Earlier in the week I got a chance to talk about my favorite player for this season, the one and only Stephen Garcia, quarterback of the South Carolina Gamecocks. While SG will only be around for one more year, I’ve picked something a bit more timeless as my favorite offensive scheme. In this age of college football that has seen the proliferation of the Air Raid, the birth of the Rich Rodriguez and Urban Meyer spread offenses and even a sort of re-introduction of the true option offense, there is one offensive philosophy that, for me, stands apart from the rest.
The pro style scheme.
Running backs, tight ends, lead blockers, wide receivers, dropback quarterbacks and legitimate big boy, but athletic, linemen are the players. 12, 21 and 11 personnel are the popular sets. Isos, play-action passes, off-tackle runs, routes from the whole passing tree, progressive quarterback reads, normal line splits and mauling line play up front are how the job gets done.
It is big boy football. Everybody cannot play this way; there are schools that need special offenses to overcome recruiting issues or to create a niche they can fill with players other schools don’t fit into their system in the kids’ desired roles. A prime example is a kid like a Pat White; he didn’t escape SEC country because he couldn’t play ball. He got out because he was deadset on being a quarterback, not a wide receiver or a defensive back, and West Virginia’s offense gave him that chance. Hat’s off to the young man and Rich Rod for giving that alternative.
That said, I love the pro style scheme. It is about precision as much as it is about power. It is about strategy as much as it is about physical skills.
You see football, for me, is not about the flash and dash or just putting points up in a hurry. I’m a big fan of the nuance, the game within the game. Not just being bigger, faster and stronger than an opponent, but going into a game, being a bully and daring someone to stop you.
Trickery, slight of hand, point-and-click schemes can get results quick and easy, but in the end, that’s not what I enjoy about this great game. I like the mixing of run and pass that makes play action become a truly dangerous possibility. The lead blocker barreling through the line to push the linebacker out of the hole so his running back can hit that crease and get to the third level. I’m all about my tight ends blocking as often as they flex out to catch passes in the seam.
I don’t much care if they’re running a West Coast scheme or they subscribe to the smash smouth style so long as I’ve got linemen moving bodies at the point of contact, not just cutting defensive tackles, “shielding” defensive linemen with angle blocking or taking wide splits just to force defenses to run a bigger hump so their shotgun quarterback can catch and throw.
I’m in love with the deep dig that we saw Julio Jones and AJ Green catch in their pro sets. I’m a sucker for the iso run plays that make men of linebackers across the Big Ten. I’m enchanted by a masterfully timed play-action pass to the vacated space left open in the post because the safety got sucked in by the running game.
That’s good football to me.
Spare me the debate of the minutia involved in the spread offense and the principles of it all. I understand them quite well. I also know why the Air Raid was effective when employed by Oklahoma or Texas Tech or even back at Kentucky. I’ve got complete comprehension of why Paul Johnson or Ken Niumatalolo’s schemes work for the Yellow Jackets and Navy. Believe me, this is not an issue of understanding at all.
The issue here is preference and enjoyment. A good, yet wonky, offense can be schemed against. We’ve seen Texas Tech in its best season ever stopped by an underachieving Ole Miss team. We’ve watched again (LSU) and again (Iowa) and again (Air Force) as Paul Johnson’s teams have fallen short in bowls.
With a good pro style offense there is no true scheme to stop it, you can only show up that day and be better. Your team has to show up and out-punch the other squad. Utah didn’t beat Alabama because they out-schemed the Tide. The Utes punched Alabama in the mouth and outworked them. A good pro style scheme is about lining up the best 11 players at their position and making you stop them, even when you know exactly what’s coming.
Call me old school and a traditionalist, but when Virginia Tech lines up with their fullback and tight end to the left of the set, we all know what’s coming, a run to the left, and I like that. It is not just a “I dare you to stop us” to the defense. It is also a “we-know-you-know-what’s-coming-but-we-don’t-think-you-can-stop-it” slap in the opponents face. Then, later on in the game, when they line up in that exact same set, but run play action successfully, that’s a testament to the game within the game.
Gimme my linemen with their hand in the dirt, firing off the football to maul a defensive tackle while the fullback explodes second level, and I’m happy. Gimme a quarterback who goes through a progression properly, not just catches and throws passes from the gun.
You guys can have your slick Dana Holgorsen schemes, your Mike Leach Air Raid, your Kevin Sumlin fastbreak football and the Dan Mullen “power spread” attack. Enjoy them folks. As for this blogger, gimme Sunday football on Saturday any day of the week.
