Saturday, January 5, 2008

Terrelle Pryor Showcases His Spread-ability in San Antonio


Terrelle Pryor has been called the next Vince Young. He certainly looked the part Saturday at the U.S. Army All-American Bowl high school all-star game in San Antonio, Texas.

Pryor ran the spread offense for the East team with exceptional poise and execution, leading his team to a 33-23 win over a talented West team.

Pryor split playing time with two other quarterbacks, but ended with 155 all-purpose yards, 79 rushing and 76 passing and was named the games MVP.

The physically dominant quarterback out of Pennsylvania stands 6-foot-6 and 230 pounds.

He still has not announced a college choice for next season. He is reportedly considering Florida, Michigan, Penn State, Ohio State, West Virginia, and Oregon.

The national signing day is Feb. 6.

Thursday, January 3, 2008

West Virginia's Venomous Spread Stings Oklahoma




Just when you thought the wheels popped off the WVU Mountaineer spread offense after their crushing loss to PITT on December 1st, they unleashed a venomous attack on the Oklahoma Sooner's in the 2008 Fiesta Bowl 48-28.

West Virginia amassed 525 yards of total offense (349 on the ground) against a Sooner team that was allowing 91 yards of rushing a game.

Patrick White was responsible for 326 yards of total offense, and showed why he's one of the most explosive dual threat quarterback's in NCAA history.

A few articles ago we discussed how important a balanced attack was in the spread offense and pointed to WVU as one of those programs that may need to add more passing into their attack.

Well, the interim staff over in Morgantown did just that, as White connected on some timely passes the entire night which kept OU off-balanced.

Another impressive showing was by Noel Devine, the true freshmen back-up tailback at WVU who ran for 108 yards and 2 TD's (filling in for the injured Steve Slaton).

Great job Mountaineer's and Coach Bill Stewart, the new Mountaineer Head Football Coach.

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Capital One Bowl - Filled With Spread Offense Vibes

How cool is the atmosphere at the 2008 Capital One Bowl with Florida playing Michigan.

You have in the house down in Orlando Tim Tebow (this year's Heisman trophy winner and our player of the year), Coach Urban Meyer and Coach Dan Mullen from the Gators (two top Executives of the spread offense), Michigan throwing in a new spread offense wrinkle in Coach Carr's last game, and the Chairmen of the Board Rich Rodriguez at SpreadOffense.com on the sidelines as an observer (Michigan's new coach).

Wouldn't it be nice to grab this group after the game for some spread offense talk, a little clinic stuff for us spread fanatics!

Enjoy the bowl games - a lot of shot-gun spread offense is being displayed throughout the country.

Sunday, December 30, 2007

How Important is a Balanced Attack In The Spread Offense?

When you think of the spread offense, what is the first thing that comes to mind? Is it running the ball using the zone read, triple option, and quarterback 'single wing' type plays like West Virginia and Oregon (with Dennis Dixon)? Is it throwing the ball all over the field both vertically and horizontally like Hawaii? OR...is it a balanced mix of rushing the football and passing the football like Florida?

I must admit, when I personally think of the spread offense today (at this moment), the first thing that comes to my mind is the use of the quarterback in the rushing game...the Coach Rodriguez style of the spread that has made West Virginia a national powerhouse over the last 3 years. But is this style of the spread offense the best style? Is this style the 'formula' for ultimate success?

Maybe the reason I think of the spread in this rushing form is because it is the newest, freshest, or the 'buzz' out there in college and high school - not necessarily the 'best' form or style.

I mean don't get me wrong, when Oregon, Appalachian State or West Virginia had teams scrambling to figure out how to defend their respective rushing dominant spread offenses, it was some of the funniest stuff to watch as both a fan and a coach. It was so good that you wondered 'how the heck are they doing that?'... gashing some pretty good defenses with these shot-gun spread running plays?

On the flip side, if you tuned into West Virginia's two defeats this year versus South Florida (who has beaten WVU two years in a row with great defense) and Pittsburgh, you would have shook your head saying "What's all the fuss about?"

As a former offensive coordinator myself, I must admit that one of the hardest things to do is get away from something that is so successful so often. Is it pride, ego, stubbornness, or the fear of not enough preparation or more importantly game exposure to 'Plan B' that prevents coaches from shifting gears when a defense hasn't stopped you all day?

