Coaches like to say that the best thing about a young quarterback is that he'll be an older quarterback someday soon.

Gus Malzahn can't wait for freshman Bo Nix to gain that experience. In the interim, however, the Tigers find themselves alternating between admiration for Nix's moxie and frustration over his lack of patience in certain situations.

Hasty decisions often work to the defense's advantage.

That happened a few times during the Tigers' 51-10 victory in Fayetteville last weekend. Though Nix finished the game as Auburn's top-rated player according to Pro Football Focus, he nonetheless conceded a few plays that were designed thoughtfully and executed crisply.

One of them almost certain would have yielded Malik Miller's first touchdown of the season. Instead, it went as an awkward incomplete pass to the other side of the field.

Here's how it looked on paper:

This general concept, slipping the tailback out of the backfield down the sideline, is a Malzahn staple. He plays around with it from year to year in terms of formation and personnel. Years ago, he liked throwing this to TE C.J. Uzomah from an H position.

A few years later, the liked targeting Kerryon Johnson.

In this case, Malzahn called the play with Malik Miller in the backfield. While he lacks elite acceleration, Miller is the most the most sure-handed option among the currently available backs.

This play is made to go to the tailback. Period.

The blocking design is a bit unusual. Auburn coaxes a vertical charge from the play-side DE since tackle Jake Driscoll instead aims inside for a down block. LG Marquel Harrell comes around the horn to chip that crashing DE and give Miller enough time to get beyond the linebacker charged with defending him.

As long as Harrell gets across to chip that DE, this play should work.

Here's how it unfolded in real time:

Harrell chipped his guy, but Nix got spooked a moment before Harrell arrived. Nix sensed pressure from that play-side DE and immediately moved from the wheel route to Seth Williams' fade route on the back side.

Williams was surprised by the throw because, well, the play wasn't designed to come his way. Sal Cannella on the shallow drag wasn't a read on this play.

The play's design? Good. The linebacker defending Miller (shaded in red above) over-pursued him and was at least two steps behind as the wheel route developed. The play-side safety was forced to step down and defend Cannella's route, which left Miller in open space with only a cornerback in the area.

Anthony Schwartz was in position to block that cornerback. This was going to be a big play.

It instead went as a 3rd-and-2 failure. A simple lack of patience wrecked this otherwise sharp call and good overall execution. Nix takes pride in not making the same mistake twice. He'll surely get another chance with this play; Malzahn rarely goes more than a few games without calling an RB Wheel.

POSTSCRIPT: I have included footage from the same call made the Music City Bowl. It was executed more cleanly at quarterback and yielded a touchdown. Easy as can be.

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