October 18, 2014 · 9:09 AM

If the I-formation and the spread offense had a baby…

Really good piece at Football Study Hall about the rise of the deep threat slot receiver in spread attacks here.

Sometimes I wonder if defenses are ever going to catch up.

8 Comments

Filed under Strategery And Mechanics

8 responses to “If the I-formation and the spread offense had a baby…”

  1. SouthGaDawg
    October 18, 2014 at 10:48 AM

    Defenses always catch up. The problem nowadays is that rules changes are about to render defense useless. I heard a veteran college head coach say recently that in no way would he encourage a young coach to be a defensive coordinator. I wonder if in the future we’ll see defenders have to tie one hand behind their back…literally.

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    • Mayor
      October 18, 2014 at 3:27 PM

      In the future college football games will be like track meets with offenses scoring on almost every possession. Scores routinely will be something like 77-73. The team whose D holds the other team to a FG on ONE possession will win the game. Arena football only worse.

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  2. IveyLeaguer
    October 18, 2014 at 10:51 AM

    Interesting read. Reminds me a lot of Spurrier’s ’90’s offense at Florida. He had the same, or very similar, concept built into his system. No telling how many TD’s they scored on those deep slot routes.

    Interesting how he migrated from that to a more conservative game once the SEC finally became stocked with the Corners and DE’s to defend it. His offense caught the League with its pants down and utterly defenseless. It was perfect timing.

    I personally believe he would have gone that way had he stayed at Florida, as he had already begun some slight changes. He would have adjusted, just as he did at SC. Taking nothing away from these innovative concepts, life in the SEC is different.

    Maybe I’m wrong, but I think the SEC is more geared to adapt to whatever new offensive concepts come along, because of personnel. There’s still some adjustments, as we are going through right now with our S&C and recruiting. But it no longer takes 10 years.
    ~~~

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  3. jabo052
    October 18, 2014 at 10:52 AM

    I don’t think they catch up like they used to….unless the rules are tweaked to benefit the D. Also, more and more…the best athletes are going to the offensive side if the ball. Also, you no longer have to be a supreme traditional WR to be highly successful at the position. I do think guys like Pruitt have the right idea, though. Making guys more interchangeable. The downside seems to be that it can put your D at a slight disadvantage when facing power teams. CFB, in many ways, is becoming more like high school and I’m sure that has much to do with all these high school coaches. It’s very attractive to high school players.

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  4. eethomaswfnc
    October 18, 2014 at 11:33 AM

    We run a lot of these concepts out of the traditional I with three wide. We can pound the middle with the big tailback, or get Bennett/Conley one on one on a safety or a linebacker in the middle of the field.

    I agree with Ivey – Spurrier was doing this in 90’s at UF. Force the safety to come up on the intermediate route and throw over his head with a burner in the slot, or wear the middle of the field out with the 12-yard square-in to an even more talented receiver who can make plays in traffic.

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  5. Scorpio Jones, III
    October 18, 2014 at 11:40 AM

    What’s the consensus on the physical attributes of the perfect slot receiver?

    Michael Bennett?

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    • SouthGaDawg
      October 18, 2014 at 12:34 PM

      Bennett is a good example of a typical slot receiver. With the UF talk above, Chris Doering was another. The thing Baylor and the true spread teams are doing now is putting big and fast guys in the slot to run fly routes, posts, corners, and dig routes across the middle. These guys are a better match up vs LBs and strong safety types.

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