College football, much like the NFL and other pro leagues, has proven to be a copycat league over the years. If something works well on either side of the ball, other teams quickly take it up and start using that strategy. Starting with George Halas’ man in motion with the T formation in the 1920’s and cutting midriffs on jerseys in the eighties (Thanks Doug Flutie) to the present-day practice of taping offensive linemen’s jerseys to their pads (nothing to grab here), everyone in football wants to gain an edge with the newest wrinkle set on by an innovative coach.

One big example that has lately swept both the nation and the Midwest is the spread offense. The spread offense is usually centered in three or four receiver sets with the quarterback five yards behind center, or in the shotgun, and is designed to spread the defense wider to force them to cover more area of the field. This type of offense is being used at just about every level—from Pop Warner football and high school to the New England Patriots of the NFL—and almost everyone adds their own wrinkles to the offense with option packages (see Illinois and new Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez) or an all-out ariel attack (see former Hawaii and new SMU coach June Jones and Texas Tech’s Mike Leach). I apologize for some of the cheesy music in those videos, but they do a good job of showcasing the spread.The Big Ten has a pioneer in the spread offense in outgoing Purdue coach Joe Tiller. Tiller was the first coach in the Big Ten to spread out his receivers and throw the ball a majority of the time in the former run-happy Big Ten. Tiller brought his spread offense from Wyoming to the Midwest and now eight of the 11 teams in the Big Team run the spread offense or a variation of it as their primary offensive formation. Wisconsin, Iowa and Penn State are the three schools that don’t.

So, being that the spread offense is the talk of the town (maybe I’m exaggerating a bit), it was a big topic of discussion in Thursday’s coaches press conferences. Here’s some of the tidbits from Big Ten coaches.

Illini Coach Ron Zook: When I first became a head coach, one thing most of my experience was on the defensive side of the football, and the one thing I wanted to do is I wanted to run an offense that I hated to see the most as a defensive football coach. Any time they spread out you’ve got to be able…to stop the run, and the more field that you have to cover sometimes the harder that it is, and I think once again it gives people an opportunity that maybe we’re — personnel-wise you may not be quite as good as others it maybe levels the field a little bit, and plus I think it’s a front offense.

Northwestern Coach Pat Fitzgerald: There’s so much flexibility in the system. The question earlier asked to Ron [Zook], I think it’s critical at the quarterback position. When you go down a level to the high school level, typically the high school coaches play their best football player at quarterback. So the flexibility in the spread offense, if you have a solid quarterback that will make good decisions, can run a little bit, the ability to throw the quick game, it opens up your ability to do a lot of different concepts offensively. And then get really a lot of speed on the field…It really allows you the flexibility as a coaching staff to find out who your best 11 players are. So I love it. I think it put defense on their heels, it makes them have to be assignment sound and I think the availability to go four vertical and also be able to run a triple option play out of the same formation is very difficult on defense.

Wisconsin Coach Bret Bielema: The thing I like about being at Wisconsin right now is we’re unique. Five years ago when the spread first started coming into the league, you needed preparation versus those teams. For us now Wisconsin is unique. You line up with a fullback and tailback and have some big ugly guys in front that come downhill. It’s a different preparation. So I like that. I think now people have to go into a certain preparation mode against Wisconsin, which to me is an advantage.

Purdue Coach Joe Tiller: I think it was going to happen sooner or later. Young people like to throw and catch and run around and high five each other and enjoy having fun playing the game. I think the style of offense is a fun style, I guess, to participate in. You know, young people, if you want to keep them involved in the sport of football, you have to provide an outlet that is enjoyable to them, not just a highly disciplined or regimented style of play. So, you know, it doesn’t surprise me at all that the spread offense has really swept the nation.

So, there you have it. The spread offense is just the newest trend among football coaches throughout college football in what has proven to be a copycat sport. Let’s just hope the next trend is that coaches don’t start dressing up like this.

Jim Tressel’s replacement for the sweater vest?

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 24th, 2008 at 1:56 pm and is filed under College Sports, The Big Ten, College Football, Illini Football, Big Ten, Football, NCAA, spread offense. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.