USA Football
esc

How Auburn University coach Gus Malzahn makes the Tigers' run game so successful

By Ted Nguyen | Posted 1/3/2018

(Photo via al.com)

It seems that Auburn University football coach Gus Malzahn’s humble beginnings as a high school coach still shape his overarching philosophy to coaching today. Even as the head coach of a big-time program, those ideas are still prominent in the construction of his offense.

Auburn’s offense is the epitome of the spread-to-run team. The focus of his offense goes from inside out. Keep things simple for the offense line to maximize execution and physicality and let the skill guys “dress up” the concepts.

RELATED CONTENT: How to create a takeaway culture in your football program

Blocking schemes are much more complicated than the average fan understands. Assignments can completely change from play to play depending on the front. Despite popular belief playing offensive line isn’t just about brute force, linemen have a ton of mental responsibilities as well.

Malzahn keeps it simple for them instead of overburdening the offensive line with too many schemes. Though the Auburn offense could look extremely complicated, its success hinges on three run blocking schemes: power, inside zone, and sweep. Those base concepts are impetus of all of the different plays and options they run.

For example, they run many variations of power, but the blocking scheme remains the same. The skill players might execute a power sweep option, but the line just blocks power. This year, it seems Auburn has taken a page out of the LSU offensive coordinator’s playbook by using a fly sweep motion for some misdirection but simply running good old-fashioned power from under-center.

Then they could run the power option play that Cam Newton made famous during his time with Auburn. Once again, the line just executes the power play and it’s the same scheme.

Like most spread teams, Auburn also has many variations of the inside zone concept. With Jarrett Stidham at quarterback, they don’t run as many run option plays as they did with Newton. Instead, Malzahn uses more run/pass options to keep defenses honest.

Once again, the blocking remains the same on all of these concepts. The line identifies the “Mike,” steps toward their gaps, executes their double teams, gets to the second level, and moves bodies.

On this play, the offense has seven blockers to account for all seven defenders in the box, so they simply run split zone with the “sniffer” coming across the formation to block the backside contain player.

Notice how the tempo of the play affects the defense. It’s hardly are able to get set, yet the offensive line is still able to correctly identify the front and perfectly execute its assignments. That comes from the power of simplicity and practicing the same thing over and over again.

This variation of the zone read turns the sniffer into a pass option rather than a blocker. Instead of blocking the backside end, the quarterback reads him. The end crashes so the quarterback keeps the ball and rolls outside. He has the third option of throwing the ball to the sniffer running an arrow from across the formation and does.

They usually use this option when the defense has another defender to account for the quarterback “keep.” It’s not a bad decision to get the ball in the hands of a better runner, but quarterback Jarrett Stidham could have just run with the ball.

RELATED CONTENT: How the duo play action works in the NFL

Malzahn’s offense seems to be heavily influenced by Canada’s, as he seems to be using a lot of motions and shifts with his tempo offense. Defenses already have a tough time lining up against Auburn with their tempo alone, but it’s even more difficult with all of the pre-snap movement.

The tight end shift forces the outside linebacker on that side to go from covering space to playing outside contain, but the defense doesn’t properly adjust to the wide receiver shift. Stidham sees that and takes his bubble screen option. The only unblocked defender is the safety, who is 12 yards from the line of scrimmage. He has to a lot of space to cover and make an open-field tackle, which he fails to do.

Again, the line is just focused on its inside zone blocking assignments while the skill players vary their assignments.

Both power and inside zone are inside runs — to get outside, Auburn utilizes the sweep play with pulling guards.

The beauty of the sweep play is that even though it’s an outside play, it still requires physical down blocks, which is not a departure from the techniques the offensive line practices for its power plays. The guards’ pull technique is slightly different than that of the skip pull in power, but it’s not so much different that they have to devote a lot of practice time to learning it.

There are only so many hours of practice time a week, and using that practice time efficiently is key for executing at a high level. Malzahn’s philosophy is to use that time to perfect learning a few schemes and techniques rather than a plethora of them. It’s served Auburn well in the past, and is a big reason why the Tigers are consistently one of the best rushing teams in the nation.

RELATED CONTENT: How Louisville coach Bobby Petrino maximizes Lamar Jackson’s running ability

TagsBlog College football Running Game Blocking Schemes / Strategies / Systems
Share