Questions for Aubs on Malzahn's true offensive system

You forgot the hook. Gotta have a hook to be taken seriously on this board.

Gus tailors his offense to fit his strengths and the talent on the team. You saw us run so much last year because Nick Marshall had less than a month on campus before the season to learn te offense, work on chemistry with his receivers, and work on his passing. Once it became obvious that our run game was dominant and nobody was stopping it then why open up the playbook and give other teams film when we don't have to? Especially when Marshall was still so inconsistent throwing the ball.

You'll see Gus open up the playbook and the passing game more this year now that Marshall has a year in the system and two All-SEC type talents to work with at WR.

Weather pending.

Malzahn adapts his offensive plays sets for the skill set he has in place. He uses the run to set up the pass and likes to go fast. I dont think he has an ideal QB other than one that makes the plays he asks

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Is Malzahn's offensive look and scheme from last year his offense in its truest form? I watched the 2010 SECCG yesterday because I'm AUBsessed, and you could tell it was a Gus offense obviously. It was a good bit different and more pass oriented than this past year.

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Malzahn typically is between 55-60% run and 40-45% pass with his offense, so last year wasn't anywhere close to his truest offense. The main thing that makes Gus's offense really hard to stop is having a QB that can hit the deep routes effectively. Unfortunately Gus has only had that in 2010.

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Is it safe to assume Gus won't entirely ditch that triple-option bonanza, but use more of that high flying spread eagle that wrecked shite so much in 2010? Nick Marshall has 1 year under the system so I'm guessing his experience should open up the playbook, as with any QB who goes through a season and experiences the rigors of adversity and having to make big time plays in big games.

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Yep, it's safe to assume that. And yes the playbook will be much more pass oriented this year with Marshall having a second year of experience and having a second really good WR to pair with Coates in Duke Williams.

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then when Gus has THE qb that he wants, will the offense have a slight shift to accommodate his strengths?

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One of Gus's biggest strengths is adapting his offense to accommodate his QB's strengths. Main reason he scrapped the passing game last year was due to Marshall failing to be consistent passing, so after the first half of the LSU game we just started pounding the rock and passing 10 times a game rather than 20-25. This year you'll see us passing 20 times a game I'm sure.

But the difference between a very good Gus offense and a great Gus offense all comes down to a QB that came hit the deep and intermediate routes. People can talk about the gimmick and fast paced stuff all they want, but what makes the offense good is him being able to pound the rock with the wing T formations and force the safeties up, which allows him to destroy with the pass once he gets one on one matchups.

We've only really had that for about half of one year in 2010 once Cam really got comfortable throwing the ball. So yeah, we get a decent passing QB for multiple seasons our offense will be different.

Gus' genius is he doesn't try to fit square pegs in round holes. He plays to the strength of the players. Last year the O looked a lot different than 2010. I expect to see more passing next season. The O will look very different in 2015, IMO. The only constant in Gus' O, from year to year, is pace.

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Reading the Mizzou butthurt thread about the SECCG and Auburn's defense got me wondering about a couple of things and a post I remember seeing a while back.

1. Is Malzahn's offensive look and scheme from last year his offense in its truest form? I watched the 2010 SECCG yesterday because I'm AUBsessed, and you could tell it was a Gus offense obviously. It was a good bit different and more pass oriented than this past year.

2. Is ^ a result of QB trust? Is it safe to assume Gus won't entirely ditch that triple-option bonanza, but use more of that high flying spread eagle that wrecked shite so much in 2010? Nick Marshall has 1 year under the system so I'm guessing his experience should open up the playbook, as with any QB who goes through a season and experiences the rigors of adversity and having to make big time plays in big games.

3. If 2 is incorrect, then when Gus has THE qb that he wants, will the offense have a slight shift to accommodate his strengths? Thank you.

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Cam was a better inside runner than Nick, Nick was faster to the edge than Cam. Cam was there for the Spring and had a better grasp of the passing game than Nick. Nick now has had a Spring practice and his WRs are waaaaaaay better than Cam's.

I guess what I'm saying is....we're still gonna kill everybody.

1. No, his offense is molded to the strengths/weaknesses of the team. Take a look at his Tulsa resume and you'll see he will air it out if that is the best scenario for a W.

2. Not trust, but strengths. Marshall won a couple games last year through the air, but at the end of the day it wasn't his strength. The fact Marshall was put in that situation means he trusts him. Plus, people seem to forget Marshall was, for all intents and purposes, like a true freshman QB to start the year. Gus will air it out this year.

3. He has the QB he wants, I would assume. He morphed two kids that "can't cut it as an SEC QB because transfer QBs do not work in the SEC" into SEC winning QBs, all while both reaching the BCSNC. This is strictly Gus being able to examine a team and find the competitive advantage. Unlike some coaches, he isn't afraid to adapt his gameplan.