Remember, there is only so much time in a day and more importantly so much 'game experience' for alternative measures to be confidently ran when the scoreboard is on.

So as a coach...what do you do? Your racking up tons of yardage and points using a lot of the same stuff simply because the defense can't stop you, do you stop calling what's working (going against the 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it' motto) and try to 'balance' your attack? Risking a possible turnover or more importantly loss of offensive momentum and scoring to prepare for the future (just in case)?

Obviously the capabilities of your player's will have a lot of determination on how balanced you are willing to be.

It's a fact that Patrick White from WVU couldn't run Colt Brennan's offense at Hawaii (or vice versa) but how 'balanced' could these two guys really be?

Colt Brennan threw for 4,174 and rushed for 65 so far this year

Patrick White threw for 1,548 and rushed for 1,185 so far this year

If you looked at these two stats from two great college QB's, you would say that West Virginia is the more 'balanced' offensive team, but is either team really 'balanced'?

Then you have the Heisman trophy winner Tim Tebow from Florida, his stats so far this year look like this:

Passing: 3,132
Rushing: 838

Not very balanced stats, but during my observation of this year, I would have to say that Urban Meyer and Dan Mullen of Florida do the best job of 'balancing' an attack and more importantly staying with that balanced attack game plan then any other spread offense in the nation.*

Is it because of Tim Tebow's skills? or a philosophy the Gator's have that staying balanced in the spread is the right formula to keep defenses honest and stressed?

The Gators did lose 3 games this year in the very tough SEC conference.


* (As a side note, Butch Jones from Central Michigan also did a great job of balancing his attack in the Motor City Bowl this year.)

Thursday, December 27, 2007

The Spread Offense Dominates the 2007 Motor City Bowl

One of the best quotes I heard this year was ESPN's Kirk Herbstreit mentioning at the Heisman trophy presentation earlier this month, "Scoring in college football reached an all-time high this season (2007), the reason being the execution of The Spread Offense by teams throughout the country".

Right on Herbie....

Purdue outlasted Central Michigan in the 2007 Motor City Bowl by a score of 51-48.

Both teams used the shot-gun spread offense, with Purdue more of a passing team, and Central Michigan more of a running attack, though balanced with some timely passing mixed in.

Both coaches, Joe Tiller and Butch Jones are from the spread offense fraternity of coaches.

Tiller is more of an 'innovator' of the spread passing game, while Jones comes from the Rich Rodriguez coaching tree as an assistant at West Virginia.

In last nights game, Curtis Painter (Purdue QB) and Dan LeFevour (Central Michigan QB) but on a show that would make Tim Tebow and Patrick White blush.

LeFevour threw for 292 yards and four scores and ran for 114 yards and two TD's for the Chippewa's.

Painter threw for a school-record 546 yards and three touchdown passes, setting up Chris Summers' 40-yard field goal as time expired.

The 99 points tied the second-highest total in a bowl game that ended in regulation, trailing only the 2003 Insight Bowl where California beat Virginia Tech 52-49.

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Hawaii tops West Virginia in ESPNU's Simulated College Football Final

The Hawaii Warriors defeated the West Virginia University Mountaineers in the championship game of a simulated college football Division 1-A playoff 45 -41 held by ESPNU.

Why report on this? Well, we thought it was nice to see two spread offense teams, one dominant in the passing game (Hawaii), the other the running game (West Virginia) make it to the final through EA Sports simulated NCAA Football platform.

See some highlights of the simulated title game below.

Sunday, December 23, 2007

A Nice Wrinkle by BYU in The Spread Offense

I had not seen the Brigham Young University football team play this year being I'm on the east coast, but I had a chance to watch them last night in the Las Vegas Bowl versus the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA).

I was very impressed with one neat 'wrinkle' in their spread offense, that being the way they align at the line of scrimmage during their no huddle pre snap period.

What BYU does is come directly to the line in a tight pro-set I formation, then they shift into a wider shot-gun spread set, with the offensive linemen really opening up their splits during this shift.

I also saw them run a few plays out of this tighter pro-set formation from the I (sort of a quick tempo play), keeping the defense honest and requiring them to defend the offense prior to shifting.

Nice job by BYU... again another 'wrinkle' in the ever evolving spread offense.

