The spread option in college football

[daj2576]

Most people here should read "The Blind Side." No, watching the movie is not an effective substitute. Key point made in that book is that football is constantly evolving, and about the time that the evolution is noted, it has already been proven effective. There is a whole case study of the "west coast" style offense under Walsh at the Forty Niners (I believe, I am going from memory, and the NFL isn't my wheelhouse). People believed that the run game was more effective and that the NFL would never change. The problem was that the "west coast" style was statistically proving to have a lower turn over rate than running, and more yards per attempt. It was adopted and succesful, and then defenses evolved, and then offenses evolved, and so on. Offensive styles are simply an arms race. Right now "this style", whatever you want to call it, is proving itself effective against teams like Bama that dominate with more traditional talent. If you can't out-recruit Saban (and you are almost guaranteed not to) then you have to figure out a way to beat him with less talent...

 

[Cpatter4]

Florida won two titles with it. Auburn won a title with a version of it. Ohio State might win a title with it this year.

Or not...

 

[Volosaurus rex]

Most people here should read "The Blind Side." No, watching the movie is not an effective substitute. Key point made in that book is that football is constantly evolving, and about the time that the evolution is noted, it has already been proven effective. There is a whole case study of the "west coast" style offense under Walsh at the Forty Niners (I believe, I am going from memory, and the NFL isn't my wheelhouse). People believed that the run game was more effective and that the NFL would never change. The problem was that the "west coast" style was statistically proving to have a lower turn over rate than running, and more yards per attempt. It was adopted and succesful, and then defenses evolved, and then offenses evolved, and so on. Offensive styles are simply an arms race. Right now "this style", whatever you want to call it, is proving itself effective against teams like Bama that dominate with more traditional talent. If you can't out-recruit Saban (and you are almost guaranteed not to) then you have to figure out a way to beat him with less talent...

An analog to your example of the West Coast offense occurred on the college level, one that schematically involved our very own Dewey Warren to a greater degree than has generally been acknowledged. Throughout the late 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s, college football was dominated by teams which employed, to varying degrees, elements of the veer or wishbone offense, including Texas, Alabama, Oklahoma and Nebraska.

Dewey Warren "was instrumental in revolutionizing college football under LaVell Edwards at Brigham Young. Edwards, who had spent his career as a defensive coach, became head coach in 1972; he knew that BYU lacked the blue-chip athletes necessary to win consistently with a conventional run-oriented game and so handed the offense to Warren, who had been hired to install a passing attack. Warren's offense turned every running play into a passing play, and overwhelmed defenses with four and five receivers, coming from every possible position in the offense. Although Warren left BYU after only two seasons, his offense, led by quarterback Gary Sheide, was already setting records. BYU continues to use his offense, with further refinements, today" (Dewey Warren - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia).

 

[butchna]

An analog to your example of the West Coast offense occurred on the college level, one that schematically involved our very own Dewey Warren to a greater degree than has generally been acknowledged. Throughout the late 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s, college football was dominated by teams which employed, to varying degrees, elements of the veer or wishbone offense, including Texas, Alabama, Oklahoma and Nebraska.

Dewey Warren "was instrumental in revolutionizing college football under LaVell Edwards at Brigham Young. Edwards, who had spent his career as a defensive coach, became head coach in 1972; he knew that BYU lacked the blue-chip athletes necessary to win consistently with a conventional run-oriented game and so handed the offense to Warren, who had been hired to install a passing attack. Warren's offense turned every running play into a passing play, and overwhelmed defenses with four and five receivers, coming from every possible position in the offense. Although Warren left BYU after only two seasons, his offense, led by quarterback Gary Sheide, was already setting records. BYU continues to use his offense, with further refinements, today" (Dewey Warren - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia).

Fascinating information that I had no idea about...thank you...I like to learn a little every day...not too much where it would hurt
Posted via VolNation Mobile

 

[BigOrangeTrain]

If there was an offense that was better than all other offenses, everyone would run it. Thing is, every offense has its positives and negatives. As a coach, you have to run what you believe in and recruit the personnel to get it done. If you can get your guys to buy into it, you can win.....

:clapping::clapping:

 

[BigOrangeTrain]

Spread options sucks.

Signed,
2000 Oklahoma
2005 Texas
2006 Florida
2008 Florida
2010 Auburn

Pro style sucks.

Signed,
1998 Tennessee
1999 FSU
2001 Miami
2002 OSU
2003 LSU
2004 USC
2007 LSU
2009 Alabama
2011 Alabama
2012 Alabama

 

[daj2576]

Pro style sucks.

Signed,
1998 Tennessee
1999 FSU
2001 Miami
2002 OSU
2003 LSU
2004 USC
2007 LSU
2009 Alabama
2011 Alabama
2012 Alabama

Well that isn't a totally fair rebuttal. 50% of your examples are really just 2 Coaches being repeated. It isn't like you give 10 unique examples of it working. In fact, that is the very reason that the spread/read-option is being installed at almost every other SEC school at a break neck pace. You cannot beat Saban with his scheme and lessor talent. So you have two choices, out-recruit Saban (almost impossible), or out-scheme Saban. The latter happens about once a season. Isn't it true that like 7 of the 8 teams that Saban has lost to since starting his reign of terror run some version of the spread/read-option? That is exactly what those systems are designed to do (overcome superior talent with superior scheme).

 

[SpaceCoastVol]

Ohio State might win a title with it this year.

You bettin' on a meteor hitting Pasadena?

 

[PowerT83]

I don't care what offense a team runs, defense wins championships.

 

[majic73]

The "Power Spread" differs from the Air Raid type offenses of Mike Leach at Washington State/Dana Holgerson WVU - in the fact that they are looking to spread out the defense to be balanced and continue to run the football instead of airing it out everywhere. Now, how CBJ version of the spread option differs from say Auburn or Oregon is at this point hard to say. I really didn't see many Bearcat football games while he was there, and I don't think we've seen what this offense is supposed to look like here yet.

The passing part of Butch's offense is a west coast passing attack with stacked progressions. Very pro style ( see Denver - Manning )
The running game is a power game out of the shotgun . Instead of using a full back it is TE or H Back based with zone blocking. This is a pro style attack.
The zone read portion of this offense is really a small part ...it spreads the defense to the E gap and makes the inside dive play less crowded in theory .

Oregon is based on of the zone read ..their offense rotates around the read option...it is their base play

Auburn runs the Wing T all spread out ..as with any Wing T it is founded on misdirection

Myer runs the spread option ...basically the triple option all spread out

Leech runs a spread based out of the 4 verticals and spring draw concepts.

They are all different ...it makes no sense to just say 'spread'