Gus Malzahn, who retired on Monday capping a 35-year career, told every player he ever coached how they’d change the sport together. It’s on Page 1 of any playbook of his you can find. The “Who we are” philosophy was tailored to a two-back run/play-action team that would keep constant pressure on the defense and opposing defensive coaches by executing the following …
- Running the offense at a 2-minute pace the entire game (Physically and mentally wearing them down)
- Balanced attack (Take what the defense gives us)
- Having misdirection in the run and pass game
- Stretching the field vertically and horizontally
- Throwing the book at them (Specials/unusual formations, fire alarms and wildcats)
- Presenting the option three different ways — zone read, speed option, power read option
In its essence, he ran a high school offense with more smoke and mirrors than military, pro-style precision. Like any coach that innovates, Malzahn was trying to solve a problem. His high school teams at Shiloh Christian Academy in the 1990s were effective on scripted, three-play spurts running at a no-huddle pace, but eventually they were forced to go back to conventional huddling and lost their edge when the game slowed down.
Up-tempo offensive schemes prevent defenses from substituting and keep them relatively simple schematically. It can even the scales for an otherwise outtalented offense. He went to it in 1997 full time, and his Saints lost one game over the next three seasons. In 2003, Malzahn literally wrote the book on up-tempo offense entitled “The Hurry Up, No Huddle: An Offensive Philosophy.” He moved on to Springdale High School and built them into a state power before Houston Nutt called in 2006.
Malzahn breaks through at Arkansas
The best offensive innovators make the seemingly simple look supremely complex, and nothing is ever new in football tactics. He dressed plays up with shifts, motions, and myriad alignments. The first bar to clear to stop a Malzahn offense was simply getting lined up correctly. Malzahn’s offense leaned on concepts that had been run for a better part of a century and married them with what was en vogue in the aughts and 2010s: spread formations, zone read popularized by Rich Rodriguez’s West Virginia teams, and hyper tempo where wordy West Coast offense play calls were replaced by emojis on placards. He played with tempo throughout his tenure, including the sugar huddle, a happy medium between breakneck pace and full on business meetings offenses would have between plays.
Malzahn was brought to Arkansas by Nutt in 2006 in order to land, among others, five-star quarterback Mitch Mustain and help his own job security. We didn’t get the full Malzahn offense then because Nutt wanted to huddle, but with Darren McFadden at running back (and sometimes Wildcat quarterback), the Hogs earned a trip to the SEC Championship Game in Malzahn’s lone year as offensive coordinator. They haven’t been back to Atlanta since, and whenever Arkansas changed coaches, his name was immediately at the top of any candidates list. By 2008, the “Wild Hog” offense had already begun to influence the NFL in a day that will live in infamy for the New England Patriots after the Miami Dolphins bamboozled them with the formation. Malzahn would move on to offensive coordinator stints at Tulsa and Auburn before a year as head coach on the conveyer belt of Arkansas State Sun Belt championships in the early 2010s.
Then it was back to Auburn where his legend was cemented.
Malzahn cements legacy at Auburn, gives Nick Saban fits
As Auburn coach, Malzahn became the most intriguing foil for Nick Saban’s Alabama dynasty. From 2013 to 2019, the only other team to beat Alabama in the regular season was Ole MIss. And if you include the postseason, only Clemson and Oklahoma are added to the list.
It’s not just that Auburn beat Alabama under Malzahn, it’s how. Back when it took effectively an act of God to fell Saban’s Crimson Tide, Malzahn was at the play-calling controls for two of the most iconic Iron Bowls ever. First, the “Camback” in 2010, where as an offensive coordinator he provided the canvas on which Cam Newton would paint a masterpiece battling back from 24 points down in Tuscaloosa for a Black Friday stunner to continue an improbable run to a national championship. Then, the Kick Six as head coach the week after a Hail Mary that beat Georgia. That 2013 Tigers team came one possession away from winning the national championship.
Eventually, however, defenses caught up to Malzahn and the magic ran out. In his first year ceding play calling to Chip Lindsey in 2017, Auburn was 60 minutes away from being the only two-loss team to make the field in the four-team College Football Playoff era. In a rematch against a Georgia team it had blown out earlier in the year, the Dawgs had their day and it proved to be the last high-water mark for Malzahn on The Plains. The buyout that seemed too expensive to pay was in fact funded by Auburn boosters, who by 2020 had seen enough. It made him an unfortunate trailblazer — this time off the field.
Since Malzahn faced off with Jimbo Fisher and Florida State in the 2013 BCS National Championship Game, the only coach to make the title game as a play-calling head man is Ryan Day in 2020. In the era of revenue sharing and the professionalization of the sport, CEO coaches will be more of the norm than mad football scientists, but Malzahn’s impact will remain.
Every time you see a team play six offensive linemen, or rip off a play every 15 seconds, or get tricky with a wildcat formation, think of the visor-wearing, never-swearing Arkansas man.
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