Here's a small video clip of a BYU preseason practice.

Saturday, December 22, 2007

Zone Read - Playing the Numbers


The zone read is considered by most shot-run spread offense coaches as the 'bread and butter' run play of this offensive system. It's comparable to the buck sweep in the 'Wing-T' or the ISO in the 'I formation'.

Lets breakdown two important areas of the zone read that make it so effective:



  1. The Quarterback 'cancelling out' the backside (DE or OLB) line of scrimmage threat

  2. Counting the 'numbers' in the box and favoring blocking angles

1. A key component of the shot-gun spread offense is the ability of the quarterback to 'cancel out' the backside Defensive End (DE) at the mesh point with the Running Back.


What we are saying here is that at the critical point where the quarterback has to decide whether to keep the ball or hand it off (the mesh point), the defensive end (or possibly an outside linebacker) responsible for backside contain has to make one of two decisions.


Decision #1 is to crash or knife down the line of scrimmage for the running back, Decision #2 is to 'stay home' and box out the quarterback for a potential keep.


If the QB reads decision 1, he keeps it for a backside bootleg run or triple option pitch progression, if the QB reads decision 2, the QB hands it off to the running back (and fakes the bootleg run), thus 'cancelling out' or blocking in effect the backside end.


2. One thing the zone read allows is the offense to dictate 'numbers' and 'angles' during the pre-snap period. This is why 90% of spread offense teams go with a no huddle, it makes the defense show their hand in regards to alignment, allowing the offense to change the play based on 'lucky or ringo', 'rip or liz'...coaches and player lingo for go 'right or left' with the play.


If the defensive alignment shows more defender to the left (using the centers crotch as the mid-line) in the box, then the call at the line would be 'ringo', meaning we're zoning right, thus the QB will be reading the left defensive end on the zone read.


This number is usually a 4 vs. 3 defenders scenario that determines the call. If the numbers are even (say 4 left and 4 right), a lot of coaches teach their quarterback to read the defensive front alignment, looking to run to the '1 technique' tackle side as opposed to the '3 technique' tackle side, looking for better zone blocking angles.


If you don't want to take that path with your quarterback, you can also pick the side in an even defensive alignment scenario based on your team's preference, wide side of the field, or player strength (or a defenders weak side), or audible to the bubble screen if appropriate.


Mastering these two areas of the shot-gun zone read can really go a long way in producing some serious offensive production.




See video below of some exciting shot-gun, spread offense zone read plays (of course 'speed and agility' from your player's help make it all look great).



Thursday, December 20, 2007

The Spread Offense Player Of The Year in 2007: Tim Tebow

Tim Tebow, quarterback for the University of Florida and the 2007 Heisman Trophy winner has been named "The Spread Offense Player of the Year" in 2007 by SpreadOffense.com

Tebow became the first player in major college history to run for at least 20 touchdowns and throw 20 TD passes in the same season. He accounted for 51 touchdowns, including a SEC record 22 rushing, and set a school record with 3,970 yards of total offense. He also was the second-rated quarterback in the country, completing 68 percent of his throws for 3,132 yards.

If you think about the consummate 'dual threat' quarterback, Tebow's face is in the dictionary as the visual example subtitled: "The Tough Version".

The difference between Tebow and the likes of Patrick White, Dennis Dixon, and Armanti Edwards is his tough, physical style of running.

Tebow's not going to go blazing 60 yards through a defense like White, but he'll loosen your chin strap with bone crushing runs that truly wear a defense down.

I always said there's two ways to wear a defense down, through speed and power.... well at Florida, Tim Tebow is the power, Percy Harvin and the gang are the speed.

The most amazing stat this year is the accuracy and effectiveness of Tebow's passing game (completing 68 percent of his throws for 3,132 yards), imagine what it takes for this guy to make a bone jarring run on one play, and then a 30 yard bullet throw the next (with great effectiveness!) play.

Congratulations to Tim Tebow, the 2007 SpreadOffense.com College Player of the Year.

Other Finalists:

Patrick White - WVU
Dennis Dixon - Oregon
Darren McFadden - Ark
Armanti Edwards - ASU
Percy Harvin - Florida
Chase Daniel - Missouri


Enjoy the Video Below!


Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Terry Bowden to West Virginia?

