October 10, 2008 · 11:11 AM

The tao of spread

It sure didn’t take long for this shoe to drop.

The firing of Tony Franklin on Wednesday provided the exclamation point to two dramatically different approaches that Auburn and Alabama applied to their first-year offensive coordinators.

Nick Saban went with the pro-style, power-running game he often uses and has Alabama 6-0 and ranked No. 2 in the country. Tommy Tuberville changed his conservative style to adopt the popular spread offense, and now is out a coordinator before the leaves turn colors.

Even as the spread has evolved during the past decade from a gimmicky, pass-happy offense to a sophisticated scheme with running capabilities, it is unclear if the spread as we know it today is here to stay.

4 Comments

Filed under Media Punditry/Foibles, Nick Saban Rules, Strategery And Mechanics, Tony Franklin - Misunderstood Genius

4 responses to “The tao of spread”

  1. Joe
    October 10, 2008 at 11:47 AM

    Hmmm, I think that Mr. Solomon may be forgetting something….No, I’m no Chris Simms

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  2. dean
    October 10, 2008 at 2:32 PM

    “Because defenses have the undersized, speedy guys, an overpowering running team can run right at those guys and dictate point of attack,” said Tom Luginbill, an analyst at ESPN.

    And Bingo was his name…..

    Does this statement remind anyone of a certain game played, oh I don’t know, on the 27th of September at 8 o’clock on ESPN.

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  3. Senator Blutarsky
    October 10, 2008 at 3:00 PM

    Actually, I thought Georgia did a decent job stopping the run in that game. ‘Bama averaged less than three yards per carry.

    What the Dawg defense didn’t stop was the short passing game, or the play action, which is reflected in JPW going 13-16 throwing the ball.

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  4. montgomeryaldawg
    October 10, 2008 at 4:10 PM

    Amen and Thank You Senator, I’ve been having that argument with a bamer over on an ESPN blogsite. There are rush yards and RUSH YARDS. He wants to argue that because they had 120+ rush yards they “ran it down our throat”. But they only averaged 2.9 yards on 45 attempts!!! They almost threw a 3rd the number of times they ran the ball. They had so many attempts not because of running success, but because of the score (clock usage) and success with playaction. Their biggest plays of the game, offensively, was the perfect strike in the corner of the end zone to Julio Jones and the screen that left our lb on his azz. In the first half, they consistently made big plays and moved the chains using play action against our absentee rush and soft zone. Guys had all day to find zone gaps.

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