Guz Malzahn was officially introduced as Auburn's offensive coordinator this evening. He and head coach Gene Chizik answered questions for about 20 minutes.

Here’s the bullet point version:

• Chizik on his discussions with athletic director Jay Jacobs: “I told him, I said I have a plan. And part of that plan was your hires. That has to be part of your plan. And as we talked about it, one of the guys I was very adamant about was Gus.”

• Three main reasons for this hire:

1. Chizik was looking for the “mark of the man,” how he treats players.
2. Someone who can relate to players and put players where they’re best equipped to win.
3. Success at every stop in his career.

• “As Gus and I talked through this process, it was very evident to me that I had the right guy in all of those ways,” Chizik said.

• Malzahn opening statement: “It is a true honor for me to be here. You know, I've been in college football and I've been in a lot of places, and the one stop when I was here when I was with Arkansas, I came away from this place being the most impressive place, from the tradition, the class of the people, the fans, the quality of the football. So this is a big moment for me to come here to Auburn, represent this university.”

• Malzahn stressed that Auburn would be a “run, play-action team,” despite his offenses being tagged with the “spread” term.

• He evaluated film of Auburn’s current players Monday, looking for strengths and weaknesses. He also looked at some film of recruits.

• Chizik had no background with Malzahn other than watching film of his offenses and being impressed.

• Malzahn will have some input on the offensive coaching staff. “Staff chemistry to me is paramount,” Chizik said. There apparently will not be another Tony Franklin-BBQ Mafia situation here.

• Malzahn on his one year at Arkansas: “I really think anytime you have experience in league, it does nothing but help you. It was a great experience for me. I got a chance to get familiar with some of the defensive coordinators and the speed of the game. The SEC is the best conference in college football and I got a chance to see the actual speed. I think that's very important when you're out looking for players to fit what you're looking for. To be familiar with that would be nothing but a positive.”

• Chizik is not concerned with finding assistant coaches familiar with the spread. He just wants to find the right “fit.” (There’s that word again.) Still no timeline on when he wants to hire anybody else.

• Malzahn on how much of Tulsa’s offense you’ll see at Auburn: “I think you'll see a lot of similarities as far as our philosophy, our pace. Our pace is so important. You will see a little bit different. The first year I was at Tulsa, we had to throw the football. I think we actually ran it one more time than we threw it. This past year we actually had some offensive lineman step up and we could run the football more. You see us, we ran a lot more. That's what I was talking about earlier about assessing our strengths, what we have here. We will build around our strengths for next year but you will see the same philosophy – the pace, the run play-action, the throwing the ball vertically down the field. That won't change.”

• “Anytime you come in a new situation, it’s a new state,” Malzahn said. “Everybody’s got a chance to step up and earn a position.”

• Malzahn repeatedly stressed a commitment to run the ball. “You won’t see a whole lot of straight drop-back pass. It’s not who we’re going to be. We’re going to run downhill.”

• Chizik vowed not to be meddlesome on the offensive side of the ball. “The bottom line is, when you hire great people, you got to give them the opportunity to run their show. … I feel very comfortable with Gus running the offense. Period. Working knowledge, absolutely. Micromanaging, absolutely not.”

• Malzahn called this his dream job (anybody think that phrase gets thrown around a bit too much?). “I take you back my experiences going to different places,” he said, “and there's certain places that you go away from and say, 'Man, that's an awesome place.' We actually won that football game that day and the crowd was different. They were classy. The atmosphere was second to none. And I went away from this place, talked to my wife, and said the same thing, you know, in the stands. And I just knew it was something special.”

• Chizik has spoken with Antonio Coleman, Sen’Derrick Marks and Jerraud Powers about their future plans, but he didn’t elaborate much, saying it is ultimately going to be their decision.

• Malzahn didn’t hear from Chizik until sometime around Christmas. It took him about an hour to decide to take the job, once he met with his family.

• Malzahn will split time between Auburn and Tulsa in the upcoming weeks. As soon as Tulsa’s bowl game is over with Jan. 6, he’ll be full-time at Auburn.

• Malzahn on Tony Franklin’s system: “I'm not very familiar with him. I've never met him. I'm not very familiar with his system and can't tell you much about it.”