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12/9/2014 Auburn's hurryup, nohuddle offense built around two principles: 'Play fast and physical'
http://blog.al.com/auburnfootball_impact/print.html?entry=/2013/03/auburns_hurryup_nohuddle_off.html 1/2
Rhett Lashlee, left, and Gus Malzahn are the architects of the hurryup, nohuddle. (Todd Van Emst/Auburn Media Relations)
Auburn's hurryup, nohuddle offense built around two principles:'Play fast and physical'Joel A. Erickson | [email protected] By Joel A. Erickson | [email protected]
Email the author | Follow on Twitter
on March 03, 2013 at 5:32 PM, updated March 03, 2013 at 5:34 PM
AUBURN, Alabama Unlike Ellis Johnson's 4
25 base scheme on defense, Gus Malzahn's
hurryup, nohuddle offense is plenty familiar
to most Auburn fans after the new head
coach's introduction in three seasons as
offensive coordinator.
At first glance, the hurryup, nohuddle offense
looks like a complicated mix of a power running
game and a spread passing game, all dressed
up in constantly changing formations, full of
trick plays and misdirection.
Malzahn, offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee
and the rest of Auburn's offensive coaches will
break the scheme down to two basic principles
when the Tigers begin spring practice on March 27.
"We try to keep it narrowed down to things they can remember and kind of be ingrained and a part of them,"
Lashlee said. "We want to play fast and physical."
By now, the hurried pace of Malzahn's offense is a known quantity, a concept spreading across the nation
and installed by SEC West foes Texas A&M and Ole Miss last season.
"We believe the nohuddle does a couple things for you," Lashlee said. "We believe it gets you more plays. The
more plays you run, the more you're going to score. We believe it wears your opponent down. We believe it
simplifies defenses."
Auburn may not always keep the gas pedal on the floor.
Varying the pace keeps defenses offbalance.
"At times we slow it down, then speed it up," Lashlee said. "And that becomes an advantage, a lot of defensive
coordinators will tell you, it's even harder when people change it up on you rather than going all the way fast or
all the way slow."
Out of that pace, Auburn will rely on a twoback running game built around principles from the WingT offense
that sets the foundation for Auburn's attack. Under Malzahn, Auburn ran the ball on 60.2 percent of snaps in
2009, 68.8 percent in 2010 and 64.7 percent in 2011, and the Tigers ranked 13th, 5th and 32nd in rushing
offense.
In seven years in the college game, Malzahn has produced nine 1,000yard rushers.
12/9/2014 Auburn's hurryup, nohuddle offense built around two principles: 'Play fast and physical'
http://blog.al.com/auburnfootball_impact/print.html?entry=/2013/03/auburns_hurryup_nohuddle_off.html 2/2
"I think it's one of those things where you get the term spread, and people automatically think you're throwing
the ball all over the place, and you're not very physical," Auburn offensive line coach J.B. Grimes said. "Nothing
could be further from the truth."
Off of that downhill running attack, Auburn's passing game tests a defense by lining up in spread formations
designed to stretch the defense across the field and create mismatches, as well as make plays off of the play
action created by the runheavy playcalling.
A lot of those passes are designed to beat a defense over the top, parceled in with trick plays or what Auburn's
coaching staff calls "special plays" to keep defenses from loading the interior of the box.
"We've got to take eight or more shots down the field (per game)," Lashlee said. "We've got to stretch the field
vertically, stretch it horizontally, make people defend the whole field."
Beyond the X's and O's, Auburn's core identity will be based on physicality, a trait that was lacking as the Tigers
averaged just 2.6 yards per carry in SEC play last season.
Instilling that identity in the offense, Lashlee says, is a task that goes all the way from the offensive linemen to
the receivers.
A few of the X's and O's might be complicated, but the philosophy is simple.
"When a team plays you, you want them to say the next day, 'Wow, they were physical,'" Lashlee said. "'Yeah,
everything happened fast and it was kind of a blur. Not only were they coming at us fast, they were hitting us in
the mouth.'"
This is the first offensive installment in a series looking at Auburn's hurryup, nohuddle offense. Click this link
2013 Auburn analysis for last week's look at the defense.
For more news and notes on Auburn football, check out the Auburn football page, and don't forget to follow the
Tigers on Twitter: Follow @JoelAEricksonAU
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