2014 BCS National Championship Game: Gus Malzahn calls Florida State ‘probably the fastest defense that we’ve faced’

When you think of a big, fast, aggressive defense in college football, you usually think of a team from the SEC. The best and fastest defenses seemingly always come from that conference, especially as of late.

However, according to Auburn Tigers’ head coach Gus Malzahn, that isn’t the case this season. He believes the team the Tigers will face in the BCS National Championship Game, the Florida State Seminoles may have that label this season.

“They are probably the fastest defense that we’ve faced,” Malzahn told Joel A. Erickson of AL.com. “We’ve faced some really fast ones, but they may be the fastest. They can really run, and they are good tacklers.”

Florida State’s defense has recruited with the SEC since Jimbo Fisher took over as head coach in 2010. In fact, seven of the Seminoles’ defensive starters were regarded as five-star recruits by at least one of the major recruiting services (24/7, Rivals and Scout).

“Very athletic, big, strong,” Auburn guard Alex Kozan said. “They’re all elite D-1 players and they’ve got several guys who are going to be NFL guys in there so it’s going to take a lot of preparation from us to be able to execute. It’s going to come down to who’s going to win the line of scrimmage.”

The Seminoles and Tigers will finally kick off at 8:30 pm EST on Monday, January 6.