Urban Meyer to quit spreadin'?

From Gator Bytes, a Palm Beach post blog:

[A]re the days of the option pitch, jet sweep and jump pass coming to an end in Gainesville?

Already we know that Tim Tebow and [back-up quarterback] John Brantley spent countless hours this spring working on hand-offs and drop-backs from under center during spring practice. And that the coaches spent most of the spring identifying players who could play fullback as Gators tinkered with an “I-formation” offense. And that Brantley, the heir apparent to Tebow, does not have the skill set to run the spread-option the same way Tebow does (not a knock on Brantley, just stating the obvious that Tebow is a unique physical specimen). . . .

Apparently Florida’s coaching staff (i.e. quarterbacks coach Scot Loeffler) is downplaying the whole spread-option thing, and telling recruits that a more pro-style offense is being installed.

From [ESPN's Bruce] Feldman: "The Gators coaches told [a recruit] they’re going to more of a pro-style offense, because NFL teams don’t run the spread, which [the recruit] says was good to hear since he’s more of a pro-style guy himself."

It’s an interesting turn of events for the Gators and Meyer, who are trying to fight the perception that Florida skill players – mostly quarterbacks and receivers – don’t succeed in the NFL because they don’t get the proper training in college.

A few thoughts. First, this is overblown insofar as the idea is that, once Tebow leaves, all the spread stuff goes out the window. It's unlikely that a coach like Meyer, who has run the spread for a decade on his way to an undefeated season and two national championships, will suddenly chuck what he has done in favor of being totally"pro-style." That said, there might be a hint -- but little more than that -- of truth to this.

New quarterback coach Scott Loeffler is more of a pro-style guy, it is true. He coached for a long time at Michigan, which was definitely more on the "pro" side of the spectrum, and he of course spent some time in the NFL, most recently with the Detroit Lions. The Gators might be looking to add a few of these NFL looks, possibly as much to take advantage of their runningbacks as with their quarterbacks. Indeed, assuming the reports that the Gators used more under-center and traditional set stuff during the spring is true, I chalk most of that up to trying new things with new coaches and a veteran group that just came off a national championship; Tebow knows how to run the spread stuff so why not work on some wrinkles? The whole SEC will spend the offseason working on ways to knock Florida off. Meyer knows he has to stay ahead of the competition.

But, more importantly, this anti-spread angle for recruiting is unfortunate but real. High school or even NFL head coaches might bristle at the idea that you would do anything but what absolutely gives you the best chance to win on the field (and for players it is my way or the highway), the reality in big time college football is that Meyer must compete against Southern Cal, Ohio State, Miami, and others for top-flight recruits. And most of those guys expect to the go to the NFL. There is no doubt that the most recent NFL Draft felt at times like a giant negative ad campaign against the spread, complete with Mel Kiper chiming in to talk about Tebow's bright NFL future as a tight-end or H-back. Contrast that with the glowing praise the talking heads -- and even NFL coaches -- heaped on Matt Stafford and Mark Sanchez as being "NFL ready" because of their "pro-style" college systems. All this adds up to recruits actually believing this stuff; perception becomes reality.

It also points to the idea that Meyer might be adding some pro-style for "flavor" and recruiting purposes. A little could do him a lot of good: he would have more of a recruiting pitch; he could possibly dispel some of the "he can't take a snap from under center" talk plaguing Tebow to help him be a better draft pick, and those two things together could be enough for him to explain away the negative comments about the spread without actually, in fact, giving it up. Meyer's a spread guy to the core, but he also is pretty shrewd. It's all part of college football.

UPDATE: Spencer Hall at the Sporting Blog chimes in, announcing that the spread is not dead, though Meyer might be a cyborg. And a reader who spent some time with Florida's staff this spring says he agrees that it is partially as a wrinkle and also as a recruiting ploy.

Urban Meyer's "Crazy" or Shovel Triple-Option

One play that Urban Meyer has used for years but that I did not extensively cover in my magnum opus on Meyer's offense was the "crazy option," or the shovel triple-option. I already heard some announcers and talking heads saying this was a "new play." No: I explained the play back in 2005. But I may as well use this opportunity to do so with a bit more clarity.

As a bit of background, Meyer has run this play since he was at Utah and actually was one of the first to incorporate the backside guard pulling for a type of "power-O" blocking with it. But, before we even attribute it to Meyer, Nebraska used to run this from the shotgun during their option heyday in the mid-1990s. Though a lot of people ran this play: I remember seeing that powerhouse of innovation, Alabama under Mike DuBose, run this play too. So it's just a good, sound play.



The quarterback takes the snap and attacks the end man on the line of scrimmage, typically the defensive end. If the defensive end comes up for him or rushes hard, the quarterback will shovel pass it to the inside player; here, the "H-back."

The backside guard pulls and leads up into the gap; the shovel receiver should follow him into the hole and cut off his block.

If the defensive end crashes down for the shovel man, the quarterback keeps the ball and attacks the outside. The runningback's job is to get into a "pitch relationship" with the QB (five yards outside and one to two yards back) and be ready. The quarterback will pitch off the next defender that shows (usually the strong safety or outside linebacker, though sometimes the free safety). If they take the pitch man the quarterback keeps it.

Below is a video of Florida running this play earlier this year against LSU, though in this clip there is a jet-sweep fake going the other way to get some early snap deception.

