The impetus for head coach Gus Malzahn to relinquish playcalling duties to offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee was both gradual and sudden.
It started after Auburn’s season-opening loss to Clemson. Malzahn realized that as the head coach, shouldering the entire offensive load himself was “unrealistic.” He was so preoccupied with making sure the next call was perfect that he wasn't fully able to evaluate the whole team during the game.
So, he slowly let Lashlee and offensive line coach Herb Hand assume control over the next few games, until Malzahn had given full discretion to call plays in Auburn’s win over LSU last Saturday.
“My plan in the offseason was to be more involved, but sometimes reality hits you,” Malzahn said. “In this day and time, to be a head coach and call an offense is not realistic, at least for me. It hit me after that first game and it’s what’s best for our team.”
Without the burden of being responsible for Auburn’s entire offensive gameplan, Malzahn was able to step back and evaluate the team as a whole, something he said was “refreshing.”
He had become so preoccupied with each individual playcall that it sometimes clouded Malzahn’s subsequent calls.
“I felt like I was too negative the first couple of games,” Malzahn said. “... It was really refreshing for me to be on the opposite end of that. When you don’t live and die by every play, you can look ahead and see the big picture. That’s probably the best way to put that.”
By all accounts, Lashlee’s gameplan was a success. The offense accumulated 388 yards, the most LSU had allowed all season. Sean White had a quarterback rating of 148.7, a career-high against an SEC opponent, and Kerryon Johnson combined with Kamryn Pettway to rush for 154 yards.
The issues in the red zone that have plagued Auburn for over a year now still reared their ugly head, though. In six trips inside the 20-yard line, the Tigers managed five field goals, and the other time Johnson was stopped short of the goal line on fourth down.
“Before the last two years, we were one of the best teams in the country, year-in and year-out [in the red zone,]” Malzahn said. “Beginning last year and the start of this year, it’s been the exact opposite. I think it’s just an overall evaluation of all of the above: an evaluation of the scheme, what fits our players, the playcalling, all of the above.
“That’s our number one concern from the offensive standpoint. That’s the number one thing we have to solve. We’re going to focus on that like crazy. Let’s put it this way, you will see some different things in the red zone moving forward.”
With a Louisiana-Monroe team coming up that ranks 112th in the nation in yards allowed per game at 477, there’s a prime opportunity to work out those pesky kinks in those last 20 yards.
“We just have to solve our red zone issues,” Malzahn said. “That’s our number one focus right now. We are going to spend more time in practice. We are going to evaluate the whole deal in the red zone. If we can solve that, I think we can be a pretty good offense.”
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