USF QB in a spread offense - one person's musings

[Bull94]

 

 

 

 

Spread offense doesn't require one to abandon FBs and TEs. However, I have doubts in CWTs ability to incorporate the talent he has into such a scheme. Hoping if all this is true, that he is actually hiring a OC that can run this and may be his replacement.

yes it does unless of course you would play them in receiver positions which would be stupid.

 

and no a spread is not the same as an option offense like georgia tech runs.

 

 

 

We could run what Auburn runs.  It's basically a Delaware Wing T and Spread hybrid that utilizes multiple TE's/H/FB types.  It's s run first run often offense that doesn't require a ton of WR's.  I think Flowers could flourish in that type of system as it doesn't rely on the QB's arm until the defense has been sufficiently "set up" to put the QB in a favorable spot.  The big question would be if our guards are mobile enough though.  The guards pull a ton in that system.  I think that would be our best option as I don't think any of our QB's are accurate enough to run an air raid system.  

 

that's not a spread offense. they do have a spread formation but it's not their base offense.a spread formation spreads a defense horizontally by spreading out it's receivers. here is an article concerning Auburn's offense. not sure there are many guys that can run that as effectively as Malzahn. I would love for us to have an offense as dynamic as Auburn or oregon but there is a reason why they have it and most everyone else doesn't and it's because they pay their coaches boatloads of money and they are very good at running them. we are lucky to afford a special assistant to run our offense. a guy that failed miserably at this level. maybe we can get calvin magee here. he has run multiple top ten offenses with Rich rod that have been both passing and running offenses. he is a co coordinator now. maybe he would jump at an OC position with an athlete like Flowers. he could do what Pat White did at WVU.

 

Gus Malzahn is quick to correct others when they label his hurry-up, no-huddle offense as the spread.

It's a common misconception No. 4 Auburn (10-1, 6-1 SEC) faces nearly every week when other coaches break down their offense and national analysts discuss the Tigers' offense.

But not this week. Alabama coach Nick Saban has faced Malzahn's offense three times when Malzahn was the Tigers' offensive coordinator from 2009 to 2011. He knows a spread offense when he sees one, and the Tigers certainly do not look the part.

"There's no question about it," Saban said. "There's three-back runs in it. There's regular runs. The running plays don't change, how they get to them, how they block them, the scenario of people that they have that you have to key, that changes.

"They do have spread offense. But it's not a spread offense when they're in a lot of their basic formations, which are direct runs."

 

http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2013/11/gus_malzahn_vs_nick_saban_mutu.html

 

 

Yes, it's not a true spread it's a Delaware Wing T Spread hybrid.  Hence why i said what I said.  You should read more carefully.  As for if we can get someone who can run it? Or if that's the direction we're going? Who knows?  Nobody right now it's all just off season speculation until we get a better idea of who are the actual candidates for OC. 

 

sorry. I jumped the gun.

 

it gets old hearing people on here say that "if we only ran the spread than we would have a good offense" nonsense. as if it's that simple.

 

I agree that that could be the way to go with the personnel we have.

Edited December 10, 2014 by Bull94

[Bull Dozer]

I'm right there with you 94.  Especially those that favor an air raid system when none of our QB's are accurate passers....

[GaUSFBull]

 

Ok, so if the latest tweet is correct and USF is going to a spread offense ...  What does that mean for the USF QB situation? 

 

You have to have mobility as a spread QB.  That eliminates White.  Which is nuts, because he's been our starter the better part of two seasons.  Seems like that's a lot of work down the drain.

 

Then there's Bench.  We all know how Taggart seems to feel about Bench.  Will he or won't he get a legit shot at winning the job in a spread?  It's hard to believe Taggart would do a 180 in his approach toward Bench - unless somehow a talk about that came up with Harlan.  I don't think that's too far out of the realm of possibility.  For arguments sake, I'd go with Bench won't be starting - too much distrust of Bench from CWT, imo.

 

So that leaves us with Flowers.  Definitely the most mobile, certainly the most upside for the spread on paper, but I've seen concerns on this board about his arm and would CWT let him run it, or keep him on a tight leash?  

 

Seems to me that Flowers was built for the spread.  If we do truly go that route in 2015, my prediction is that he is the starter - once again, barring a juco transfer or a top flight dual threat recruit. 

 you have no idea how Taggart feels about Bench. He is an average runner and below average passer. he didn't belong on the field regardless of what offense we ran.

 

not sure you understand what a spread is if you think you need a mobile QB. that's read option that can be run out of the spread formation. generally a spread formation uses 4 or 5 wide receivers spread horizontally across the field. 5 linemen to block( they certainly didn't need the extra blocking help with TEs and FBs this year ) and one or no RBs. sometimes the linemen are spread out too.

 

unfortunately one of our best offensive weapons, FB Swanson, will now be taken off the field for an extra WR.

 

 

That's why I said the word "seems" when I talked about how Taggart feels about Bench. 

