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Gus Malzahn still remembers the 2006 season, his first in college football. He remembers the wow moment when he stood across the sideline from Steve Spurrier, one of his coaching heroes. Malzahn wore a visor that game, a look that began when he was a high school coach and continued until just recently, because he wanted to emulate Spurriers trademark look.That same season, Malzahn also matched wits with Pete Caroll, Les Miles and Urban Meyer.It was a dream come true for Malzahn. He had made the jump straight from coaching high school football to calling plays in the SEC as the?Arkansas?offensive coordinator. That type of jump was rare back then, and its almost unheard of today.However, by the end of the season, Malzahn was ready to move on. He left Arkansas, an SEC school in his home state to take the same position at Tulsa.Why? It wasnt a promotion. It wasnt even a lateral move. I think it was a deal of having common philosophy in our values and how we run a program and what we believed in, and it was great combination,?former Tulsa and current Arizona State coach Todd Graham said.Ten years later, Malzahn hasnt forgotten that season. Those experiences, both good and bad, helped make him the coach that he is today.To understand what happened in 2006, you have to first understand how Malzahn arrived in Fayetteville. Before taking the job, he was one of the winningest high school football coaches in the state of Arkansas. He won at every stop during his 14 years as a high school head coach -- Hughes, Shiloh Christian, Springdale -- and turned down college job offers after the 2003 and 2004 seasons. In 2005, his Springdale team went 14-0, outscored their opponents 664-118 and captured the Class 5A state championship.?At Arkansas, head coach Houston Nutt was coming off back-to-back losing seasons in 2004 and 2005. He had served as his own offensive coordinator his first eight seasons with the Razorbacks, but there was pressure to make a change. People inside the program, including athletic director Frank Broyles, wanted to bring Malzahn in to run the offense.[Broyles] said the thing that would be really good for this state right now would be to hire Gus Malzahn, Nutt said. I visited with Gus. I was impressed with him. I was impressed with some of the things he did in high school. I said OK, thats probably going to work.He also had five good players with him.Those five players, or the Springdale Five as they were called, played no small part in why Arkansas hired Malzahn. Nutt couldnt afford to let elite-level recruits leave the state, and they were planning to leave. Mitch Mustain, the 2005 Gatorade National Player of the Year, wanted to commit to either Notre Dame?or Texas. Ben Cleveland and Damian Williams both committed early to Florida, and Bartley Webb was already committed to the Fighting Irish.Malzahn changed all that. Mustain, Cleveland, Williams and fellow Springdale teammate Andrew Norman all signed with the Razorbacks in 2006 as a result of his hire. Only Webb stuck with his original commitment and signed with Notre Dame.The only reason we went to the University of Arkansas was because of Malzahn, Cleveland said.If the 2006 season was to be judged solely by results, then it wouldve been a smashing success for Malzahn and that entire Arkansas team. After losing the opener to USC, the Razorbacks won 10 straight games, won the SEC West and played in SEC championship game.No Arkansas team has made it to Atlanta since.But nobody realized what was going on behind the scenes. The arrival of Malzahn led to a division in the locker room between the Springdale group and other members of the team. There were unhappy players and unhappy parents, who complained about playing time, which often was not Malzahns call. It was not what he signed up for when he left high school football to take his shot in college.You were the God of Arkansas and now youre the offensive coordinator, Cleveland said. Thats a lot of pressure. And then on top of that, you brought in four of your kids that look up to you, trusted you and he has no control over it. It makes him look like a bad person.It was hard. You could see he was frustrated.On the field, it wasnt much better. Malzahn wanted to run his hurry-up, no-huddle offense on every drive, but Nutts style had always been to huddle and he wasnt willing to give up on that. So they did it both ways. At times, theyd go fast and run Malzahns tempo. Other times, theyd slow it down and huddle.We never really had an argument, Nutt said, because I would always say, Hey this is what we want. I know the ideas that you had. You want to be a little bit more up-tempo and you want to throw the ball. But here are your playmakers.Even though everybody might have had a different opinion on what was the best way to go about doing it, when we got to practice and we got to Saturday, everybody was extremely professional, added Auburn offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee, a graduate assistant at Arkansas that year. There were never any blowups or anything like that. We all pulled in the same direction, and I think thats why we were able to win the West.After the bowl game, Malzahn resigned and left for Tulsa. Andrew Norman, one of his former players, followed him there. Both Mustain and Williams transferred to USC. The only Springdale player who remained at Arkansas was Cleveland.On Saturday, Malzahn will coach against the same Arkansas program that gave him his start in college football 10 years ago.It feels like a long time ago, Malzahn said recently. Maybe a couple