During the Gus Malzahn era of Auburn football, the Tigers have gravitated towards the offensive. Malzahn, a supposed offensive wizard, was content to field middling defenses in the interest of stocking a talent-rich, powerful offensive play-makers. Like many spread HUNH-tinged teams, the idea was to use the offense to wear an opposing defense out early, while compressing the responsibilities and mitigating the weaknesses of its own defense by limiting the number of offensive plays an opponent has time to run.
It worked well enough for a time, but after last year, when the Tigers met numerous teams with similar offensive strategies, it became apparent that the Tigers, at some point, were going to need to develop the kind of defense Auburn was once known for fielding: a gritty, talented, hard-nosed bunch with a relentless mean streak.