Gus Malzahn jokes that SEC coaches used to complain about his tempo offense: ‘Now they’re all doing it’
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There was a time coaches like Nick Saban and Bret Bielema were quick to call out Gus Malzahn for running his offense at Auburn.
After all, the fast-paced offense was something that forced SEC defenses to adjust to after Malzahn brought it to the conference.
Malzahn hasn’t forgotten about those comments and during his recent appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show,” Auburn’s coach pointed out the fact that many of the same SEC coaches that called him out now run an offense similar to his at their respective programs.
Funny how that works.
Here is what Malzahn had to say during his Wednesday appearance on McAfee’s program when asked about the offenses opening up all across football in recent years.
“I think you’re exactly right,” Malzahn said. “The old school, pro-style offense was 21 personnel with an old-school fullback in the I (formation) a tight end and two receivers. I guess 2010, that’s when I came to Auburn, we were fortunate to have Cam Newton, and we started playing fast and doing zone read and some things like that.
“I think we were the first team in our league, at least to play fast, trying to run a two-minute offense the entire game. Had some of the coaches that didn’t like it, that complained about it, that’s actually doing it now. You look at our league now, everybody has some pace. Everybody does zone read for the most part. So you’ve seen it all go all the way up to the NFL.”
Of course, Bielema has fired long ago by Arkansas but interestingly, the Razorbacks are currently in the process of installing a fast-pace scheme under first-year coordinator Kendal Briles.
Following Malzahn’s comments, McAfee asked if SEC defensive coordinators hated him joining the league and introducing this type of offense to the conference.
“Yeah, there was definitely a time you could definitely say that,” Malzahn answered.
However, according to the Auburn coach, the most disgust may have come from the officials that had to keep up with his offense on game days.
“Officials definitely didn’t like it and, you know, some of the head coaches didn’t like it, like I said, was complaining about safety issues and all this other stuff,” Malzahn concluded. “Now, like I said, they’re all doing it. It’s the new norm now.”
While he didn’t outright say it, when Malzahn says “they” in these comments, he’s clearly pointing a finger at Saban.
A graduate of the University of Tennessee, Michael Wayne Bratton oversees the news coverage for Saturday Down South. Michael previously worked for FOX Sports and NFL.com
