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Posted by ESPN.com's Graham Watson

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	"Professor" Gus Malzahn is looking forward to developing the offense at Tulsa.

Welcome to Part II of my conversation with Tulsa offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn. Malzahn, who is from Arkansas and spent all of his coaching career prior to coming to Tulsa in Arkansas, will return to play his home state schools for the first time.

Did you feel last year was the coming out party for the offense you weren't able to unveil at Arkansas?

Gus Malzahn: What we did last year, that's what I've been doing in high school and all that. It was a lot of fun for me personally. It was what I was used to doing, put it that way.

I touched on Arkansas a little bit, talk about the return trip to Arkansas this year. Have you thought about that at all?

GM: You know, I really haven't thought that much about it. I've been asked a lot. But that's in the middle of the season. I'm sure I'll think about it a lot more then. A lot of their players I recruited and I'm close to, so it will be a pretty unique experience I'm sure.

Was there a point where you were contacted about being the new Arkansas coach?

GM: Yeah, we went through the interview process and all that, but it just didn't work out. Everything's been timing. And I'll tell you what, we've got so much positive going here. We recruited a lot of athletes who could have went a lot of other places and they chose to come here. (Tulsa) coach (Todd) Graham has set this place up to do some special thing, we feel like, so I'm tickled to death to be here.

Looking at the way the schedule sets up, with the exception of maybe of that Arkansas game and UCF, you guys look like you're poised to make a pretty good run. Have you guys talked about that at all or is that something you even let your guys think about?

GM: Coach Graham has high expectations from this program and because of his dream and vision that's a lot of the reason I'm here. I believe the same way and we want to win championships. Hopefully, we'll be a better team than we were last year and try to figure out a way to try and win those four that we lost.

Where did you and coach Graham actually meet and how did you guys form your relationship?

GM: When I was at Shiloh Christian High School (Springdale, Ark.) and he was at Allen High School (Allen, Texas) in Texas. I had a little No Huddle video out and he called me to ask me questions about that. We developed a relationship over a period of time after he went to West Virginia and he came up here to Tulsa. So I thought I would bring my Springdale High School (Springdale, Ark.) team over to team camp and we developed the relationship further. He was always talking about, 'Hey, we need to coach together.' So we're two former high school coaches. We have the same philosophy. We think exactly alike. We're a lot alike and I love working for him.

What influenced your decision to come up to Tulsa last year?

GM: A lot of it had to do with him (coach Graham) and the vision he had for this place. I knew the fact that he felt like I did offensively and we felt like we could do some special things here.

Has anyone ever confused you for a professor because of your glasses? You look really intelligent and mildly intimidating.

GM: A professor? Wow. It's the glasses. I'm thinking about getting Lasik done. My wife told me I could lose the glasses and it wouldn't hurt her feelings.