Offensive identity

[juscAUse 1]

It seems I remember one of Dyes' teams having this problem on offense,1989 maybe?. Anyway AU played Miss State and Dye pulled the offense out of Sullys' hands and ran the ball against a 10 and 11 man front defense about 65 times. Not one thing fancy about it. It was one of the hottest and the most boring wins I've ever paid to see at AU. But after that game,we had an identity,and everyone on both sides of the ball knew we could run it,and we would run it when WE got ready to.

Is it time to try something like this?

[StatTiger 3,188]

I was at that game and it was indeed boring. Prior to that game Auburn averaged 165.8 yards rushing.

They rushed for 241-yards on 59 carries against Miss State.

After the MSU game, AU averaged 178.4 yards rushing per game.

[jacksrc 4]

I expect that to happen this week. They will go back to what Chizik is comfortable doing. The offense will go back to the snail-paced Malzahn offense. Lutz in the H-back blocking for Mason up the middle and OMAC on jet sweeps. Then we they do pass the ball, it will be a PA pass to Lutz out of the backfield. I have my doubts that CSL is getting a fair shake at running his offense. I think I remember when CSL came in, the coaches saying they would combine offensive ideas of all the offensive coaching staff. What OC wants to change HIS offense? This is Franklin 2.0 with Franklin 1.0 results. When CSL moves on after he is blamed for the WHOLE mess, everyone will see he is probably a good OC when given the reins. For example, Franklin this year at La Tech total offense 11th and scoring offense 3rd, and more importantly, 5-0.

[AUbazinga 0]

I am still at a lose why we switched from a spread offense to a "smashmouth" offense. Chizik's record in a spread offense at Auburn was 30-10, 3-0 in bowl games, a SEC Championship, and a National Championship. That happened with 3 quarterbacks that were entering there 1st year as the full time starter. I think we would all agree that the spread offense is more effective when you have a mobile quarterback, but Auburn had two 8-5 seasons with quarterbacks that could barely run. Last year we brought in Frazier to do the running and with everybody in the stadium knowing what he was going to do he was still successful at running the football. So 8-5 with no mobility at quarterback and 14-0 National Champs with the most mobile quarterback in the game. Prior to the switch of our new offensive philosophy I had came to the exciting realization that those were our standards. 8-5 with a new quarterback with no mobility and a terrible defense. It isn't great but it brought a good bowl game and hope for the future. With personnel that fits the system and an average defense we had the potential to compete for SEC and National Championships. It has been rumored since Malzahn arrived that Chizik might of been involved with the offense and especially the pace of the offense in order to protect the defense from being on the field for the whole game. This probably contributed to Malzahn leaving and officially changing the style of play from spread to "smouthmouth". With all of that being said my question is this, why in the world did we switch in the first place? Frazier is struggling, we all know this, but we are asking a guy who was one of the best spread offense quarterbacks in the country in high school to come to Auburn, learn the spread style offense from one of the better spread coaches in the country and then in a matter of months start completely over? And we are all surprised that he is struggling and has the deer in the headlights look? Neither quarterback has been put in a great position to be successful this year. In my opinion, and I'm not a coach or some football professional, but a change in philosophy like this has to come gradual when every single bit of your personnel is geared toward a different style. When pro style recruits come into the program then the shift in style can happen more effectively. For example, I watched the Carver Auburn High School football game on TV last week. Jeremy Johnson from Carver has been labeled the future Auburn QB and rightfully so. He absolutely shredded that defense passing and running.......from a spread offense. The guy was electric, so our plan is going to take that, put him under center and run a stretch play? I think things will turn around but either the speed of the transition to pro style has to decrease or they just need to commit to having the spread philosophy.

[redfish99999 0]

I think Coach Chizik,this week, is working on getting an OL that works as a unit....aligned, more cohesive, smarter, and much, much more effective......... Also insisting on a high running vs passing ratio.......

Ifso, we will win....