a new system and run it is not valuable to us. we might as well have tuberville back. I love the uniqueness of Gus. I think he realizes he must go back to it.

[DAG 33,980]

1 hour ago, alexava said:

DAG, is that your picture? I thought it was Phil Ivey.

Yes that handsome young fella is me. No, I am nowhere near as rich or savvy as Ivey.

[around4ever 4,139]

4 hours ago, gravejd said:

If Dillingham does go into the box then i guess Malzahn will be huddling with QBs and the offense while the defense is on the field? Or will Kodi handle that as passing-game coordinator? I'm curious how they will split the job requirements and should make for an interesting dynamic. Hope its successful however they try it

When do you ever see Gus talking to the players on the sidelines?  Come to think of it, when do you ever see any coaching being done on the sidelines by any of our coaches? 

[Gowebb11 9,314]

Play calling is obviously a game day activity. I’ve come to the conclusion that Gus believes you win or lose a game on what you do on game day. But it is becoming increasingly clear to me that we are entering games out scouted and out schemed by opponents. Scouting and scheming take place well before the game. Weeks before, in todays game. Think about how Gus approaches early season and early parts of games. We are 3-5 games into a season before we settle into starters at some positions. Come game day, we are halfway into the second quarter before Gus figures out what an opponent is doing on defense. Gus needs to realize that whatever plays you call or whoever calls them, results are better when you have properly prepared well before kickoff. 

[Sizzle 3,912]

35 minutes ago, around4ever said:

When do you ever see Gus talking to the players on the sidelines?  Come to think of it, when do you ever see any coaching being done on the sidelines by any of our coaches? 

When do you see the camera even panned to the sideline to show that kind of stuff? Cameramen usually only show celebrations from a TD or turnover 

[AU64 10,122]

1 minute ago, Sizzle said:

When do you see the camera even panned to the sideline to show that kind of stuff? Cameramen usually only show celebrations from a TD or turnover 

Good point...some  / many conclusions we read here about coaches operate are just guesswork. 

[DAG 33,980]

17 minutes ago, Sizzle said:

When do you see the camera even panned to the sideline to show that kind of stuff? Cameramen usually only show celebrations from a TD or turnover 

I see it literally every week. Doesn’t matter if it is college or the NFL.

[AUsince72 11,084]

9 hours ago, DAG said:

Yes that handsome young fella is me. No, I am nowhere near as rich or savvy as Ivey.

Where's your baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire? 😁

[AU64 10,122]

8 hours ago, DAG said:

I see it literally every week. Doesn’t matter if it is college or the NFL.

"pan" is the operative word and there a dozen coaches and many players on the sidelines so IMO unless you are at a game concentrating on the sidelines we have no way to know whether Gus or JS has words with a WR after a dropped pass for example....We only see what some director chooses to show in the ten seconds between plays.

[alexava 6,973]

8 hours ago, Gowebb11 said:

Play calling is obviously a game day activity. I’ve come to the conclusion that Gus believes you win or lose a game on what you do on game day. But it is becoming increasingly clear to me that we are entering games out scouted and out schemed by opponents. Scouting and scheming take place well before the game. Weeks before, in todays game. Think about how Gus approaches early season and early parts of games. We are 3-5 games into a season before we settle into starters at some positions. Come game day, we are halfway into the second quarter before Gus figures out what an opponent is doing on defense. Gus needs to realize that whatever plays you call or whoever calls them, results are better when you have properly prepared well before kickoff. 

I think the main planner has to call it too. In this unique offense anyway. As much as I believe this I also think the line we had this year just wasn’t good enough. To your point, we were good enough last year to beat clempson and LSU with better preparation. 

[DAG 33,980]

1 hour ago, AU64 said:

"pan" is the operative word and there a dozen coaches and many players on the sidelines so IMO unless you are at a game concentrating on the sidelines we have no way to know whether Gus or JS has words with a WR after a dropped pass for example....We only see what some director chooses to show in the ten seconds between plays.

I honestly do not care about this little argument between you guys and Gus. Just answered a direct question about cameras panning to the sideline and showing coaches interaction with players. I legitimately see it every week. Whether we see Gus do it or not doesn’t matter to me. If you want to win that argument that is fine because at the end of the day, the only thing that matters is the Win and Loss column.