The Auburner - Giving squirrels fake nuts since before you were born.

Standing in the shadows: prints sold in most bookstores

I recently read parts of Arthur Gustav Malzahn III's book “The Hurry-Up, No-Huddle: An Offensive Philosophy”. He wrote it in 2003 when he was a successful high school coach in Arkansas. After reading a good portion of it, I still have no idea what his offense is, but that's to be expected. The only play calling strategies I know have been learned through video games, the TV show “Coach” starring Craig T. Nelson, blogs, and hack sports writers. Thankfully, lack of knowledge can't stop me from previewing Auburn's offense.

Gus Malzahn's offense, including the wildcat, is nothing new. However, Gus Malzahn is one of the biggest reasons why it's popular today in high schools, colleges and the pros. Consider Malzahn's wildcat formation in which a wide receiver sometimes lines up a few steps behind the center and takes the snap. The wide receiver then either runs, or passes the ball. That's right. A wide receiver will sometimes do the job of a quarterback! It's a trick play! In another tricky move, Kodi Burns has been moved to wide receiver. So, in effect, Auburn is going to run a regular shotgun offense.

Because Auburn has never used this offense in a game before, I painstakingly made an animation of what the wildcat at Auburn would look like. Here, virtual Kodi Burns is the wide receiver who lines in a shotgun formation behind the center and takes the direct snap. He's a wide receiver who fakes being a quarterback before actually revealing himself as a running back to score a touchdown.

Gus Malzahn's offense has no use for fullbacks. Instead, he's going to have an extra receiver who will usually line up behind the line of scrimmage. The fact that Malzahn made Mario Fannin a receiver for this position, once again, makes this formation a regular ol' smashmout Power-I if you consider Fannin the running back and Tate the fullback.

Since Malzahn basically makes most players receivers of some sort, what does that make the actual quarterback? If you look at Malzahn's past, the quarterback actually is a quarterback (except when he's a receiver). Auburn's starting quarterback is Chris Todd.

I felt bad for Chris Todd in the spring. The newspapers said he was doing “mental reps” on the sideline since he was recovering from shoulder surgery I don't even know what a mental rep is, but it sounds really sad. It sounds like something a coach would tell a player to do when they felt too guilty to cut him.

“Uhh... maybe you shouldn't take the field just yet... stand over there and do some mental reps.”

That wasn't the case. Todd came back and won the starting job. If history is an indicator, it was a good choice. Campbell and Cox were booed by idiot fans. This puts Todd in a fraternity of elite quarterbacks, which is something Burns and Caudle can't say at the moment. Todd seemed like a mercenary last year, being a juco transfer, but that's not the perception this year. I consider him to be all Auburn after all he's gone though (and I should've thought the same last year). When the rest of the world left him for dead, he kept working. Months later, he won the honor to be ruthlessly mocked by those of us who don't work as hard.

Still, Chris Todd has much to prove on the field. He and Gene Chizik are much alike in that manner. At some point in his career, Chris Todd has impressed Bob Stoops, Mike Leach, Tony Franklin and Gus Malzahn enough to give him a scholarship. He won the starting QB job in high school, junior college, and was all but assured the starting job at Troy before Tony Franklin came to Auburn. He's impressed coaches off the field. Unfortunately, even though it's not his fault, Chris Todd hasn't played a single down for a football team with a winning record since 2004 – his senior year in high school. That's an eternity in terms of a college football career.

The most essential part of the wildcat offense is misdirection. On the field, wide receivers and running backs pass the ball while quarterbacks run and catch the ball. Could Auburn be running a wildcat coaching staff? Who knows? Maybe in the middle of the game, the head coach's clipboard and headset might be lateraled to Trooper Taylor. Taylor would start calling plays and the opposing team won't know what hit them!