Malzahn and Briles get together

[AUGoo 2,671]

http://www.al.com/au...art_river_index

Maybe Art can help Gus recapture the magic.

Auburn's Gus Malzahn meets with Baylor's Art Briles to talk football

Baylor head football coach Art Briles talks with the media before the first day of practice for the 2015 season, Thursday, Aug. 6, 2015, in Waco, Texas. (Rod Aydelotte/Waco Tribune Herald via AP)

Print Email By Brandon Marcello | bmarcello@al.com

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on February 23, 2016 at 11:47 PM, updated February 24, 2016 at 7:12 AM

Some college coaches form tight-knit groups in the offseason and share ideas within their inner circle.

During the season, however, coaches tend to be more tight-lipped about their plans.

Auburn coach Gus Malzahn is not much different, though he keeps such relationships close to his sweater vest when speaking to reporters. For instance, he rarely dives into details about who he shares ideas with in the offseason.

Tuesday night, however, we got our first public glimpse at one of Malzahn's confidants in the coaching business: Baylor coach Art Briles.

Malzahn traveled to Waco, Texas this week to spend time with Briles and talk football, schemes and more. The two were spotted at Baylor's basketball game against No. 2 Kansas on Tuesday night.

The trips are not out of the ordinary for coaches and staffs across the country. Many travel to camps and universities to discuss and share ideas.

Briles and Malzahn's meeting, however, is significant for Auburn fans. The two coaches made a name for themselves in the business with their hurry-up concepts, and with Auburn's offense struggling last season, Malzahn could be using the opportunity in Waco to pick up (and share) a few schemes before the Tigers begin spring practices March 1.

Baylor opens spring practices Thursday.

Malzahn and Briles are good friends, so their meeting is not a surprise. Briles was a guest speaker at Malzahn's coaches clinic in April 2015.

Auburn is coming off one of its worst offensive seasons under Malzahn, whose quarterbacks struggled throughout the 13-game schedule in 2015. The Tigers finished 94th nationally in total offense (second-worst in Malzahn's career) and 75th in scoring offense (worst in Malzahn's career). Three of the worst nine offensive outputs in Malzahn's career occurred last season. The Tigers were out-gained in yards in nine of 13 games.

Baylor ranked No. 1 nationally in total offense and scoring offense last season.

[Tiger 8,841]

This makes me extremely happy!! I'd love to see our passing game borrow some stuff from Baylor

Maybe he can ask him how he managed to do so well when his top 3 QBs went down

[Jgarrett7 958]

I bet our wr signers will like this.

[NoALtiger 3,875]

Smart move. Nothing but good can come from these two sharing ideas IMO. Maybe it's a sign Gus isn't as stuck in his ways as some claim.

[80Tiger 906]

This makes me extremely happy!! I'd love to see our passing game borrow some stuff from Baylor

Maybe he can ask him how he managed to do so well when his top 3 QBs went down

I get your intent but Baylor lost 2 out of their last 3 and 3 out of their last 5, so not sure what there is to learn from that.

[AuburnEagle79 2,171]

Love this. Every quarterback they have puts up video game numbers. They run the ball extremely well. They just don't play against many defenses. This can only help us.

[Tiger 8,841]

This makes me extremely happy!! I'd love to see our passing game borrow some stuff from Baylor

Maybe he can ask him how he managed to do so well when his top 3 QBs went down

I get your intent but Baylor lost 2 out of their last 3 and 3 out of their last 5, so not sure what there is to learn from that.

And we had a QB who should've been taught the playbook over the course of his 1.5 seasons on campus while they had a WR playing QB and still were outperforming our offense even though we had a guy working in the system for 1.5 years.

Points scored by Baylor in ther last 5 (vs all Power 5 competition):

34

45

21

17

49

Compared with our last 5:

26

13

56 (vs Idaho -- possibly worst team in the entire nation last year)

13

31

and to try to put it on as equal of a footing as possible I'll add the 19 we scored on Ole Miss because that makes our final 5 games vs P5 teams.

