Malzahn shows off offense in Tulsa finale

MOBILE — In the coming weeks or months, new offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn and Gene Chizik will likely sit down for a long chat.

The topic will center on things Chizik hates and Malzahn will probably be jotting down plenty of notes. Then, when Auburn hits the practice fields this spring, Malzahn’s offense will try to recreate the pet peeves of Chizik, a defensive-minded coach, against Ted Roof’s defense.

Perhaps it won’t go down exactly like that, but that’s how Tulsa running back Tarrion Adams explained the immediate and sustained success Malzahn’s offense had during his two-year tenure with the Golden Hurricane.

“I think it works well because, first and foremost, it’s everything (Tulsa coach Todd Graham) hates to defend,” Adams said Tuesday after Tulsa’s 45-13 GMAC Bowl victory over Ball State. ”Basically, it causes stress for any defense that we line up against.”

Ball State left Ladd-Peebles Stadium stressed and wet Tuesday night, as Malzahn’s offense torched the Cardinals for 632 yards of total offense in a complete rout. The showcase was Malzahn’s last before he officially became full-time with the Tigers on Wednesday.

Malzahn, after a Gatorade shower and a number of TV and radio interviews, said what Auburn fans saw Tuesday night is exactly what he’ll bring to the Plains.

“It’s the same offense we’ll run at Auburn,” Malzahn said. “We’ll be playing fast and getting after it.”

Auburn struggled mightily with Tony Franklin’s spread offense through the first half of the 2008 season, which ultimately led to Tommy Tuberville firing Franklin. The Tigers never maintained the speedy, up-tempo pace Franklin desired and constantly botched what Franklin viewed as simple tasks, such as the snap count.

The complexity of his offense, Malzahn said, shouldn’t be a problem at Auburn.

“If you really break us down, we just have about four or five base runs and four or five base concepts in the passing game and then we have a lot of window dressing — a lot of different things to deceive people,” Malzahn said. “We try to perfect those base things. That’s what you do first and then we can do all the fancy stuff later.”

Weather did not permit Malzahn to get very fancy with Tulsa’s play-calling Tuesday night, but the damage his unit caused more than likely whetted Auburn fans’ appetites.

Malzahn promised at his introductory press conference that his offense, though it appears to be pass-first, is based around and thrives off the run. Just in case Auburn fans didn’t believe him, it was on full display at the GMAC Bowl, as the Golden Hurricane rushed for 439 yards, a Tulsa bowl record.

“A lot of times people, they don’t think that we’ll run the ball much. They think it’s a pass offense because it’s so spread out,” Adams said. “You spread everybody out and the defense, they have to spread out to honor the guys who are spread out. That opens up running lanes.

“There’s different styles of running backs that can be successful in this offense, whether you’re a power runner or a speed runner. It’s an offense that showcases your abilities.”

Of course, it isn’t all running.

Tulsa’s ability to run consistently opened up gaping holes in Ball State’s secondary. Quarterback David Johnson exploited those by making spot-on passes for a number of large gains.

“It makes people have to respect the run so they have to come up and play,” Johnson said. “That opens up the lanes downfield.”

And then there are the “special plays,” as Adams called them.

Tulsa ran a number of reverses and bubble screens, which seemingly all worked against a noticeably slower Ball State defense. Granted, those may not fly as easily in the SEC, but it was enough to keep the newfound optimism at Auburn flowing.

“He’s a mastermind,” Adams said.

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