Interesting admission from Corch:
On how his commitment to the spread offense is overrated
“We’re more of a pro style. We might not look like it all the time, but schematically we are. We ran more direct handoffs than we’ve ever run. I have two tight ends that can really block. The spread offense we ran last year wasn’t a spread offense. It was pro style with spread elements. Defenses have done a really good job defending the spread because they work at it so hard. There are at least eight teams in the Big Ten running the spread offense now, whereas in 2005, when we first came to the SEC, there was one — Florida.”
On whether OSU will implement more of the spread when recruiting classes take shape
“I don’t know. I think we’ll always have a little bit more of a pro element to it as well now. Also you have weather issues once in awhile. It depends on what’s working. If teams are working all their time on maybe defending the perimeter run game, that leaves some voids. A lot of our rush yardage last year was interior. Teams defended the perimeter really well last year, so that just gave us a chance to go inside. A lot of it is personnel and what you’re facing. That determines what you do. We took an offense that was kind of built as an I-formation team a year ago and we tried to adapt it to more open sets, not necessarily spread calls.”
I’ve always thought that taking what the defense gives you is a tell-tale sign of a good offensive coordinator. That doesn’t just mean in-game play calling. As defenses become more geared to stop spread attacks, they become more vulnerable to power football. (Your current national champs have made a living exploiting that the past few years.) Meyer may be a lot of things, but stupid ain’t one of ’em.
On the other hand, I fear for his continued inclusion in the Gang of Six.