FAYETTEVILLE, Arkansas -- Arkansas coach Bret Bielema might not like Auburn's hurry-up offense, but he does respect its production.
Auburn (7-1, 3-1 SEC) leads the Southeastern Conference in rushing yards, and has totaled 600 yards or more in the last three games under first-year coach Gus Malzahn. The hurry-up, no-huddle approach has provided quite the turnaround for the Tigers, even if Bielema doesn't quite agree with the philosophy, which he still believes leads to more injuries.
"Gus has got an extremely unique package that they're obviously grasping very, very well," Bielema said Monday. "And they've got players that fit into it. I think their execution has gotten better every game, which means that kids are buying into it 100 [percent] and are executing."
Bielema refers to Malzahn's uptempo offense as a "spread," but the first-year Auburn coach often disagrees with that notion.
"We don't consider ourselves a spread offense. Spread to me is kind of throw to open up the run," Malzahn said last week. "We're a two-back, run play-action team that runs the football to open up the pass. We just happen to do it at a fast pace, and I think that's the reason people categorize us sometimes as spread."
Arkansas' three wins this season have all come against spread teams -- Louisiana Lafayette, Samford and Southern Miss. Bielema says he is not worried about his defense being caught off guard or out of position against the Tigers' uptempo running attack.
"Going back to my time at Wisconsin, when I was with (defensive coordinator) Chris (Ash) and (defensive line coach) Charlie (Partridge), we played Oregon hat for hat with a three-point game, and that as fast an offense as anybody I've ever seen," Bielema said. "So I'm really not concerned about that."
Arkansas allows 172 yards per game on the ground, which ranks 71st in the nation and 11th in the SEC. Auburn's offense averages 315.4 yards per game on the ground, which ranks fifth.
Bielema first raised his concerns about hurry-up offenses at the SEC's spring meetings. Malzahn responded in the media, saying it's not a pace problem but an "in-shape issue" for defenses. Bielema continued to defend his stance about injuries at SEC Media Days in July and it prompted Malzahn to call such a belief a "joke."
"I think spread offenses are great," Bielema said, when asked further Monday about his concerns. "We have versions of the spread offense, obviously, on down and distance. … I think the people that throw those two (spread and pace) together aren't really looking at the full content of it. It's strictly the pace of the game. I've played teams that run a pro-style hurry-up offense as well. So it's really about the pace of the game."
Bielema said people have provided him analysis on hurry-up offenses leading to more injuries, but has yet to provide specific numbers to support his argument. "It goes way beyond what I have time to do right now, but it's definitely the pace of the game," he said Monday.
As for Auburn? It's perfectly fine running a hurry-up offense, which many schools have switched to in recent years. The Tigers' production is up in most offensive categories, including a dramatic jump in total offense (305 yards per game to 511) and scoring offense (18.7 points to 37 per game) year over year.
"Yeah, it's definitely fun," Auburn offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee said. "It's fun to play fast, it's fun to be successful and move the ball and score points."