Also, we lost 4 of our last 5 against P5 teams so we're looking up at Baylor if you ask me.

[mustache eagle 2,430]

And Baylor may be trying to learn a little from our power run game ... Yes I said that with a straight face ...

[ToomersStreet 795]

Smart move. Nothing but good can come from these two sharing ideas IMO. Maybe it's a sign Gus isn't as stuck in his ways as some claim.

I would hope so. If anything this shows that Gus is trying to fix what went wrong.

[doc4aday 1,887]

This is great information no doubt. I think that Art and Gus can learn some stuff from each other so that each offense can take this valuable information and turn it into something that can make each team a more formidable foe in 2016. This shows me that Gus wants to fix our offense, and remain HC at Auburn for the duration. Duration equals 12 or more seasons.

[GTNupe11 2,041]

Yeah hopefully he's asking him how to have an effective pass game because QB or not, there's some routes you never see in our system.

[80Tiger 906]

This makes me extremely happy!! I'd love to see our passing game borrow some stuff from Baylor

Maybe he can ask him how he managed to do so well when his top 3 QBs went down

I get your intent but Baylor lost 2 out of their last 3 and 3 out of their last 5, so not sure what there is to learn from that.

And we had a QB who should've been taught the playbook over the course of his 1.5 seasons on campus while they had a WR playing QB and still were outperforming our offense even though we had a guy working in the system for 1.5 years.

Points scored by Baylor in ther last 5 (vs all Power 5 competition):

34

45

21

17

49

Compared with our last 5:

26

13

56 (vs Idaho -- possibly worst team in the entire nation last year)

13

31

and to try to put it on as equal of a footing as possible I'll add the 19 we scored on Ole Miss because that makes our final 5 games vs P5 teams.

Also, we lost 4 of our last 5 against P5 teams so we're looking up at Baylor if you ask me.

Your post gave the indication that Baylor did not miss a beat after their QBs were injured. The point is they had a hard time also. Too infer that there is something to be learned from that was a stretch IMO.

[eagle76 1]

We have all heard that Lashlee is our play caller - at least that is what CGM tells us. I would have been much happier if Briles son had come and spent time with Lashlee. I agree with all of the above comments but Briles son's help with play calling could really be beneficial.

[Randman5000 4,251]

Maybe he is helping with this.

http://www.al.com/auburnfootball/index.ssf/2016/02/steelers_sammie_coates_had_to_run_more_route_tree_auburn.html#incart_river_mobileshort_index

[steeleagle 2,945]

Dont you think that Malzahn has gone to other schools before (including Briles teams) in the past but we just are more focused because of the issues on I last year?

Maybe i am cautious that he is going out there now...JUSt before spring practice...to add some adjustments. But we dont know if it has ANYTHING to do with our poor QB play. It could be how to get the TE more involved for all we know..))

[Tiger 8,841]

This makes me extremely happy!! I'd love to see our passing game borrow some stuff from Baylor

Maybe he can ask him how he managed to do so well when his top 3 QBs went down

I get your intent but Baylor lost 2 out of their last 3 and 3 out of their last 5, so not sure what there is to learn from that.

And we had a QB who should've been taught the playbook over the course of his 1.5 seasons on campus while they had a WR playing QB and still were outperforming our offense even though we had a guy working in the system for 1.5 years.

Points scored by Baylor in ther last 5 (vs all Power 5 competition):

34

45

21

17

49

Compared with our last 5:

26

13

56 (vs Idaho -- possibly worst team in the entire nation last year)

13

31

and to try to put it on as equal of a footing as possible I'll add the 19 we scored on Ole Miss because that makes our final 5 games vs P5 teams.

Also, we lost 4 of our last 5 against P5 teams so we're looking up at Baylor if you ask me.

Your post gave the indication that Baylor did not miss a beat after their QBs were injured. The point is they had a hard time also. Too infer that there is something to be learned from that was a stretch IMO.

