Hey all. Hope everyone is enjoying today's 4th of July celebration, one of the better holidays of the year. There is nothing quite like celebrating American independence by watching a fireworks finale set to music written by a Russian to commemorate the defeat of Napoleon. That's always my favorite moment of the day.

Also, it brings to mind one of my favorite articles from the satirical newspaper The Onion: "Wikipedia Celebrates 750 Years of American Independence." The picture alone slays me.

ANYWAY, I wrote a Gus Malzahn feature for today's paper because, well, he was the only assistant coach hanging around the complex last week. Oh, and he's also the offensive coordinator, so that's kind of important too. Here's how it starts:

AUBURN, Ala. — Offensive gurus generally aren’t without their quirks.

Steve Spurrier never passes up a chance to take a clever dig at a rival. Tony Franklin’s down-home brand of blunt honesty is at the same time his best and worst trait. And Mike Leach, for as much as his air-it-out offense has altered the Big 12 football landscape, has an unusual obsession with pirates.

Auburn offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn’s staid personality, one cut from the cloth of one of his coaching idols, Nebraska’s stoic Tom Osborne, doesn’t seem to fit the mold.

Yeah,” Malzahn said wryly. “I’m not into pirates.”

No, Malzahn, who was Gene Chizik’s first permanent coaching hire last December, is into football, particularly the up-tempo, no-huddle brand that paved the way for his quick ascension in the coaching ranks, and not much else.

“I don’t do very many things,” he said, “but what I try to do, I try to be very thorough.”

Malzahn is an interesting interview. He's very short with his answers, very concise. There's not a lot of extraneous stuff with him, which I gather is the way he operates all the time. Here's a few B-sides that didn't make it into the article or that I didn't get to elaborate much on:

• It seems that Malzahn's offense has been scoffed at at every stop of his coaching career, especially back when he was first honing the system at high schools in Arkansas. "I think that's fair to say because it was real extreme at that point," he said. "Specifically, there were very few no huddle teams at all, but somebody going fast, it was very new. It was new for officials. But it was a great advantage."

• He knows that will be the case coming back to SEC at Auburn after a tumultuous year with Houston Nutt at Arkansas, where the two clashed over offensive philosophy. I asked if people would be resistant to the offense in the tradition-bound SEC. Here's his answer: "I don't know if resistance is the right word. Maybe skepticism. Maybe people are skeptical. Not so much now but early on, probably."

• Malzahn pointed out that some of those walls have already been broken down in the SEC and around college football for that matter. Urban Meyer, for instance, has done wonders with a unique offense at Florida. I don't think Gators fans seem to mind. "It probably does (help), because they're very unique," Malzahn said. "As well, we're unique. But you kind of see college football, you kind of see it being more unique, not traditional. Each year it changes a little bit. I mean, you look at what Oklahoma did last year with the speed. They're running no huddle with a fast pace. And of course they were very successful."

• Malzahn said most of his coaching idols were from the high school ranks in Arkansas, since that's where the majority of his formative coaching years took place. But he did identify one college coach that he really admired: Nebraska's Tom Osborne. "His professionalism," Malzahn said of what impresses him the most. "Of course he was a winner. And he was different. He was different than a lot of the coaches. ... Of course, they ran the option. As far as scheme-wise, definitely (we're) a lot different. But as far as trying to model myself as a coach, as a person, as a professional, that was what I wanted to be similar too."

• Malzahn was a walk-on receiver at Arkansas for Ken Hatfield from 1984-85 but admitted he "wasn't good enough to play." Going to Arkansas, though, was something he always wanted to do. "Just growing up in the state.," he said. "That's the only school in the state and a lot of those players dream about being Razorbacks. I was just like a lot of them. So it was a chance to play there and get a shot." Malzahn transferred to Division II Henderson State, where he played and later graduated in 1990.

• Tulsa seemed to be the only time in college so far where he had free rein to run his offense as he saw fit. That's because Malzahn had a kindred spirit in Todd Graham. Graham was a high school coach in Allen, Texas, while Malzahn was at Shiloh Christian in Arkansas. "I put out a little video and he bought it and called me in 1998, '99, somewhere around that, and we started talking," Malzahn said. "I went to Springdale High School and he was at Tulsa as the defensive coordinator. I took my teams over to team camp, so we kind of developed our relationship a little further, and he said, 'Hey, when I get a head job a little later, I want you to be my coordinator.' So I said, OK, sounds good, whatever. Well, that came to truth. He was great. We had the same exact philosophy, so it was a really good situation for me."

• Malzahn on his coaching demeanor: "I would say I'm probably pretty intense. I would say I'm a perfectionist. I want it to be perfect. And I think if you demand that, you don't get very many chances to coach your guys. The time limits and the rules, you've got to take advantage when you're out there. You've got to make the most of it."

• Thought this was telling: Malzahn used to play golf quite a bit but doesn't get out too often anymore. "I'm not good enough anymore to be good, so I don't like to play," he said. That sounds like the words of a perfectionist. (Strangely, I've never been good at golf, yet I still like to play. I think that makes me a glutton for punishment.)

• Malzahn was straightforward in acknowledging depth and learning a third offense in two years would be major hurdles for Auburn this year. But he couldn't give a timetable for when things normally click in his offenses from past instances. "I think you look at the Tulsa situation, we were solid the first year and the second year it all clicked," he said. "But it's hard. Each situation is different, so it's hard to put a timetable as far as when guys can get it, because the dynamics of how many young guys have to play, how many veterans you have that understand coverages and can easily adapt a new scheme or something. So there are a lot of variables where it's hard to put a specific timetable on it where, 'Hey, we should be clicking by this time.' I think it's a work in progress, and of course the more information I get, the more I know about our guys, and the more our coaches know about our guys, the quicker we can answer that question."

• In that regard, this summer is invaluable in making progress. "Of course we put in our base offense in the spring," Malzahn said. "And the whole key is this summer on their own if they can build upon that base and have a better understanding than when we left the practice field in the spring, and they come to fall camp where it's a little more natural. That's the goal. And then you can add all the fancy stuff later."

• Malzahn wouldn't mind being a head coach someday. But that's way, way down the line. "Somewhere down the line at this level I do, but I'm not in any hurry," he said. "We've got high goals here and Coach Chizik has put together a plan and we want to see that thing out. So that's my focus."