Rumors are flying around Mountaineer Nation that Terry Bowden will be named the new head football coach at West Virginia University as early as tomorrow, replacing Rich Rodriguez who left for Michigan.

Other strong possibilities for the position are:

John ‘Doc’ Holliday
Bud Foster

We will keep you updated as we hear more.

Monday, December 17, 2007

The Spread Offense Of The Year in 2007: Appalachian State University

Appalachian State University has been named 'The Spread Offense Of The Year' by the staff at SpreadOffense.com

The Mountaineer's finished the season at 13-2, and this year's Subdivision college final (formerly Division I-AA) victory was their 3rd in a row.

The victory capped a season in which the Mountaineers upset Michigan 34-32 in the opener, what some have called 'the biggest upset in college football history'.

“They hadn't played against that fast-paced of an offense that I know of,” said Jerry Moore the head coach at ASU since 1989.

Senior running back Kevin Richardson gained 118 yards, and sophomore quarterback Armanti Edwards had 89 in the championship game vs. Delaware.

Edwards, the catalyst to Appalachian State's spread offense, dazzled college football fans this year with his passing and running ability.

"We like to think we've got good team speed. It's a key factor in recruiting and a key factor in determining who's going to play", Moore said.

In 2003, Appalachian State had just finished the season with a 7-4 record. Coach Jerry Moore thought his traditional I-formation offense needed a spark.

So his staff studied Utah's spread-option offense under coach Urban Meyer and made a trip to West Virginia to study the spread attack under coach Rich Rodriguez.

The ASU offensive attack is orchestrated by the entire offensive coaching staff, lead by Shawn Elliott, the offensive line coach and Scott Satterfield, the quarterbacks coach.

"We complement each other. But if something comes up that we don't agree with, we're almost like brothers, we say what we feel. We deal with it and move along," Elliott said.

"Coach Moore is a special person," Elliott said. "That's why no one leaves. A lot of coaches go someplace for the money or because it's a bigger program. But we know what we have here in Boone."

Congratulations to Appalachian State University, the 2007 SpreadOffense.com College Football Team of the Year.

Enjoy the Video Below!

Sunday, December 16, 2007

Video: Rich Rodriguez Breaks Down His Spread Offense

Courtesy of ESPN Broadband

Rich Rodriguez, former West Virginia University coach explains his spread offense running schemes known as the zone read and triple option with ESPN.


Rodriguez Heading To Ann Arbor

Rich Rodriguez has decided to leave West Virginia University and become the new head football coach at The University of Michigan.

Coach Rod posted a 60-26 record at WVU in his seven seasons at his alma mater, where he played defensive back for Don Nehlen. The Mountaineer's posted 4 Big East Football Championships during his tenure.

Coach Rod is known as a pioneer of 'The Spread Offense', which he created during his days at Glenville State College.

Coach Rod's offensive system at West Virginia produced very impressive numbers, especially on the ground as WVU consistently produced Top 5 in the country rushing teams.

Two WVU quarterbacks under Coad Rod became Big East Offensive Players Of The Year, Rasheed Marshall and Patrick White (twice).

Here at SpreadOffense.com, we consider Coach Rod, "The Chairman of The Board" of The Spread Offense.

Rumors of possible successors for Rodriguez at WVU are: Calvin Magee (current Offensive Coordinator), Terry Bowden (a WVU graduate), Jimbo Fisher (Florida State), Butch Jones (former Assistant Coach at WVU, currently the Head Coach at Central Michigan), and Rick Trickett (former Assistant Coach at WVU, currently at Florida State).

Enjoy the video of a Coach Rod pregame talk below from 2005, thanks Coach for seven great years at West Virginia... you'll be missed in Morgantown. Best of Luck in the future, and keep 'spread-in u'm'.


Two Simple Spread Offense Components For Success... Or Maybe Not?

As a coach at the high school level who ran The Spread Offense and hearing from different college coaches who run it at clinics, two very simple components need to be executed properly in order to run this offense.

  1. The Center Shot-Gun Snap
  2. The Bubble Screen QB Throw

1. The Center Shot-Gun Snap

The center shot-gun snap is the 'ignition' point for every spread play, this is what sets everything in motion, allowing the perimeter skill players to 'see' the start of the play as hearing a snap count is impossible from those distances.

