Gus Malzahn Beats Georgia with a Play Called ‘Little Rock’

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gf5jnajTKJI

It was fourth down and 18 yards and the improbable happens. A play that is being called a miracle occurs, and you can see for yourself how it all went down in the video above.

The result’s final outcome is Gus Malzahn beats Georgia. And he did it with a play called “Little Rock.” Some would call the play “Lotsa Luck,” but hey, Malzahn writes his own play book, and if anyone has a play dialed up to bounce off the shoulder pads of two defenders and into the hands of a waiting receiver for a touchdown, it’s Gus.

AL.com reported today, the history of the play.

“It’s a play called Little Rock,” Malzahn said Tuesday on the Dan Patrick Show.

The 73-yard touchdown pass from Nick Marshall to Ricardo Louis via a deflection from Georgia safety Josh Harvey-Clemons cemented the play in Auburn lore Saturday. The Tigers scored, grabbing a 43-38 lead with 25 seconds remaining to set up the biggest Iron Bowl match-up yet with Alabama.

Malzahn installed the “Little Rock” play as a high school coach in 1998, when Shiloh Christian was on its way to its first of two state championships in Arkansas under Malzahn.

“It was going to be the play that was going to get us in the state championship game that happened to be in Little Rock,” Malzahn explained later on the SEC coaches’ teleconference. The Saints ran the play successfully for a first down in a 49-14 victory against Hector in the state championship game that year. It also led to a touchdown or two when Rhett Lashlee, now Auburn’s offensive coordinator, was Malzahn’s quarterback in the late 1990s.

…

“You know, my experience is some players just have a way to make a play when others can’t and any time you make a play like that at the end of the game and you’re successful with everything that was on the line, you just say, hey, good job,” Malzahn said. “And then you talk about in the future different things and all that.”

It makes you wonder if Houston Nutt called the “Little Rock” in 2002 to beat LSU in what we all know as the Miracle on Markham.