Time to Get the Gus Bus Rollin'

Many people, myself included, are wondering what has happened to Gus Malzahn's hurry-up no-huddle offense so far this fall. We haven't been huddling but we have been doing anything but hurrying. Last year we saw us run what most teams would call a "2 minute offense" pretty much non-stop. Last week Auburn got the ball with 2:18 left in the half and Malzahn calls five runs verse three passes and we take a timeout into the locker room as we let the final seconds tick off the clock from the MSU 39 yard line. In 2009 we averaged roughly 70 plays per game and Malzahn wasn't happy with that, setting a goal of getting to 80 plays per game for the 2010 season. Through two games the offense is average merely 66 plays per game. So, the question has to be asked, when will the Gus Bus quit riding the breaks and kick it into overdrive?

This week. Why not?

Perhaps there is a reasonable explanation for the pedestrian pace against Arkansas State and Mississippi State.

Against the Red Wolves Auburn's offense was trying to keep things fairly vanilla. There was no real reason to run everything at full tempo. The offense was picking up yardage in huge chunks with some very quick scoring drives (6 under 2 minutes) that didn't require a lot of plays to get it done. On the defensive side of the ball we were playing soft coverage giving up a lot of underneath passes and allowing Arkansas State to win the time of possession battle by nearly 10 minutes. That combined with Auburn running merely six plays in the final nine minutes while the second and third teamers picked up some garbage time reps further explains the low number of plays run by the offense in the season opener.

After putting up 52 points in week one few were concerned about the number of plays ran or the pace of the offense. All expectations were that against Mississippi State we would open up the offense full throttle to put Cam Newton and all of the weapons around him on display. A mere 348 yards and a second half shutout later and the questions began to pop up. The 65 offensive plays ran against the Bulldogs may not be as easily explained as the 67 against ASU but I'll give it a shot. Going into the game one of the biggest factors mentioned was the volume of the crowd and all of their cowbell glory. Frequently we saw the offense hurry to the line quickly only to look to the sidelines for an adjustment while the play clock ticked down. It reminded me more of Tony Franklin's no huddle offense than Gus Malzahn's. Likely the reasoning was that with the crowd noise and MSU DC Manny Diaz's blitz-happy reputation we wanted to get to the line and check off based on what the defense showed and we relied on signals from the sideline rather than having Newton try and make the call. In the second half we saw three consecutive drives move into MSU territory only to end with zero points due to penalties and a missed field goal. There is no doubt that with the defense playing well and the hostile environment we saw Malzahn call his most conservative game to date.

Looking towards the showdown on the Plains this Saturday it is hard to find an excuse not to see Malzahn's offense running full bore. The defense has proven to be able to come up with big stops and play well when placed in difficult situations. There is more depth on defense as well which should allow the offense to run full steam without worry from the coaching staff that the defense wont be able to keep up. The crowd will be on Auburn's side so unwanted crowd noise will not be an issue. The two veteran players who left last week's game with injuries, Mario Fannin and Lee Ziemba, have both already returned to practice and are expected to play on Saturday. Perhaps most notably, Malzahn and many of the offensive players have acknowledged the slower pace and vowed to ramp up the tempo this week, going as far to say "if we run 80 plays, we will win the game."

Also, freshman summer phenom Trovon Reed has been said to be ready to go since week one but has been held out of both games but should be good to go this week adding another element to what Malzahn is able to do. Add the development of Mike Dyer at running back, likely becoming the workhorse runner this offense has been missing and there is no reason we shouldn't see the full strength of the 2010 offense.

More plays and more weapons may not equal more points against a strong Clemson defense but I do expect Malzahn's offense to return to "warp speed" pace. No excuses this week, the Gus Bus is gassed up and ready to take off.