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Why is this man smiling? Because Gus Malzahn hasn't coached a game as Auburn's head coach and his hurry-up no-huddle offense already is in some opponents' heads. (Julie Bennett/jbennett@al.com)

I’ve seen the bogeyman, looked him right in the eye just last week, matter of fact, and he looks nothing like his reputation.

Unlike in the movies, he wears glasses, a visor and a polo, and if that weren’t disarming enough, get this. He doesn’t chase you. He makes you chase him until you drop.

His name isn’t Jason or Freddy or Michael Myers.

Most people just call him Gus.

Gus Malzahn. Yeah, that’s him. If you’re a head coach or a defensive coordinator in the SEC, and he’s not already living in your dreams, he’ll be coming soon to a nightmare near you.

As soon as he finds a quarterback.

With a solid quarterback, he can scare Nick Saban and one of his national championship teams. W

ith a spectacular quarterback, Malzahn can beat Saban and his most talented team.

If you think you've already heard complaining from the likes of Bret

Bielema, Will Muschamp and Saban himself about the dangers the hurry-up no-huddle offense presents to their poor little defenders, just wait.

Wait till Nick Marshall or Jeremy Johnson or a quarterback to be named later turns into Cam Newton Jr. Wait till Dameyune Craig and Rodney Garner reel in even more talent to put in Malzahn’s hands.

With the right mix of talent, teaching and scheming, Malzahn’s offense can win a national championship. How do we know? It already has.

Witness. D

uring that 2010 BCS Championship season, behind the Heisman winner at quarterback, Auburn scored a school-record 577 points. I

n 2011 and 2012 combined, with a grab bag of Barrett Trotter, Clint Moseley, Kiehl Frazier and Jonathan Wallace at the controls, Auburn scored 558 points.

Before you even say it, yes, Malzahn was the offensive coordinator in 2010 and 2011. The difference? Give him the right tools, and get out of his way.

By proposing

a

fter every first down, whether the offense subs or not, Bielema’s trying to head Malzahn off at the pass.

If you can’t beat ‘em, pass a rule to try and stop ‘em.

By suggesting that the pace of play is hazardous to their defensive players’ health, Bielema, Muschamp and Saban are forgetting that Malzahn’s offensive players aren’t getting to take a nap between snaps, either, when the hurry-up no-huddle is in full flight.

If your players can’t keep up, it’s your job to shape ‘em up.

By expressing concern about the hurry-up no-huddle, one coach after another is admitting that the opponents that run it have gotten into their heads. A

nd no one in college football, especially with Chip Kelly gone to the Philadelphia Eagles, runs it quite like Malzahn.

It’s one thing for Hugh Freeze to run the hurry-up no-huddle at Ole Miss. As impressive as his 2013 recruiting class may have been, the next Cam Newton’s probably not walking through his door.

The last one walked through Malzahn’s door. An exceptionally reasonable facsimile, Johnny Manziel, fell into Kevin Sumlin’s lap at Texas A&M, and Sumlin knew exactly what to do with him to win 11 games last season, one of them in Tuscaloosa.

If Malzahn has a partner in crime, at least in the eyes of the old-school pro-style coaches in the SEC, it’s Sumlin. Give those two coaches some real athletes, the kind Auburn and A&M have proven they can attract, and they don’t need a lot of time to do some real damage.

That’s what the rest of the league is afraid of. That’s why some of their potential victims believe, where the hurry-up no-huddle’s concerned, there oughta be a law.

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