AUBURN, Ala. – With every great play-caller, there are some calls that work and others that don't for various reasons. But every now and then, there's that perfect call. The call where the defense does exactly what you want them to do and the play works flawlessly.
In Saturday's 55-16 win over Kent State, Gus Malzahn made that call.
It was midway through the third quarter, and Auburn was already ahead 31-10. The Tigers had dominated on the ground all game and were coming off a 67-yard touchdown drive where they ran it six times and only threw it twice. On this next drive, they had already run it four straight times and picked up 28 yards to move into Kent State territory. So on first-and-10, everybody in the stadium expected another run.
Sure enough, Bo Nix took the shotgun snap and handed it off to Kam Martin. However, this time Martin took two steps, turned around and tossed it back to Nix. The freshman quarterback set his feet and launched a long pass down the middle of the field to a wide-open Eli Stove, who caught it in stride at the 10-yard line and waltzed into the end zone for a 49-yard touchdown.
The play, known as a flea-flicker, couldn't have been scripted any better. The linebackers and safeties for Kent State both charged forward when Martin took the handoff, thinking it was another run. To his credit, Stove faked like he was going to block before taking off deep.
Though Auburn made it look easy, there were still a lot of variables that went into the play, beginning with Martin doing his job and making a toss back to the quarterback.
"It was just getting the ball, securing it, and just getting the ball to Bo," Martin said. "Give him a soft toss. Don't throw it too hard, just a soft toss. But we've repped that over like 20 times. I knew I was going to be fine on it."
Next, it was on Nix to secure the ball and make the throw.
"I just tried to stay in rhythm as much as I could and just treat it like a normal contested throw," Nix said. "It happened so fast, I kind of got rid of it pretty quickly like I normally would. I didn't hold onto it and think about it too much. I actually thought we protected it well, so it was easy just to catch it, find him and throw it to him."
The final part was the catch. And while most would believe that making a catch when you're that wide open is easy, it still takes plenty of concentration. But Stove, whose eyes lit up when he initially heard the play call, realized right away that it was going to work.
"I knew we had the perfect coverage, and I knew they were going to bite," the junior wide receiver said. "Once he bit on it, 'Yeah, it's time to go. You've got to go get the ball.'"
For Stove, it was his second touchdown catch of the season. Through three games, he leads all Auburn receivers with 16 catches, 133 yards and the two scores. It was also the longest of pass of Nix's career to this point and the longest play of the season for the Tigers on offense.
Ultimately, it turned out to be that perfect play call – a flea-flicker – and thanks to a dominant rushing performance and perfect execution, it resulted in a 49-yard touchdown strike.