Specific strategies you don't understand

[gr82be 14,401]

3 minutes ago, SuperAUsome09 said:

For me it's the above....he does this on the sidelines often....Is this a strategy to confuse the defense and draw them offsides or inadvertently tipping off the defenses that we are about to snap the ball(like we don't have enough indicators already)? 

 

Seeing Gus doing this makes me want to go to a Hibachi Grill for lunch. 

[SuperAUsome09 738]

6 minutes ago, gr82be said:

Seeing Gus doing this makes me want to go to a Hibachi Grill for lunch. 

Hope the Chef doesn't use the same motions or the fried rice will be everywhere.

[AuMarine 1,372]

Our offense is tired and worn out. The schemes are out of date and never change. The player utilization is atrocious at best.  I have no idea why we didn’t or couldn’t recruit OL especially tackles. I know it has been said that when we didn’t get who we wanted, we didn’t have a backup plan for the OL. That logic is insanity and the reason we are in the position we are up front. It also is a mystery on who is watching game film and what they are seeing. I do not know one thing we do well consistently on offense but I do know that CGM has been unwilling to change. I am hopeful for Morris because of what he has done in the past as an OC with schemes and player development but in the same breathe I am doubtful he will be allowed to change anything on the offense. If we want to compete for championships then the offense needs an overhaul but not sure the guy in charge is willing to do that therefore I suspect the same on thing until he is finally gone. CGMs stubbornness is what makes me sick. 

[I_M4_AU 7,767]

I don’t understand Gus’ total lack of situational awareness during games.  The first example I remember is when he played SW in the 2015 UGA game while he was still nursing an injury (he was cleared to play).  It was more than obvious that SW should not have been in the game after the first play, yet he continued to play him.  In his post game presser he said it was his plan to play SW all along.  Red Flag.  Was there nobody on the sidelines that questioned this move?  

There are many other instances that I can bring up, but no need to rehash, it just frustrates me.

The theme seems to be; stick to the plan because it will work.  Fast forward to the Bama game this year.  Last 2 minutes and we bring out the WC on 2nd and 10. Have we given up getting a first down?  No, Gus had his plan to keep Waddle off the field.  The third down was designed to run to the Auburn sideline so Gus could put the punter on without Saban knowing.  It was pure luck Boobee got to a 4th and 4 yards.  You know the rest.  But that was the plan going in and the plan worked.  Even though I was elated about the outcome, it was disheartening to see Bo and Gus laughing and celebrating because of dumb luck and not because we manned up and got the first down by running our offense.

Now to the bowl game and the fake punt.  We read articles that Gus was working on a fake punt all week.  It is my contention Gus leaked that; how could we practice in secrecy and an article like that comes out?  It was totally the wrong time to run that fake punt, yet because it was the plan, we ran it anyway.  The situation did not call for that play, unless it was your plan all along and you were oblivious to the situation.

The bottom line is Gus seems to hold his “plan” in higher regard than the flow of the game and adjusting to what he sees on the field.  I did see Boobee and Kodi talking on the sidelines with Gus during the bowl game, maybe Kodi has enough experience now he will be able to offer something (or will move on).

[Eagle-1 3,821]

14 minutes ago, I_M4_AU said:

I don’t understand Gus’ total lack of situational awareness during games.  The first example I remember is when he played SW in the 2015 UGA game while he was still nursing an injury (he was cleared to play).  It was more than obvious that SW should not have been in the game after the first play, yet he continued to play him.  In his post game presser he said it was his plan to play SW all along.  Red Flag.  Was there nobody on the sidelines that questioned this move?  

There are many other instances that I can bring up, but no need to rehash, it just frustrates me.

The theme seems to be; stick to the plan because it will work.  Fast forward to the Bama game this year.  Last 2 minutes and we bring out the WC on 2nd and 10. Have we given up getting a first down?  No, Gus had his plan to keep Waddle off the field.  The third down was designed to run to the Auburn sideline so Gus could put the punter on without Saban knowing.  It was pure luck Boobee got to a 4th and 4 yards.  You know the rest.  But that was the plan going in and the plan worked.  Even though I was elated about the outcome, it was disheartening to see Bo and Gus laughing and celebrating because of dumb luck and not because we manned up and got the first down by running our offense.

Now to the bowl game and the fake punt.  We read articles that Gus was working on a fake punt all week.  It is my contention Gus leaked that; how could we practice in secrecy and an article like that comes out?  It was totally the wrong time to run that fake punt, yet because it was the plan, we ran it anyway.  The situation did not call for that play, unless it was your plan all along and you were oblivious to the situation.

The bottom line is Gus seems to hold his “plan” in higher regard than the flow of the game and adjusting to what he sees on the field.  I did see Boobee and Kodi talking on the sidelines with Gus during the bowl game, maybe Kodi has enough experience now he will be able to offer something (or will move on).

