Three elements Chad Morris is bringing

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Three elements Chad Morris is bringing to ‘a whole new Auburn offense’

6-8 minutes

AUBURN — Owen Pappoe said they talk about it every day in Auburn’s linebackers room. The sophomore didn’t want to share too many details — you never know who’s listening — but he did offer perhaps the soundbite of the preseason so far:

“I would say, man, salute to Chad Morris,” Pappoe said. “Y’all are going to see it this season. It’s going to look like a whole new Auburn offense, man. All the stuff they’ve brought in, it’s ridiculous.

“They’re looking really good out there.”

That is surely music to any Auburn fan’s ear. That’s what so many have been asking for at times throughout the latter part of Gus Malzahn’s now-eight-year tenure as coach. It’s not that the Tigers’ offense was necessarily bad last season — it finished tied for third in the SEC averaging 33.2 points per game. It just wasn’t good enough to defeat Florida, LSU or Georgia despite the defense allowing 24 or fewer points in all three of those contests.

Malzahn brought in his longtime friend Morris to help change that. He wasn’t successful in two seasons as coach of Arkansas, but he was over his first eight seasons as a college coach at Tulsa (2010), Clemson (2011-14) and SMU (2015-17).

On paper, it’s the perfect fit — Morris runs the same base scheme as Malzahn (the former learned it from the latter when both were high school coaches in the early 2000s) but has infused it with some different elements. Specifically in the passing game, which Morris has leaned on much more heavily throughout his career.

Let’s take a closer look at three that some of Auburn’s coach and players have mentioned over the first two weeks of preseason practice.

Running back receptions

The number of eyes watching Auburn practice has been smaller than ever because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but video shared from inside the bubble on Day 1 showed redshirt freshman running back Mark-Antony Richards catching a pair of passes; one on an angle route over the middle, and another on a wheel route down the sideline.

And it wasn’t just a drill — junior Shaun Shivers said Wednesday that he’s “seeing backs catch the ball out of the backfield, more getting the backs one-on-one with the linebackers, creating plays, creating opportunities for us to make big plays, explosive plays” more than he has before.

The Tigers didn’t really utilize that position much in the passing game last season. Shivers, JaTarvious Whitlow, Malik Miller, Harold Joiner, D.J. Williams and Kam Martin combined to catch just 28 passes. None caught more than six.

Arkansas, though, completed 43 passes to running backs last season. Rakeem Boyd caught 19 for 160 yards, and Devwah Waley 16 for 141. Boyd caught 23 passes for 165 yards the season prior. In fact, Morris has had one running back catch at least 15 passes every season since 2013, with Xavier Jones’ 28 receptions for 219 yards for SMU in 2015 standing out as the most impressive total.

That has happened only twice at Auburn during the same span — Kerryon Johnson in 2016 (17 for 125) and 2017 (24 for 194).

Tight end involvement

Speaking of getting an under-utilized position more involved in the passing game, Malzahn made headlines last Saturday when he said Auburn’s tight ends caught four or five passes during one 92-play scrimmage.

That’s notable because they caught only three for 21 yards in 13 full games last season. The last time Auburn tight ends caught more than five passes in a season was 2014, when C.J. Uzomah and Brandon Fulse combined to catch 13 for 172 and four touchdowns. Over the five seasons since, those totals have been zero, two, one, five and three catches, respectively, for 82 yards and four touchdowns.

Arkansas tight ends Cheyenne O’Grady, Grayson Gunter, Chase Harrell and Hudson Henry combined to catch 45 passes for 476 yards and five touchdowns last season. Only twice in Morris’ 10 seasons as a college coach have tight ends caught fewer than 18 passes. In four of the other eight, they accumulated at least 40 catches, 450 yards and five scores.

The Tigers have some intriguing options at the position, too. Maybe none more so than four-star true freshmen Brandon Frazier and J.J. Pegues, who appear to be potential matchup nightmares at 6-foot-7, 270 and 6-2, 300, respectively.

MORE:Which true freshmen could make an impact for Auburn this season?

“They’ve been used a lot. They’ve been going for deep balls, blocking, more versatile tight ends,” senior wide receiver Eli Stove said Thursday. “Really, all the tight ends have been getting in, so they’ve been doing good.”

More intermediate routes

One of the first things Stove talked about Thursday was how excited the wide receivers were that Auburn is going to be throwing the ball more this season.

“Coach Morris is bringing a lot of good plays and deep balls and intermediate plays to get everybody open,” he said.

That last one — intermediate plays — is noteworthy. They’re defined as passes thrown between 11 and 19 yards past the line of scrimmage. That’s an area Auburn did not employ much in Year 1 of the quarterback Bo Nix era, specifically over the middle of the field.

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1 hour ago, aubiefifty said:

That last one — intermediate plays — is noteworthy. They’re defined as passes thrown between 11 and 19 yards past the line of scrimmage. That’s an area Auburn did not employ much in Year 1 of the quarterback Bo Nix era, specifically over the middle of the field.

Or ever in the last 10 years.