Moseley on new offense, Loeffler's style, & QB's

[quietfan 233]

Likin' the attitude!

http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2012/03/clint_moseley_adjusting_to_a_n.html

AUBURN, Alabama - Clint Moseley finished last season as Auburn's starting quarterback, but he isn't being handed the starting assignment this spring simply because he's the incumbent.

Like Kiehl Frazier and Zeke Pike, Moseley is in a race to win the job, and he's going to have to do in an offense he calls "completely different" than what Auburn ran last year.

Good-bye Gus Malzahn's spread offense. Hello Scot Loeffler's pro-style attack.

Auburn's change in offensive coordinator has started another quarterback race for Moseley, who shrugs and says that's the way it goes for starting jobs at a big-time school.

"You know when you come to place like this it's never safe," Moseley said Saturday. "There's going to be competition. There's a new offense. That's the least of my worries, really. And I'm sure I can speak for the rest of the guys. We're trying to learn the offense."

Moseley didn't win the starting job in the preseason last season. Barrett Trotter did. But Moseley started the final six games.

"Just when I think I'm settling in, it comes a pro-style offense that is real sophisticated," he said. "It helps being a little bit older -- not really panicking, I guess -- but it's still pretty hard adjust to it. It's all moving so fast. It's tough. But it's not as bad as it was before. I guess I've grown up a little bit."

Moseley admits he took it hard when he finished second to Trotter last preseason. He says he understands the situation better now, especially since everybody is working from the same new playbook with a new coordinator who is looking for a quarterback.

"I can promise you that's one thing about Coach Loeffler: If he says it's wide open, it's wide open. He doesn't beat around the bush about anything. He's pretty direct. You can take it to the bank if he says it," Moseley said.

"He doesn't owe me anything, he doesn't owe Kiehl anything, he doesn't owe Zeke anything. He really doesn't know us. He's going to pick the best one. That's how it should be."

Moseley offered a look at Loeffler's style:

"He's really intense," Moseley said. "He knows what he's doing, for sure. The thing about him that's really getting to everybody that he is serious. He makes sure our work is done, but he makes it fun. He makes it interesting. He's on us, but he finds a pretty good medium of not stressing us out too much. If he knows somebody is really having a hard time, he doesn't pound them. That's when he kind of steps back and tells them when they're doing good. He really has a good idea how to coach us guys in college."

The plays are different, and so are things like where he is to take the snap. Auburn ran almost every play out of the shotgun last season. Moseley said he's been under center about 60 percent of the time in the first two practices.

The last time Moseley worked under center? "In pee-wees," he said.

There could be other changes. While it might not happen often, Frazier says the quarterbacks will be given the liberty to change plays. Malzahn didn't give them that freedom.

"Some plays don't work against certain defenses. We'll have to recognize that," Frazier said. "We'll have a little more freedom at the line to pick the play up. Loeffler will call 95 percent of the plays, but we'll have more leniency."

Though he lost originally lost the starting job to Trotter last August, he said Trotter's early departure from school "was terrible" because "Barrett and I were pretty close."

"But it brought Kiehl and I closer. We've always been real good friends, but going through this process it really helps. We're trying to take Zeke under our wing, too.

"It makes it so much worse when you try to do it alone.

"We're trying to come together. That's something Coach Loeffler has really stressed. If one person messes up, we all pay for it."

Coach Gene Chizik says the quarterbacks are doing just fine.

"They've just been great. I think the quarterbacks are resilient," he said.

(Edit: okay, my brain knows it's spelled Moseley, but apparently my fingers didn't in the thread title.)

[McWeagle 4]

There could be other changes. While it might not happen often, Frazier says the quarterbacks will be given the liberty to change plays. Malzahn didn't give them that freedom.

"Some plays don't work against certain defenses. We'll have to recognize that," Frazier said. "We'll have a little more freedom at the line to pick the play up. Loeffler will call 95 percent of the plays, but we'll have more leniency."

I love hearing this. My only gripe about Malzahn was that sometimes he seemed to pay more attention to his script than to what was actually happening on the field. Granted, it was a damn good script, but it seemed rigid to the point of detriment at times.