The actual snap of the ball itself is what I feel is the most important, because a bad or inaccurate snap can really throw off the entire flow and continuity of the play. What I mean by inaccurate is that the quarterback prefers the shot-gun snap to be between their number on the front of the jersey, allowing them to securely catch the ball, then go through their play flow, whether that is a zone read, triple option, straight hand-off, QB sweep/draw/wrap/counter/ISO, bubble screen, or straight pass.

I've heard Rick Trickett (O-Line coach at Florida State, formally at West Virginia and Auburn) say that he demands that his centers get 100 shot-gun snaps in 'a day' in the off-season (are your centers doing this?), that's how important mastering this simple yet extremely important element of the spread offense.

2. The Bubble Screen QB Throw

The bubble screen is one of those components of The Spread Offense that really makes things hard on the defense, placing them 'between a rock and a hard place' in trying to decide on perimeter support for the run (especially against the zone read or triple option), and how many players to commit to 'the box', as your outside linebackers and strong safeties need to cover receiver #2 (the inside twin receiver), taking them out of the box.

The other component of the bubble screen that has become even more interesting is when offenses 'fake or act out' the bubble screen, making the perimeter defense freeze (if only for a split second), which may be the difference on an inside zone read run going to the house, or for a 6 yard gain as the 'box' defenders are all covered by blockers and perimeter help cannot support the inside play.

Now, looking at the above scenarios you're likely saying, 'lets put this great play in', again easier said then done. Just like the shot-gun snap above from the center needs to be executed correctly, the bubble screen pass and catch need to do the same.

I've heard coaches at clinics describe the bubble screen throw by the quarterback as like 'turning the double play' in baseball between the second basemen and shortstop. The quarterback first has to catch the snap cleanly, rotate his body correctly, whether to his throwing arm side or his backside. Usually some kind of zone fake hand-off precedes the throw, so a clean fake between the QB and Super-back must occur (no 'dislodging' the ball during the fake) if the case requires it.

I mentioned above how centers in Coach Trick's programs are required to do a lot of 'off-season' work, well I would strongly suggest the same with the 'pitch and catch' of the bubble screen. Rep's, rep's, and more rep's!

Remember, a bubble screen (based on ball placement on the field, hash-marks, formation, etc..) could be thrown as short as 10 yards or as long as 25 yards. All of these distances need to practiced, over and over again.

Receivers or 'athletes' need to be aware of the rules of a forward pass vs. a lateral on bubble screens. I would teach them to always assume the bubble screen is a lateral (thrown behind the line of scrimmage, this also allows for the release of O-linemen downfield, a big part of the bubble screen).

Mastering these two 'simple' components of "The Spread Offense" will go a long way in driving defenses crazy and eliminating costly mistakes on offense.

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Coach Rod to Michigan?

Rumors are flying that Rich Rodriguez (The 'Chairman of the Board' around here at Spreadoffense.com) talked with The University of Michigan on friday about their head coaching position.

As we all remember, Coach Rod walked this line with Alabama last year before deciding to stay at his alma mater (WVU).

I know the 'Mountaineer Nation' is up in arms that two years in a row now Coach Rod has 'played the field' or 'tested the waters', personally I think it's great for WVU.

How? Because think of it this way, Coach Rod can learn something from talking to the higher arch's at Alabama and Michigan, two storied programs that have a heck of a lot more tradition then West Virginia (and likely more 'insight' on what it takes to become successful and more importantly for WVU 'stay successful').

I've never been in these meetings, but I would think both sides are doing a lot of 'listening' to each other, both learning about each other.

Did last years Alabama courting hurt Coach Rod's recruiting at West Virginia last year? No way, they had a great class come in, the likes of Noel Devine, Jock Sanders, and Brandon Hogan. Sounds like to me it didn't hurt... it likely helped.

Maybe Terrelle Pryor, the highest sought out 'dual threat' QB recruit will hear this from Coach Rod now: "Terrelle, West Virginia is the place to be, I've had my chances to go to Alabama and Michigan the last two years...two programs with loads of football history, and I chose to stay at West Virginia because we are at the pinnacle of greatness (in addition, I'm the "Chairman of the Board" of The Spread Offense), where do you choose?"

We'll see what happens, but my guess is Coach Rod stays in Morgantown.

The Mountaineer's play Oklahoma on January 2nd in the Fiesta Bowl.