Kodi's only experience unfortunately is in Gus Malzahns offense. He won't be moving on either. Who in their right mind would hire him?

[amsterjam 107]

I have never understood why he places such a low priority on getting the backup QB game time experience running the offense. This bothers me on many levels. Preparation in case of injury, development for upcoming seasons, evaluation to see how they're going to respond under the lights....

[McLoofus 35,182]

2 minutes ago, amsterjam said:

I have never understood why he places such a low priority on getting the backup QB game time experience running the offense. This bothers me on many levels. Preparation in case of injury, development for upcoming seasons, evaluation to see how they're going to respond under the lights....

To be fair, his offense has been a complete trainwreck for the better part of 5 years and he hasn't really had the luxury of repping QB2 when the rest of the guys haven't even learned each other's names until late October. 

[I_M4_AU 7,767]

1 minute ago, Eagle-1 said:

Kodi's only experience unfortunately is in Gus Malzahns offense. He won't be moving on either. Who in their right mind would hire him?

Not the point, Kodi now feels confident enough to say something to the master.  He has learned enough that he feels compelled to say something.  How many times have we seen the sidelines silent when something should have been said.  Two examples come to mind; UGA 2016 and not replacing SW and the 2016 Clemson game.

Kodi moving on was like CCL telling the master he wanted a little more say about the offense and the next year he is gone.  I’m not implying he is on anybody’s radar.  If he wants to expand his resume’ he may consider it, but he would have to take a huge pay cut like CRL did.

[aucom96 1,614]

I don't understand a power run offense that never leaves shotgun formation. I don't understand a power run offense that puts little to no priority on recruiting top linemen. I don't understand a power run offense that recruits projects in the backfield as much as we do, loads up on wide receiver talent as glorified blockers, sits speed on the bench sticking tight ends in the slot. I don't understand an approach to short yardage that neglects the middle of the field. I don't understand the constant use of wildcat when the ballcarrier is never a threat to throw. I don't understand our hesitancy to test the edges with sweeps. I don't understand the need for stupid high-schoolish trick plays that take an eternity to execute. 

In short, I don't understand how this offense has even been as successful as it has been. It looks like an amateur mess on the field. 

[Tigerpro2a 5,650]

What tells me everything I need to know was something Gus said in the post game presser. Someone asked what he was going to do about the 2 year trend of his offense being not up to snuff.....and Gus answered something along the lines of this:

 

"2 year trend? Yea I think we ended up 3rd or 4th in our league in total offense so I am not sure what kind of trend your talking about."

This man is so blind. The reporter should have clarified and said "2 year trend of Offense tanking against legit competition."

[I_M4_AU 7,767]

7 minutes ago, Tigerpro2a said:

What tells me everything I need to know was something Gus said in the post game presser. Someone asked what he was going to do about the 2 year trend of his offense being not up to snuff.....and Gus answered something along the lines of this:

 

"2 year trend? Yea I think we ended up 3rd or 4th in our league in total offense so I am not sure what kind of trend your talking about."

This man is so blind. The reporter should have clarified and said "2 year trend of Offense tanking against legit competition."

The man’s world is built on statistics, not results.

[DAG 33,955]

Gus has found the blueprint in saving his job. Win the OOC game and 1 meaningful Conference game (Particularly a rivalry). You do that and apparently you are safe.  The only way to end this is to Willie Taggert him when the opportunity arises otherwise, we will remain in this vicious cycle.

[AUFriction 1,179]

17 hours ago, around4ever said:

I think we all have the same questions.

 Gus absolutely thinks his offense is still valid as is.  When plays don’t work, which is quite often, it is lack of execution.  He will not publicly say that but you can read his reactions on the sidelines after a play doesn’t work.  

Situational substitutions is something he started just a few years ago.  This makes his style of hurry up non existent.  There have been times this season when we ran with pace and no substitutions and it worked great.  Why he doesn’t do it more is beyond me.  

Running in the middle with a stacked box could be eliminated by giving the QB the ability to audible. 

Intermediate passes over the middle, slants and crosses, are almost non existent.  The situation above with a stacked box, is a perfect time to audible to a quick slant.  

I could go on and on but I am getting frustrated again so I’ll stop here. 

Still WDE!!!

I agree with some of this and strongly disagree with some of this.

Your first two points (substitutions and poor execution) are valid complaints. 
 

I agree that allowing a QB to audible would help. But you can’t really do that with a freshman. That’s something that’s common in the NFL and done occasionally with more experienced college quarterbacks.  We started to let Stidham do some of that in 2018, and it didn’t work out very well. 
 