Smart Football's Guide to the BCS Championship

Okay, so it's not really a guide at all, but instead just some stuff I've previously written that happens to have some tenuous link to the title matchup between Oklahoma and Florida.



1. Rhythm Nation: Auburn Hires Gus Malzahn. Money quote:

Is Chizik Trying to Copy Oklahoma?

So, you can see why this might be appealing to Auburn, even with a defensive minded head coach. As Dr Saturday recently pointed out, "only Oklahoma's 1,036 total plays bested the Hurricane's 1,007 this year, though TU led the nation in yards per play." I think this is no coincidence.

Oklahoma too has a fairly basic system as far as schemes go. They don't do anything that a lot of teams don't. Their passing game is kind of a derivative of what they did under Mike Leach and Mark Mangino, but they have gotten away from the pure faith of the Airraid and now use a lot of rather traditional (meaning, common) concepts. Labeling them spread, pro, multiple, or whatever is a bit futile. (When asked what offense Oklahoma runs, Bob Stoops said simply: "The Oklahoma offense."). They use both the "I" and other traditional sets, though are probably still more "spread" than anything else. But before people jump down my throat, I note that I think Wittgenstein was accurate when he said most arguments boil down to people's different uses of labels and language, in this case what spread or pro means to one person versus another.

Kevin Wilson, OU's offensive coordinator, is not known as a passing guru, and few would confuse him with one. But he knows one thing extraordinarily well: the no-huddle up-tempo offense. He ran it at Northwestern with Randy Walker, and that's how OU killed people this year. They have all these great athletes, they have solid schemes, and they go so fast they mow you down. I have to think Chizik envisions this kind of result.

2. The Urban Meyer/Florida Gator Offense. Money quote:

Just click the link already.

3. Discussion of OU's drubbing of Texas Tech. Money quote:

Further, [one] storyline is that Stoops, Venables, and others basically have Leach's number, they've figured his out, and don't expect all that stuff to work against them. Stoops even reinforced this storyline after the game, by noting that most games between Tech and OU haven't been close. But this too is overblown. The game wasn't a referendum on the offense, it was a battle between two teams. OU clearly has a talent advantage of some kind, and although the offense didn't do nearly enough to even approach winning, it was only a few bad drives before the game was 21-0 and was basically out of reach.

That said, there's a kernal of truth to Stoops' theory about knowing that offense. As I've pointed out before, Leach ran his offense at OU exactly how he wanted. If OU does "get" Leach's offense, he doesn't get it in a way that another team could just pop in the tape and pick up. The Airraid, as much as it is certain schemes -- and no doubt OU's defense sat in zone a lot of the night working on their ability to pattern read the traditional Airraid concepts -- but the Airraid is an approach to football as much as it is an offense. If the OU guys have this heightened familiarity, it's not just schemes, it's knowing how Leach runs a practice, how they practice screens, indeed, how he approaches the game. Again, I don't think OU has the offense or Leach figured out once and for all (I mean, Tech did beat OU the year before and scored over thirty on them), but I can't completely discount this.

4.What does (should) it mean to be crowned National Champion?(Another self-explanatory one).

5. Probabilities, Pragmatism, and Football. Money quote:

"They say statistics are for losers, but losers are usually the ones thinking that. Statistics are great. Our whole game plan is based off statistics. Our management of the game is based off statistics. Our recruiting is based off statistics. Everything we do is analyzed. Is that the bottom line? No. You can't analyze the heart of Tim Tebow." - Urban Meyer

6. Auburn's offense might be bad, but don't call it the spread, the Airraid, or the Tony Franklin System. Money quote:

To highlight the absurdity of this situation, let's think of the last time a big name school hired an offensive coordinator to run the Hal Mumme offense: Bob Stoops, when he went to Oklahoma from the U of Florida, hired Mike Leach as his offensive coordinator. Why? Well as defensive coordinator with Florida, Stoops said that they only team that had an incommensurate level of success against them was Kentucky. Stoops noted that UF's talent level was far superior, yet stopping Kentucky was maddening for Stoops. So Stoops said: I want that.

Compare this to what is happening with Tuberville and Franklin. Back in 1999, Stoops hired Leach and gave him free rein to install his offense. (In fact, I have a coaching clinic talk where Stoops said that he ordered Leach not to change anything that first year, because he wanted exactly what he saw with Kentucky.) And who was Leach's QB at OU? A noodle-armed guy named Josh Heupel. And their receivers were a bunch of converted running backs and defensive backs. Yet I didn't hear the same cry that "Oh, we'll spread it out when we get the athletes." (News flash: if that's your approach, it'll never happen.) Now, I also observe that Stoops too wasn't entirely comfortable being a spread it all the time guy, and Leach happily went on to Texas Tech where he could be as much of a mad scientist as he liked. Yet OU stuck with the exact same system the next year with Mark Mangino as OC, and won a National Title. But Stoops knew what he was getting when he hired Leach, and most importantly he let him do it.

7. Not me, but everyone should read EDSBS's Orson Swindle on Rick Reilly's status as walking gag-reflex inducer. Money quote:

Tough call, but I gotta go with

Also, we never read Reilly growing up and don’t read him now, since he largely comes from the school of hackneyed one-liners (occasionally scoring) and the aesthetic of Mitch Albom’s School for Guys Who Ponder the Beauty of Life, Put One Hand on Cheek, and Lean On Said Hand Wistfully.

Looking forward to the game.