 

Spread means a lot of things.  I clarified in a later post I think we should run a read option. 

 

Why can't we use Swanson lined up in the backfield as a running back, or even line him up in the slot? 

[GaUSFBull]

 

 

I don't think that takes White out of the equation at all. Look at Graham Harrell for Texas Tech a few years back. He was not a mobile guy at all. Career of -182 rush yards. Playing White might take out the read option, but still plenty you can do in a spread offense with screens and stuff like that.

 

Texas Tech w/ Graham Harrell ran more of a run and shoot type offense, the Air Raid with Mike Leach.  I'm guessing that's probably not what we'll be doing here. 

 

 

How about Tony Pike at Cincinnati?

 

 

If we had a Tony Pike on our team, Air Raid would be great.  Unfortunately, our QBs don't add up to half a Tony Pike as far as ability to play QB. 

[Bull94]

I'm right there with you 94.  Especially those that favor an air raid system when none of our QB's are accurate passers....

I never understood why they would think that passing the ball more is a good idea with our personnel.

 

must be the receivers that catch everything thrown to them or the accurate QBs that hit their targets consistently or the top notch o-line that doesn't need help in protection.

[Bull94]

 

 

Ok, so if the latest tweet is correct and USF is going to a spread offense ...  What does that mean for the USF QB situation? 

 

You have to have mobility as a spread QB.  That eliminates White.  Which is nuts, because he's been our starter the better part of two seasons.  Seems like that's a lot of work down the drain.

 

Then there's Bench.  We all know how Taggart seems to feel about Bench.  Will he or won't he get a legit shot at winning the job in a spread?  It's hard to believe Taggart would do a 180 in his approach toward Bench - unless somehow a talk about that came up with Harlan.  I don't think that's too far out of the realm of possibility.  For arguments sake, I'd go with Bench won't be starting - too much distrust of Bench from CWT, imo.

 

So that leaves us with Flowers.  Definitely the most mobile, certainly the most upside for the spread on paper, but I've seen concerns on this board about his arm and would CWT let him run it, or keep him on a tight leash?  

 

Seems to me that Flowers was built for the spread.  If we do truly go that route in 2015, my prediction is that he is the starter - once again, barring a juco transfer or a top flight dual threat recruit. 

 you have no idea how Taggart feels about Bench. He is an average runner and below average passer. he didn't belong on the field regardless of what offense we ran.

 

not sure you understand what a spread is if you think you need a mobile QB. that's read option that can be run out of the spread formation. generally a spread formation uses 4 or 5 wide receivers spread horizontally across the field. 5 linemen to block( they certainly didn't need the extra blocking help with TEs and FBs this year ) and one or no RBs. sometimes the linemen are spread out too.

 

unfortunately one of our best offensive weapons, FB Swanson, will now be taken off the field for an extra WR.

 

 

That's why I said the word "seems" when I talked about how Taggart feels about Bench. 

 

Spread means a lot of things.  I clarified in a later post I think we should run a read option. 

 

Why can't we use Swanson lined up in the backfield as a running back, or even line him up in the slot? 

 

spread is a formation . it means to stretch the field horizontally usually with receivers. I guess you could use FBs instead.

 

read option is not a formation. it's a play.

[Gismo]

If Taggart himself is a good coach, and if his new hire is a good mind, they will be able to come up with their own hybrid style plays to incorporate the talent we have, the full backs and tight ends with our strong running backs, while also spreading the feild out some and running maybe 4 WR formations.

We have to spread the feild out so the box isn't loaded by the defense every play and we need more receivers to do get the defense falling back more into coverage. Then we can maybe have some more success with our running backs. Total speculation.

[GaUSFBull]

 

That's why I said the word "seems" when I talked about how Taggart feels about Bench. 

 

Spread means a lot of things.  I clarified in a later post I think we should run a read option. 

 

Why can't we use Swanson lined up in the backfield as a running back, or even line him up in the slot? 

 

spread is a formation . it means to stretch the field horizontally usually with receivers. I guess you could use FBs instead.

 

read option is not a formation. it's a play.

 

 

Got it.  Out of the spread.  Hopefully you get what I'm saying.  I think I'm pretty familiar with what the spread is, and I apologize if I made you think otherwise. 

 

[Skingraft]

I'll spread you bro...

No homo

[KMcC1357]

Joey Knight just tweeted out another article about Joe Kinnan, Manatee's former head coach, and this time it talks about his offensive philosophy. Apparently Malzahn mirrored his offense around Kinnan's and made some tweaks. So IF Kinnan were to come to USF it might not be completely out of the question that we see an offense run similarly to what Auburn is currently running.

 

In which case as mentioned before, Swanson would still be utilized quite a bit.

 

Http://www.bradenton.com/2014/12/09/5523041_commentary-expect-joe-kinnan-to.html?sp=/99/100/&rh=1

Edited December 10, 2014 by KMcC1357