As for intermediate passes, that seemed to improve drastically this year. We’ve thrown more crossing routes, drag routes, slants, and hitches that we have in years past. Prior to 2017, most of our pass plays were screens, verticals, posts, and deep wheel routes. We either threw behind the line or to the end zone. With Lindsey, we added new passing concepts, and I honestly think we used those better this year than last year. The irony is that the thing we used to not use at all seemed to be the only thing working. On the deep passes, Bo doesn’t get any time in the pocket. When he does, he either overthrows or the receiver drops it. The offensive line did nothing to support the interior run game. The receivers were terrible blocking on the perimeter. All we could do semi-reliably was throw underneath coverage.

[Swamp Eagle 5,128]

Why does he step on his own junk so much? The guy was hired due to his innovative abilities to fashion an offense around his QB strengths, yet he goes and recruits drop-back QB's for the most part all the while implementing a zone-read-first strategy.  It's like he lost his damn mind when he got to be a HC.

[AURealist 2,185]

53 minutes ago, DAG said:

Gus has found the blueprint in saving his job. Win the OOC game and 1 meaningful Conference game (Particularly a rivalry). You do that and apparently you are safe.  The only way to end this is to Willie Taggert him when the opportunity arises otherwise, we will remain in this vicious cycle.

Absolutely agree. 

This is how I see it:  

Given the high caliber of talent we have, in any given season, we're just statistically due to either:  

(1) win 8 or more games  -or-   2) win at least one important game

At the end of any season, whichever the outcome is, we  claim it to be the reason we're keeping Gus.  On the odd season we achieve neither of those things, we decide we can't fire him "for one bad season."  

If we continue this way, we're stuck with him until he has two seasons in a row where he achieves neither (1) or (2). 

Which, of course, means that if we want a better product we need to fire Gus Malzahn today!

 

[WeaglWeaglWDE 599]

2 hours ago, SuperAUsome09 said:

Hope the Chef doesn't use the same motions or the fried rice will be everywhere.

Am I the only one that just pictured Chris Farley in a chef costume having a freakout? Just me? Ok, i'm weird, I don't deny it. Just imagin the "Da Bears" character impersonating Gus with his sweater vest. 

[jAUSon 2,836]

2 hours ago, gr82be said:

Seeing Gus doing this makes me want to go to a Hibachi Grill for lunch. 

I bet he can beat the hell out of a piano.

[around4ever 4,139]

4 hours ago, Eagle-1 said:

LOL, it probably was. If you were anywhere in the West stands you probably could have heard me.😁

So it wasn’t a bird perched in the upper deck that Gus was pointing at... IT WAS YOU!!

[ToraGirl 5,498]

8 minutes ago, around4ever said:

So it wasn’t a bird perched in the upper deck that Gus was pointing at... IT WAS YOU!!

So he IS listening!!  🤣

[Auburn x 3 24]

5 hours ago, Eagle-1 said:

Me too man. I walked out of Jordan Hare last month after the win over Alabama thinking I should really be much more excited after a win like that. Frankly, I just kind of felt indifferent about it all. That's what Gus has done to my passion.

I thought I was the only one. I would have never thought that I would be indifferent to a win over Alabama. 

[Win4AU 4,052]

I don’t understand how you can have so much success with a play like the pump and go he used to run to TZach yet that play hasn’t existed since 2010.  Was that not his play?  It just seems like in general the offense is getting simpler every year.  I loved the 2 back sets we ran with Joiner but it was either an inside run or the wheel route.  Why don’t we run a glorified triple option out of that formation?  Put Shivers as a Wr and add another wrinkle.  

 

[gr82be 14,401]

8 minutes ago, Auburn x 3 said:

I thought I was the only one. I would have never thought that I would be indifferent to a win over Alabama. 

It's always good to beat Alabama any way you can but it certainly wasn't worthy of wrecking our hedges. 

[NoALtiger 3,849]

6 hours ago, amsterjam said:

I have never understood why he places such a low priority on getting the backup QB game time experience running the offense. This bothers me on many levels. Preparation in case of injury, development for upcoming seasons, evaluation to see how they're going to respond under the lights....

This is a great one, can’t believe I didn’t think about it. We don’t blow a ton of folks out but there are ample opportunities for him to get the backup in. Not only that, let them run the entire stinkin offense. Looking at you Joey Gatewood. 

[Apraser99 168]

There are unlimited things that Gus does that baffle me. Probably the biggest thing is the predictability of his plays based on personnel....drives me fkn nuts. How he has been able to beat Bama 2 out of the last 3 is mind boggling.  He has a high school playbook and obviously will not change. He has to go!

[cole256 17,039]

10 minutes ago, NoALtiger said:

This is a great one, can’t believe I didn’t think about it. We don’t blow a ton of folks out but there are ample opportunities for him to get the backup in. Not only that, let them run the entire stinkin offense. Looking at you Joey Gatewood. 

I can't believe you haven't seen me trying to address that the last few years