To Spread or not to Spread

[teton]

Lots of schools are in their 2-3 years of running the Spread offense. As observers what have we learned and what makes this system click? Pros? Cons?

[Omniscience]

Lots of schools are in their 2-3 years of running the Spread offense. As observers what have we learned and what makes this system click? Pros? Cons?

Pros: Allows the offense to spread out the defense and utilize speed with option reads and draws. Also offers more 1on1 match ups in the secondary.

 

Cons: cannot control the clock and cannot have a true power running game

[Roy Dillard]

Lots of schools are in their 2-3 years of running the Spread offense. As observers what have we learned and what makes this system click? Pros? Cons?

 

Grider runs some kind of offense where the snapper snaps it straight back to the passer. I always liked when the passer squats down behind the snapper. Last year Grider would also put our best pass catcher back at passer and snap it to him. I dont know why he did this mess. No matter what kind of offense you run, you have to have good boys that can nock a hole and do good side body blocks for the runners to run thru.

[Stockerd]

Pros: Allows the offense to spread out the defense and utilize speed with option reads and draws. Also offers more 1on1 match ups in the secondary.

 

Cons: cannot control the clock and cannot have a true power running game

 

False:

 

Ive seen several schools (In MS and AL) that have become very efficient at controlling the clock while still spreading it out. The key is the no-huddle. If you can teach your boys to get lined up right, you can kill the clock by taking time to exploit the alignment of the defense. The Quick or short passing game out of the spread is a great way to dink your way down the field while chewing up clock.

 

As far as the power running game goes: Simply take a look at Auburn last year. Sure they had cam newton, but a lot of their run plays like Rhino, (or Power for you old schooler's), Bucksweep, Smash, and Trap were all run from the gun with the same blocking schemes. The difference now is, that defenses have the honor the fact that you have three, four, or five receivers out wide. This causes fewer people to be stacked in the box which also means fewer people to block.

 

The spreads great, but only if the coaches installing it know how to teach it.

[SEVEN]

False:

 

Ive seen several schools (In MS and AL) that have become very efficient at controlling the clock while still spreading it out. The key is the no-huddle. If you can teach your boys to get lined up right, you can kill the clock by taking time to exploit the alignment of the defense. The Quick or short passing game out of the spread is a great way to dink your way down the field while chewing up clock.

 

As far as the power running game goes: Simply take a look at Auburn last year. Sure they had cam newton, but a lot of their run plays like Rhino, (or Power for you old schooler's), Bucksweep, Smash, and Trap were all run from the gun with the same blocking schemes. The difference now is, that defenses have the honor the fact that you have three, four, or five receivers out wide. This causes fewer people to be stacked in the box which also means fewer people to block.

 

The spreads great, but only if the coaches installing it know how to teach it.

 

 

Totally agree. Good post Stockerd.

[Omniscience]

False:

 

Ive seen several schools (In MS and AL) that have become very efficient at controlling the clock while still spreading it out. The key is the no-huddle. If you can teach your boys to get lined up right, you can kill the clock by taking time to exploit the alignment of the defense. The Quick or short passing game out of the spread is a great way to dink your way down the field while chewing up clock.

 

As far as the power running game goes: Simply take a look at Auburn last year. Sure they had cam newton, but a lot of their run plays like Rhino, (or Power for you old schooler's), Bucksweep, Smash, and Trap were all run from the gun with the same blocking schemes. The difference now is, that defenses have the honor the fact that you have three, four, or five receivers out wide. This causes fewer people to be stacked in the box which also means fewer people to block.

 

The spreads great, but only if the coaches installing it know how to teach it.

I agree with you 100% when i was posting this I was thinking more of Rick Rod's offense at W.Virgina.

[Stockerd]

I agree with you 100% when i was posting this I was thinking more of Rick Rod's offense at W.Virgina.

 

 

Yea I see what your saying. I was thinking along the lines of Mike Leach, Hal Mummy, Gene Chizich, and the like.

[BigSwo]

Okay I agree that this skeem will work better in division 1 college level competition and even in 3A or higher in high school. Where the athletes and talent are far beyaond that of 1A high school play. In 1A level of comp most schools dont have the athletes or coaching to sucessfully pull off the spread skeem year after year. SP and a few other 1A schools can do this for a while but eventually they have to resort back to some type of power run offense.

I personaly love the veer or triple option at this level. When run properly it is very dificult to duplicte in practise and can wear 1A teams down especially in the 2nd half when most of these schools play iron man ball using offense and def players on both sides of the ball. UC won the 1A state championship against the best spread offense in 1A that being the mighty Pirates of SP. We controlled the tempo and late in the game moved the ball down the field to win on a last few second field goal. Spread offense is great but I prefer power smash mouth grind it out old school football. This is ofcourse just my opinoin.

[Omniscience]

Yea I see what your saying. I was thinking along the lines of Mike Leach, Hal Mummy, Gene Chizich, and the like.

Mike Leach if im not mistaken it a pass all the time offense, another type of spread

[Stockerd]

I currently am coaching for a guy that coached for 25 years in alabama and 12 of those years at Russelville HS. he personally studied under Mike Leach and Hal Mumme and in 2002 installed the spread at Russelville. These are the stats from that team in 2002.

 

RUSSELLVILLE 2002 14-1

 

RUSHES-YARDS 360-2110

YARDS PER CARRY 5.9

RUSH YARDS PER GAME 140.7

PASS COMP-ATT-YDS 290-443-4409

PASSING % 65%

YARDS PER COMP 15.2

INTERCEPTIONS 9

PASS YARDS PER GAME 293.9

TOTAL PLAYS 803

TOTAL YARDS 6519

YARDS/PLAY 8.1

YARDS/GAME 434.6

1ST DOWNS 223

PUNTS-YDS-AVG 29-944-32.6

FUMBLES 20

FUMBLES LOST 6

PENALTIES-YARDS 119-1099

POINTS SCORED 663

AVERAGE PPG 44.2

 

Im curious to see if any Collinwood fans would like to talk about the spread from 2008. One of the players on this 2002 Russelville team coached at Collinwood that year and installed a similar offense.

[rlh]

I kind of like the Run and Shoot style of Jun Jones or the Fun-N-Gun of Darth Visor more so than the spread. Those aren't always possible with H.S. teams due to personnel, but that really is a consideration, or should be regardless of formation.

Edited July 26, 2011 by rlh

[SEVEN]

Okay I agree that this skeem will work better in division 1 college level competition and even in 3A or higher in high school. Where the athletes and talent are far beyaond that of 1A high school play. In 1A level of comp most schools dont have the athletes or coaching to sucessfully pull off the spread skeem year after year. SP and a few other 1A schools can do this for a while but eventually they have to resort back to some type of power run offense.

I personaly love the veer or triple option at this level. When run properly it is very dificult to duplicte in practise and can wear 1A teams down especially in the 2nd half when most of these schools play iron man ball using offense and def players on both sides of the ball. UC won the 1A state championship against the best spread offense in 1A that being the mighty Pirates of SP. We controlled the tempo and late in the game moved the ball down the field to win on a last few second field goal. Spread offense is great but I prefer power smash mouth grind it out old school football. This is ofcourse just my opinoin.

 

I see what you are saying here. It worked to perfection against SP that day, but how quick do we forget about '05. That spread offense was a little more effective, don't you think? Best I recall, we didn't have any problem keeping the ball when needed, nor did we have any trouble getting off the field. It's all about personel and coaching.