Philip Lutzenkirchen found some open real estate in the flat, reached his right hand out and speared the football like his glove was covered in Krazy Glue.

He turned upfield and switched the ball to his left hand effortlessly, sneaking it just inside the pylon for a 4-yard touchdown catch before Ole Miss’ Damien Jackson could knock him out of bounds.

Auburn quarterback Clint Moseley had one thought running through his mind watching Lutzenkirchen go to work.

“I knew it was an ESPN Top 10 play,” Moseley said.

He was correct. Lutzenkirchen’s catch and dive occupied the No. 4 slot on the Saturday top plays countdown after the Tigers’ 41-23 win over the Rebels.

But Moseley couldn’t say it was too much out of the ordinary.

“He does it a lot. I wasn’t too surprised,” Moseley said. “That was awesome, because it was not a good throw. It made me look good on paper, at least.”

Moseley must be paying attention to Lutzenkirchen’s repeated forays into making the extraordinary mundane, because the sophomore quarterback has been looking the junior tight end’s way quite often since he took over as Auburn’s starter.

Lutzenkirchen has caught nine passes for 98 yards in five halves under Moseley’s watch, compared to eight catches for 60 yards in the first 11 halves he played this year.

Moseley said he’s not playing favorites. His eyes just seem to stray to jersey No. 43.

“I don’t know how this thing got blown up that me and Lutz are brothers and best friends, but we’re really close,” Moseley said. “He’s just always open. He’s a good receiver. I trust him.”

Perhaps Moseley also knows that Lutzenkirchen has caught a touchdown once every 3.08 times he’s touched the ball in college and already holds the Auburn record for career touchdown catches by a tight end, with 12.

Or the quarterback might have an inkling that 26 of the 37 passes — 70.3 percent — Lutzenkirchen has caught at Auburn have gone for first downs.

In a word, Lutzenkirchen is clutch.

And he doesn’t even know it most of the time.

“I didn’t realize I caught it with one hand until after I got into the end zone,” Lutzenkirchen said after the Ole Miss win. “We were just trying to kill the clock, and Clint put it to me.”

Lutzenkirchen got off to a somewhat slow start this season, or at least slower than most were expecting given his pedigree as a receiving tight end, his considerable physical gifts and the fact offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn was testing him out in the slot during the spring.

But Lutzenkirchen said he knew he’d have to keep inhabiting the blocking back role he morphed into over his first two years on campus, especially with H-back Eric Smith’s dismissal in the offseason.

“I kind of went into this year knowing I needed to be that H-back guy, that fullback,” Lutzenkirchen said. “I still consider myself a tight end, but you look at the NFL and the tight ends do that H-back stuff so it’s kind of all the same thing.

“I know right now, just depth-wise, we don’t really have a lot of guys that can do that H-back stuff, so if they need me to do it, I’m going to do it.”

He’s still found time to haul in three catches in each of the past three games — tying his career high with 48 yards against Florida — and give Malzahn and head coach Gene Chizik the ability to show teams a number of different looks out of just one player.

And they can be confident Lutzenkirchen will keep making plays, wherever he happens to line up.

“We use him in so many different ways,” Chizik said. “That’s something that becomes a great tool for us because he can be in a fullback position, he can be in a wideout position. He can be in a tight end or slot position. He’s just capable of doing a lot of things for your offense.”