STARKVILLE — Very little of last year’s game at Auburn University is being watched this week inside the football coaching offices of the Bryan Athletic Building.
It’s not because the 41-34 loss at Jordan-Hare Stadium angers the members of the Bulldogs staff including head coach Dan Mullen so much.
It’s because admittedly not much can be learned from the defeat.
“They have a whole new scheme they’re running with new coordinator,” Mullen said Wednesday on the Southeastern Conference media teleconference. “We look back at last year’s game a little bit, but they run a new offense and a new defense, so that game has really lost a lot of relevancy in preparing for this week’s game.”
After a disappointing season in which Auburn finished 8-5 as the defending national champions, Tigers head coach Gene Chizik eventually had to replace coordinators on both sides of the ball and in doing so, brought a brand new style to the Auburn program.
Chizik fired defensive coordinator Ted Roof and replaced him with Brian VanGorder, who had served as the defensive coordinator of the Atlanta Falcons in the National Football League.
Chizik then lost offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn after he received the head coaching position at Arkansas State University and tabbed University of Temple offensive coordinator Scot Loeffler as the new leader of the Tigers offense.
“Scot is a rising star who has worked with some very good quarterbacks, and has achieved a tremendous amount of success,” Chizik said when he hired Loeffler on Jan. 22. “He is a tireless worker, is an outstanding recruiter and knows the rigors of competing in this conference. We’re very excited to have Scot join our staff and we welcome him to the Auburn family.”
The addition of Loeffler instituted a scheme change to the past of what Auburn’s offense looked like when Chizik was an assistant under then-head coach Tommy Tubberville. When Auburn went 13-0 in 2004 and won the SEC, they accomplished the feat mostly to a dominant running game in-between the tackles with a pair of star tailbacks in Carnell Williams and Ronnie Brown. This style of play is what Loeffler was groomed under for years as a former quarterback and a coach at the University of Michigan under Lloyd Carr.
However, the guessing game for MSU’s defense right now is to see how much of the former spread and the pro-style I-formation offense with the quarterback under center will be used Saturday in the SEC opener for both schools (11 a.m., ESPN).
“The tough part is seeing where his personality strikes,” Mullen said. “I don’t know if we’ve got to see the total personality of that offense is, what their focus is, what type of team they’re going to be. Are they more older Michigan? Are they more, kind of, a little bit spread-based? A little bit of both and what percentage are they?”
While at Michigan and Florida, Loeffler has worked with six quarterbacks at the college level that went on to play in the NFL, including Tom Brady, Tim Tebow, Brian Griese, Chad Henne, Drew Henson and John Navarre.
In 2012, Loeffler has another quarterback to groom in sophomore dual-threat option Kiehl Frazier, who Mullen attempted to recruit to Mississippi State and his spread option but was unsuccessful three years ago.
“I remember him out of high school (as a) great kid that were recruited out of high school and has all the skills,” Mullen said. “He has the size and the skills to be a drop-back passer but has that extra edge that allows him to keep plays alive with his feet. You see now he’s a polished product and can be a every-down quarterback.”
Frazier struggled in his first start of the 2012 season against No. 14 Clemson by only completing 11-of-27 passes and hitting just four different receivers.
“He handled everything well,” Chizik said. “He’s really in a good place in the fact that he got the first start out of the way, which for a quarterback is big. It gives him a little peace of mind, to be honest with you, now that we’ve plowed through that first game as a starter.”
On the defensive side of the ball, Auburn struggled to get off the field and allowed 528 yards of total offense in their 26-19 loss to Clemson in the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. VanGorder, who has brought his press man-to-man coverage scheme and multiple blitz packages from the NFL to Auburn, will have to risk putting his inexperienced defensive backs at risk Saturday against MSU junior quarterback Tyler Russell and the Bulldogs four senior receivers.
“I just think the game of football is personal driven,” MSU wide receivers coach Tim Brewster said.
Brewster has spent time in the NFL as the tight ends coach at Denver and San Diego before returning to the college game at the University of Minnesota.
“You better fit your system to your personnel,” Brewster said. “If you don’t, you’re going to get your tail beat. I think (VanGorder) an extremely smart coach and smart guy, veteran guy that will fit the personnel to the system. He’s not going to ask them to play man coverage if they can’t. He’s not going to ask them to do things that they can’t.”
The one question Mullen and the MSU staff will have when the ball is kicked off Saturday is how much of the old Auburn strategy will rise up in Starkville or will the new spread style remain with this current group of talent?
“They probably held a bunch back last week so you don’t know what else they’re going to going to show that they decided not to show last week,” Mullen said. “We’re going to have to be kind of prepared for the unknown in this situation. The key is if we execute and take care of the ball and play hard, we’re going have the opportunity to win the game.”
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