Three days removed from the worst offensive showing of his career, Gus Malzahn empathized with the frustration expressed by Auburn's fan base.

Auburn totaled just 117 yards of offense, including just 38 rushing yards and 15 total second-half yards in a 14-6 loss to Clemson last weekend. The performance has inspired ire throughout the fan base, which has grown frustrated with continued offensive struggles that have included

"The frustration that they have that I fully understand is, the way that we finished the season last year and the frustration and then Saturday night looked the same," Malzahn said. "So, I get that from that standpoint. I will say this, we are going to improve. We're going to be a good offense; that is for sure. But that's their frustration and I understand that so it's natural to say that and I get that and I own that but we are going to improve."

Auburn struggled mightily against Clemson, with the offense allowing 11 sacks against the defending national champions and averaging just 1.8 yards per play for the game. While it was the worst offensive output of Malzahn's coaching career, three of the four worst offensive performances of his career have come in Auburn's last six games.

After two of those showings came late last season against Georgia (164 yards) and Alabama (182 yards), Malzahn vowed to make changes on the offensive front. Rhett Lashlee left for the offensive coordinator position at UConn, and following a prolonged search, Malzahn hired Chip Lindsey from Arizona State.

In hiring Lindsey, Malzahn hoped to revamp an offense that had become stale and predictable at times, expanding the passing game while incorporating more run-pass options and sticking to Auburn's identity as a run-first team. Malzahn also made the decision in January, upon Lindsey's hiring, to take a more hand's off approach to the offense and cede play-calling duties to his new coordinator.

Despite those promises, Malzahn appeared to be heavily involved with the offense and animated on the sideline during Auburn's loss in Death Valley. It was similar to his demeanor early last season, when he admitted to "living and dying with every play" during Auburn's early season struggles.

"Well, I was probably just as animated when we were on defense and special teams as I was offensively," Malzahn said of Saturday's game. "I'm an emotional coach. That's just the way I am."

It's a careful line to toe for head coaches trying to step in and fix things in the moment during gamedays. Ohio State coach Urban Meyer admitted as much Monday following his team's loss to Oklahoma over the weekend, when he was displeased with the Buckeyes' offensive play-calling in the game. Ohio State is also breaking in a new offensive coordinator.

"A lot of times head coaches can screw things up worse than they are," Meyer said. "And I'm not immune to that. So I'm more conscientious than I've ever been. I have very good coaches on offense. And they played well on defense and did a lot of unique things, and we knew they would because they prepared for this one. So, yeah, of course just didn't do it well enough."

When asked Tuesday, Malzahn would not say whether he agrees with Meyer's assessment. Still, both Malzahn and Lindsey insisted that Malzahn was hands off when it came to play-calling and that Lindsey had autonomy in running the offense, with Lindsey saying he called every one of Auburn's offensive plays -- both good and bad. Malzahn was still involved from a strategic standpoint, most notably making the decision to go for it multiple times on fourth down, including a precarious fourth-and-3 call in Clemson territory during the third quarter.

Trailing 14-6, Auburn called a slow-developing play-action pass from Clemson's 37-yard line that resulted in a 14-yard sack of Jarrett Stidham and a turnover on downs. The play was peculiar in not just the call itself, but the sideline interaction between Malzahn and Lindsey prior to the play, with both standing near each other and speaking into their headset before walking in opposite directions and Lindsey ending up well behind the play toward the opposite end zone.

"It was one of those situations where it was going to be a 55-yard field goal against the wind," Malzahn said. "Then you have the opportunity to punt. Then as the game moves on strategically, how you're moving the football and the chances you're going to have to score touchdowns. Eli Stove was really the first option on a deep post and we knew they were going to play zero (coverage). The out-and-up (to Chandler Cox) would be second. They green-dogged through and just didn't have enough time to hold it a little bit longer.

"From a coaches' standpoint, anytime we go for it on fourth down, that's going to be my call as far as doing that. Just as the game was unfolding, that's the way I felt. Obviously you look back and you'd like to take some things back when they don't work. At the time the way the game was unfolding, it was hard to move the football there for a while and I thought it was a chance to score a touchdown."

At the end of the day, Malzahn said Auburn "didn't get it done" offensively against Clemson, but the fifth-year Auburn coach expressed optimism that things will improve moving forward. Starting Saturday against Mercer, a game that Auburn should win handily on homecoming, Lindsey will move upstairs to the press box to call the offense while offensive line coach Herb Hand will move down to the field.

The hope is that the different perspective will help Lindsey give the offense a better chance to be successful, while Hand's presence on the sideline will help improve Auburn's offensive line play after allowing 14 sacks through two games.

Malzahn conceded, however, that fixing everything offensively is "going to take a little time." Still, he understands the mounting frustration of Auburn's fan base.

"You got to look at it really from the big-picture standpoint that (Clemson is) one of the best teams in college football, if not the best, could be," Malzahn said. "We have a very good defense, we have a good kicking game. We're going to improve on offense and our goals are all still intact. We're a good football team. Obviously, we didn't get it done on one side of the football. It's very frustrating for me. It's very frustrating for our coaches, but we have a team that has great leadership. We have a staff that is very close and we're going to put it in our rearview mirror and we're going to move forward.

"Our mind's on Mercer and we're going to play well. We need to improve each week and we have the makings of a good football team and that's what we're going to do."