years ago it didnt, but now it feels like a long time ago.Any time you do something new, you learn on the go. You learn a lot about college football. That first year, I learned a lot about myself. Any time you take the next step to the next level, youre confident but you have questions. Will this really work at this level? Well you dont know until you do it. You dont just tell nobody that.It did work. It might not have worked the way he wanted at Arkansas that first year, but it worked at Tulsa in 2007 and 2008 when his offenses put up more yards than any team in the country. It worked the first time at Auburn when he was offensive coordinator and played an integral role in the Tigers 2010 national championship. It worked at Arkansas State in 2012 when he won a conference championship his first year as a head coach.And its still working for Malzahn, now in his fourth year as Auburns head coach.When youre in this competitive league, one of the toughest leagues in America, its not easy, Nutt said. If you look now, hes not calling plays. That was what he was known for. So hes delegating responsibility, and hes trying to do the best he can.Handing the playcalling duties over to Lashlee was the latest proof that Malzahn has evolved as a coach. He better understands the rigors of recruiting and the daily grind it takes to do this job. Hes even letting his players wear wristbands and gloves, and letting them listen to music in the locker room. He never wouldve done that when he was coaching in high school.In a lot of ways, though, hes the same coach he was 10 years ago.To be honest with you, the thing about Coach that probably stands out the most is hes very consistent, Lashlee said. He is who he is. Hes business. Hes focused on pretty much the one thing that hes doing at the time. And hes a perfectionist. Thats the way he is and thats the way he kind of coaches, and it carries over to his players.He was that way in high school, and he never really changed when he went to college. I think thats probably one of the main reasons hes been successful. Hes stayed true to himself. Cheap Nike Soccer Jerseys . Woodson said during a radio interview Thursday that the Knicks Carmelo Anthony doesnt get the same calls as other superstars. Wholesale Soccer Jerseys For Sale . The Celtics closed out their first preseason under Stevens on Wednesday night with a 101-97 victory over the Brooklyn Nets, who rested a lot of their lineup including former Celtics Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce. http://www.chinajerseyssoccer.com/ . The 17-year-old native of Marystown, N.L., pulled out of Skate Canada International last month in Saint John, N.B., with the same problem. 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SAN FRANCISCO -- The San Francisco Giants are assured of a 163rd game this season.Sunday, theyll try to make sure that contest occurs in New York, not St. Louis.The Giants can claim the second wild-card spot in the National League and a one-game showdown with the New York Mets in the Big Apple on Wednesday with either a win Sunday against the Los Angeles Dodgers or a St. Louis Cardinals loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates.The Cardinals can still force a one-game wild-card tiebreaker against the Giants on Monday in St. Louis with a win Sunday and a San Francisco loss.Giants manager Bruce Bochy was fully aware of the ramifications of Saturdays 3-0 victory over Clayton Kershaw and the Dodgers within minutes of the final pitch.No matter what, were traveling, Bochy said of the next game after Sunday. Theres still more to do.The Giants send left-hander Matt Moore to the mound Sunday to face Dodgers righty Kenta Maeda.Moore came within one out of no-hitting the Dodgers on Aug. 25 in a 4-0 victory. He also pitched a 3-1 victory over Los Angeles for the Tampa Bay Rays earlier this season, allowing just an unearned run in 6 2/3 innings.The Giants acquired Moore from the Rays at the trade deadline.But Moore also had a pair of less-than-stellar efforts against the Dodgers this season, suffering 10-5 (for the Rays) and 9-3 (for the Giants) losses during which he was bombed for 13 runs on 15 hits in 5 1/3 innings.Maeda has been much more consistent. In fact, hes allowed three ruuns or fewer in 12 consecutive starts, and has a decision to show for each of his last 10 outings.dddddddddddd Hes 7-3 over that stretch.And theres been nothing inconsistent about his results against the Giants this season. Hes gone 3-0, compiling a 2.65 ERA over 17 innings.The Dodgers will get one final tune-up against a left-hander before the playoffs. They went only 3-for-26 against Giants rookie lefty Ty Blach in Saturdays loss, dropping their season average against southpaws to .215, -- by far the worse mark in all of baseball.Today wasnt a good day for the quality of at-bats, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of his teams on-going issues with lefties. Were going to see a lefty in the next series. We have to be better.That next series will be the NL Division Series against the Washington Nationals starting Friday.Saturdays loss locked the Dodgers, champions of the NL West, into the No. 3 seed in the NL playoffs. The second-seeded Nationals, winners of the NL East, have the home-field advantage in the best-of-five series.Maeda is slated to be the Dodgers third starter in the series, after Kershaw and left-hander Rich Hill.The Giants and Dodgers also will use the regular-season finale Sunday as a final audition for postseason roster spots. Each club will have to trim back significantly to reach the 25-man limit for the playoffs. ' ' '