Wall Street Journal: Hey Auburn, You're Our Last Chance!

[dallaswareagle]

Not sure how you improve on perfection...?

True, just ask Mrs. Dallas. 

[Saniflush]

True, just ask Mrs. Dallas.

Yes, her alps are stupendous!

[dallaswareagle]

Yes, her alps are stupendous!

If she feels like it I'll check them out tonight.

[AUChizad]

http://www.sportingnews.com/ncaa-football/story/2013-11-13/first-and-10-coaches-usc-texas-florida-michigan-ucla-gus-malzahn-urban-meyer

3. The Gus Bus

Ladies and gentlemen, the curious case that is Auburn:

The worst team not named Kentucky in the SEC last season. The most dysfunctional, disenfranchised and downtrodden group of players maybe ever on The Plains.

And now there’s this: with virtually the same personnel as last season (15 starters returned), Auburn is two games away from playing for the SEC Championship.

“Any time you’re successful,” says Auburn coach Gus Malzahn, “you play with more confidence.”

He’s being extremely generous to the former staff (that he was once part of) and their ability to coax all of three wins from a team with the talent to win much more. For everyone who scoffed at the Malzahn hire as more of the same — myself included — check out what the new coach at Auburn has accomplished in all of 10 games:

—Auburn is the physical, impose your will team that former coach Gene Chizik tried for year to generate but never could.

—The Tigers were 78th in the nation in rushing last season, averaging 148 yards per game and 4.07 yards per carry, and had 22 touchdowns. This season, they’re 3rd in the nation in rushing, averaging 320 yards per game and 6.49 yards per carry, and have 33 touchdowns.

—The biggest benefactor of the new run game? The Auburn defense, which gave up 28.3 points per game in 2012 (66th in the nation), and is 22nd in the nation (20.4 ppg) going into this weekend’s game at Georgia.

The Tigers are doing all of this with a quarterback who played defensive back in his first stop in the SEC (Georgia), transferred to a junior college, signed with Auburn but didn’t arrive on campus until fall camp.

Think about that: four weeks of preparation in Malzahn’s offense, and Marshall might just be the most dangerous running quarterback in college football. He has more carries (104) than completions (93), and in the last two victories at Arkansas and Tennessee, threw the ball a combined 15 times.

“There’s going to come a time when we’ll have to throw the ball,” Malzahn said. ”We know that.”

Maybe it’s this week against Georgia. Or maybe Auburn just lines up and imposes its will on the Bulldogs, too.

This is what happens when you hire the right fit. In all of 10 games.