superman7515
January 6th, 2011, 09:21 PM
Auburn's Malzahn in spotlight now, but roots go back to fading town (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/george_schroeder/01/06/gus-malzahn/index.html?eref=sihp)
I didn't have a clue what I was doing," Malzahn says, and when you laugh, he insists: "No, I'm serious, I really didn't."
A few years later, Malzahn would write a textbook on his trademark offense -- The Hurry-Up No-Huddle: An Offensive Philosophy -- that became a must-read for high school coaches. But when he was promoted from defensive coordinator to head coach after only one year at Hughes, he bought The Delaware Wing-T: An Order of Football, and then "went by it word-for-word."
The position allowed Malzahn the freedom to try just about anything he wanted. What we see from Auburn today? Look close, and recognize that it all started then, when Malzahn meshed the I-formation with the principles of Wing-T misdirection he gleaned from that book, and then began experimenting. "He was always doodling," Patrick says. "He was never ever afraid to take a chance."
Malzahn didn't run the hurry-up offense in Hughes, or at least he didn't commit to it as a way of life. But he toyed with the idea after watching the seventh grade basketball team he coached push the pace and wear down opponents in the fourth quarter. The spread? Passing it all over the place? Hughes didn't have the personnel -- but boy, Malzahn wanted to.
The Tigers operate from the shotgun, but many of the schemes Auburn is running are nearly identical to the things Malzahn ran those early years at Hughes. And we do mean ran. Although his high school teams later became known for passing, his first teams ran. Power stuff. Sweeps. Option. But all of it was spiced with twists and turns that sometimes worked, sometimes didn't -- and sometimes still serve as the base plays Malzahn calls today.
I didn't have a clue what I was doing," Malzahn says, and when you laugh, he insists: "No, I'm serious, I really didn't."
A few years later, Malzahn would write a textbook on his trademark offense -- The Hurry-Up No-Huddle: An Offensive Philosophy -- that became a must-read for high school coaches. But when he was promoted from defensive coordinator to head coach after only one year at Hughes, he bought The Delaware Wing-T: An Order of Football, and then "went by it word-for-word."
The position allowed Malzahn the freedom to try just about anything he wanted. What we see from Auburn today? Look close, and recognize that it all started then, when Malzahn meshed the I-formation with the principles of Wing-T misdirection he gleaned from that book, and then began experimenting. "He was always doodling," Patrick says. "He was never ever afraid to take a chance."
Malzahn didn't run the hurry-up offense in Hughes, or at least he didn't commit to it as a way of life. But he toyed with the idea after watching the seventh grade basketball team he coached push the pace and wear down opponents in the fourth quarter. The spread? Passing it all over the place? Hughes didn't have the personnel -- but boy, Malzahn wanted to.
The Tigers operate from the shotgun, but many of the schemes Auburn is running are nearly identical to the things Malzahn ran those early years at Hughes. And we do mean ran. Although his high school teams later became known for passing, his first teams ran. Power stuff. Sweeps. Option. But all of it was spiced with twists and turns that sometimes worked, sometimes didn't -- and sometimes still serve as the base plays Malzahn calls today.