By Phillip Marshall

Malzahn. summoned from Tulsa last December by first-year head coach Gene Chizik to run Auburn's offense, has put his scheme together through years of taking the players available walking high school halls. It is designed to take advantage of the talent available and built on the belief that, for every defensive adjustment, there is an opportunity.

At Tulsa, Malzahn's offenses led the nation in total yards per game in each of his two seasons at Tulsa. In 2008, the Golden Hurricane averages 267 yards on the ground and 301.86 through the air. In 2007, the numbers were 371 yards per game passing and 172.93 rushing.

At Auburn, he found willing students, hungry to make amends for the misery of 2008.

"He sees a lot more than most people see from the sideline," junior center Ryan Pugh said. "It’s his offense. He created it. He knows it like the back of his hand. When he needs to make an adjustment, he knows exactly what to do."

Malzahn quickly realized the strength of Auburn's offense would be at running back and on the offensive line. So it is that, after beating Louisiana Tech 37-13 and Mississippi State 49-24, the Tigers are No. 2 nationally in rushing offense with 345.5 yards per game and No. 4 in total offense with 572.5 yards per game.

Senior Ben Tate leads the Southeastern Conference in rushing and is No. 7 nationally at 137 yards per game. Freshman Onterio McCalebb is close behind at 131 yards per game. Together, they became the first tandem in Auburn history to each gain 100-plus yards in consecutive games.

Wildcat quarterback Kodi Burns has scored four rushing touchdowns.

For offensive linemen who often couldn’t hide their contempt for Tony Franklin’s spread offense a year ago, the return to in-your-face football has been welcomed, even celebrated. Pugh, junior guards Mike Berry and Byron Isom and senior tackle Andrew McCain are bigger and stronger and playing the game the way they came to Auburn play it.

“It’s a downhill running game, which linemen love, and a downfield passing attack, which receivers love,” Pugh said. “Everyone wants to play and everyone wants so succeed. He gives everyone so many chances and so many options every week to succeed.”

Berry says he knew that, when the season started, this Auburn offense would be far different than the one that struggled so mightily in the 5-7 disaster that was the 2008 season.

“Going through the spring, we saw how well we were able to run the ball on our defense,” Berry said. “We always have a top defense. We always knew we could run the ball. Now everyone else is seeing it. We didn’t expect like 700 yards, but we knew we could run the ball.”

Against Mississippi State, the running game reached numbers not seen since the days of Pat Dye’s wishbone. Tiger backs ran 59 times for 390 yards. And when players and coaches watched film, they saw more, much more, that could have been accomplished.

“Putting up points is a lot of fun,” Pugh said. “Winning is a lot of fun. It’s addicting to run for that many yards and have that much offense. It makes you want to practice that much harder every day to keep going out there and establishing that run.”

And even when Malzahn turns to quarterback Chris Todd's passing arm, the offensive line has shown its teeth. The Tigers are one of seven teams nationally that have not given up a sack.

Malzahn saw improvement last Saturday against Mississippi State.

“I was real pleased with our guys up front, how physical they played and how hard they played,” Malzahn said. “We did make some mistakes. We are still learning. Our guys are starting to play fast. They are starting to understand what we are talking about. I was happy with our pace.

“At the same time, we have to correct – especially on our foundation runs and passes – the things where we made mistakes.”

A different challenge awaits. West Virginia, like Auburn, is 2-0. The Mountaineers, utilizing coordinator Jeff Casteel's 3-3-5 defense, have given up just 75 yards per game on the ground in beating Liberty 33-20 and East Carolina 35-20.

"They are very well-coached, have a lot of veteran guys, play extremely hard and are a physical team," Malzahn said. "This will be a very good test for us. We’ll have to play well.

They do a great job with their run fits. A lot of odd stack teams will misfit sometimes in the run game, but they do a great job with it. They’ve been doing it a long time. Their defensive coordinator has been there a long time (since 2001). That’s what they do, and they do it well.”