Victory usually comes down to who holds the chalk last.

Here’s a stat from last year to ponder:

Of the 15 fastest-paced offenses in 2014, nine managed to blow double digit leads they held in the 2nd half of the football game. This is a huge hole in tempo offensive strategy preventing it from totally catching on at bigger universities who prefer to impose their will with man-ball.

If you don’t want to play man-ball, what to do?  One option might be to create a special team for what Boyd refers to as four-minute situations.

At these times an offense only wants to have run options and not give the defense the chance to dictate a pass, perhaps even putting someone on the field besides the Quarterback to execute the package. This should be fairly straightforward for most college teams, who generally have former option quarterbacks all over their offense and defense. If not, you still see teams employ their better DL as lead blockers on the goal line, why not embrace a similar philosophy to get the best players on the field to protect a 4th quarter lead?

If you have a team with moderate depth that runs hurry-up ball, I can see why that would be an attractive option.  But if you coach one of those man-ball teams that runs a successful offense, what’s the point of going HUNH in the first place?

7 Comments

Filed under Strategery And Mechanics

7 responses to “Victory usually comes down to who holds the chalk last.

  1. carpie

    I’ve never been in the arena, but if you run a successful man-ball offense, I think there’s still value to having a HUNH option. Unless you’re totally dominate, which most teams are not, HUNH is useful to get that extra cushion when you have a team on the ropes, or tired, or off-guard. Getting a cheap score against a “but we were not ready!” defense is a good demoralizer and it may be points you might not be able to get running straight man-ball.

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  2. But if you coach one of those man-ball teams that runs a successful offense, what’s the point of going HUNH in the first place?

    Because Todd Grantham.

    😉

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  3. I think that the HUNH would be effective for a team like ours when you have multiple weapons (5 or more) who can take it the distance on any given play and your QB can’t stretch the field with his arm or extend with his legs. I thought last fall before michel and marshall got hurt that going fast could have really been a good strategy for us. You put three among Gurley, marshall, Mckenzie, michel, and Chubb on field together and go fast it would put a ton of pressure on a defense. More plays more points and it pressures the hell out of the other teams offense.

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  4. Bulldog Joe

    $90.00 per ticket at Knoxville and $115.00 per ticket at Auburn this year. A very good way to keep opposing fans from attending.

    At those prices, they better run as many plays as possible!

    Georgia charges them $50.00 per ticket when they play here…

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