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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2008,2009, and 2011 was Gus's offense in its true form.

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uh. You don't know when Malzahn came to Auburn, do you?

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2007, 2008

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Not Malzahn.

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2009

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Malzahn. The offense was good. The team was not. Hell, he did all of that with the same players that were there for 2008.

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,2011

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Malzahn. Bad year with a bad combination of young OL and turrible QB play.

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2012

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Not Malzahn.

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2013

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They weren't good?

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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.

If Gus had an ideal QB, I'm guessing he'd be smart, with the ability to sling it accurately, and who has enough mobility to do what we do on the ground.

That said, given that he keeps getting exceptional athletes, I'm not sure how much it matters anymore. But yes, I do think trust is a huge deal, especially considering Gus has a lot of confidence in his ability to open up options with less QB involvement.

We'll see what happens, but I think he likes what he's seen from Nick recently. Nick is a great athlete, is progressively making better and better decisions, and by many accounts is becoming a more accurate passer this year. Perhaps most importantly, he took what Gus gave him and excelled at it, and he's shown a desire to thrive in the big moments.

Given what we've dealt with with other QBs in the recent past, wanting the ball at key moments, which Nick does, is nice. Whether he's the guy for all of those moments is a different question, but he's done well so far, obviously.

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.