That's fair. I didn't mean that they didn't miss a beat. But I don't think it's a stretch to say that we managed our situation of having to go to our backup worse than they how they managed having to go through every single QB they had eventually having to put a WR at QB. Imagine what our offense would've looked like if we had to stick Ricardo or Marcus Davis at QB. Yuck.

[Tiger 8,841]

Maybe he is helping with this.

http://www.al.com/au...bileshort_index

Yikes hopefully we start to put some of our WRs in a better position to succeed from a mental standpoint at the next level.

[metafour 4,973]

Maybe he is helping with this.

http://www.al.com/au...bileshort_index

I've only been talking about this for like ~2+ years now....

[keesler 5,934]

I'm all for getting our TE more involved in the offense. In fact I've cursed up a blue streak at our coaches ignoring our TE's.

[keesler 5,934]

Yes you have metafour!

[dmoney 271]

Our WRs route running was awf5. I was a if the play was just designed to got to one WR and the other WRs just halfa**ed it on routes.... Yes i know there is a first otion and stuff like that, but our WRs act like there was no second or third option or even a check down WRs.... just sayin....

[ShocksMyBrain 9,419]

Our WRs route running was awf5. I was a if the play was just designed to got to one WR and the other WRs just halfa**ed it on routes.... Yes i know there is a first otion and stuff like that, but our WRs act like there was no second or third option or even a check down WRs.... just sayin....

Your keyboard broken?

[Eagle Eye 7 2,535]

One thing I can always depend on reading the gurus on this board is getting some inside info :-) You guys do do know that Gus and Briles have been friends for a while. Like last year Briles came to AU to help Gus with a coaching clinic. While I am sure they discuss football when they are together I don't think Gus made a trip out there to get help on re-vamping his offense. SMH WDE

[AURex 2,129]

Well, I think Gus is still kind of learning how to develop a more sophisticated passing attack. He tried to early last season, thinking JJ was the guy who could manage a more pass-oriented offense. And maybe he could have, if the receivers had been running more sophisticated routes and been able to catch the ball, and if JJ had been more accurate with his passes. After that experiment blew up, Gus retrenched to running without the QB option and a vanilla passing attack.

Briles mixes his running and passing differently than Gus and is explosive with both. So maybe Gus is looking for some insight.

And Briles may be looking for ways of incorporating more of the Gus-style option running attack with his new lineup.

Then again, maybe I'm FOS.

[80Tiger 906]

This makes me extremely happy!! I'd love to see our passing game borrow some stuff from Baylor

Maybe he can ask him how he managed to do so well when his top 3 QBs went down

I get your intent but Baylor lost 2 out of their last 3 and 3 out of their last 5, so not sure what there is to learn from that.

And we had a QB who should've been taught the playbook over the course of his 1.5 seasons on campus while they had a WR playing QB and still were outperforming our offense even though we had a guy working in the system for 1.5 years.

Points scored by Baylor in ther last 5 (vs all Power 5 competition):

34

45

21

17

49

Compared with our last 5:

26

13

56 (vs Idaho -- possibly worst team in the entire nation last year)

13

31

and to try to put it on as equal of a footing as possible I'll add the 19 we scored on Ole Miss because that makes our final 5 games vs P5 teams.

Also, we lost 4 of our last 5 against P5 teams so we're looking up at Baylor if you ask me.

Your post gave the indication that Baylor did not miss a beat after their QBs were injured. The point is they had a hard time also. Too infer that there is something to be learned from that was a stretch IMO.

That's fair. I didn't mean that they didn't miss a beat. But I don't think it's a stretch to say that we managed our situation of having to go to our backup worse than they how they managed having to go through every single QB they had eventually having to put a WR at QB. Imagine what our offense would've looked like if we had to stick Ricardo or Marcus Davis at QB. Yuck.

The scary thing is our offense would have probably looked about the same. And that is not a compliment.