I used to write about how pro-style meant something different from the spread offense that rapidly took over the college game and that college head coaches who wanted to market their ability to get quarterbacks ready for the NFL had a useful pitch in running pro-style offenses.
The thing is, it appears the spread has swallowed up the pro ranks, too.
In 2013, I sat down with Reid in a plain room in a college building in St. Joseph, Missouri, where the Chiefs held their training camp. He told me that the college game is five years ahead of the pro game and that in five years, the spread offenses that had thoroughly dominated the college game would finally dominate the NFL. Five years later, it happened. The Eagles beat the Patriots in what Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley told me looked like a Big 12 game. I tell this story often for two reasons: Because it’s amazing how prescient Reid was, and because it explains Reid perfectly. He not only sees the future, but he helps shape it. Reid spent those five years borrowing liberally from other levels of football and has now perfected the form. In 2017, spread plays he ran against the Patriots were stolen by the Patriots and a slew of other teams. Reid famously stole a play last season from North Dakota State. The result? “College” plays are rarely discussed anymore. The levels of football have merged, a process Reid helped…
No, not every NFL coach is running what Reid is, but they’re no longer dismissing it out of hand like they used to, either. Hey, don’t take my word for it. Take this guy’s:
In 2018, Belichick said Reid has “over the course of time, been able to modify some of the traditional West Coast principles from Coach [Paul] Brown to Coach [Bill] Walsh to Coach Holmgren and so forth to fit his personnel and to fit new scheme ideas that he’s incorporated. So, West Coast offense is still built around speed, space, and balance—catch and run plays, yards after catch, balance between the running game and the passing game, and getting the ball to skill players so they can make yards with it.”
You don’t need to be a college quarterback in an I-formation offense to be attractive on the next level anymore. If you’re still wondering why Kirby Smart went out and hired Todd Monken, there’s another reason for you. The old pro-style sales pitch doesn’t work on the recruiting trail like it used to.
Get The Picture 
This is the kind of post that keeps me coming back. College football is such a great laboratory of ideas. That’s why I love it. Although I love that Georgia provided the coup de grace of the triple option.
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This very contrast came to mind every time I mentioned ‘pro-style’ describing a college team’s scheme. I would add, ‘well, used to be’. Every time I watch a few minutes of NFL ball (which is not often), the old ‘pro-style’ ball is not in play.
The scheme waters are muddy these days.
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You would think that I formation offenses could just pulverize defenses built to stop the spread but they do not. I am wondering why not.
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With the right athletes, the 46 defense can shut down the I formation. The 1985 Chicago Bears demolished I formation offenses.
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Athletes on defense are faster and stronger than ever, and can match up evenly to offensive athletes. Back when I-formation could pulverize a defense, the best athletes were put on offense, and defense got the second tier. DBs were those that couldn’t hang with the WRs, same with LB/RB and DL/OL.
Each position has become so specialized now (and well-paid in the NFL), that you have top tier athletes groomed for every position. No disrespect to Kirby, but do you really think he would make the All-SEC team if he were playing in 2019?
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He would be a walk on at UGA at defensive back.
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I think they can/do vs. less talented teams. The problem comes in when you face the better teams that have great personnel.
Teams like Georgia, Clemson, OSU, Alabama and LSU you just can’t run over. You have to have WRs that can beat their corners and a qb that can make good decisions. Its all about tall, fast WRs and a QB that can protect the ball, buy time and get the cheap yards when there is nothing there.
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Everything seems to cycle after defenses catch up.
Can’t wait to see college football go back to the veer or wishbone…..may start watching pro football again it they follow.
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The veer and wishbone are as dead as the Notre Dame box and the single wing.
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Tongue in cheek comment.
But on second thought….RPO’s and spread offenses were dead too. Unbalanced OL, motions…some of this shit had been around forever, it just cycles back. Just different variations of if now.
Same can be said for defenses….the star position is the same as the old rover defenses (monster).
They just use different names now in most cases.
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I bet if a team lined up in the veer or wishbone formation the defense would call a timeout. As the defense gathered around the DC the word would be “WTF” is that and what do we do.
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LOL!…yep, would work….cause they wouldn’t know WTF they are seeing.
Defenses catch up, offenses catch up…..changes are made, stuff cycles.
Not a whole lot is new in football, just tweaking of some old stuff.
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Donnan tried rolling out the wishbone vs UT in 1999. It did not really phase them.
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Urban Meyer’s offense is the single wing repackaged.
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Given the changes in the rules and the enforcement of the rules to favor offenses especially pass-oriented/RPO offenses, why is anyone surprised spread concepts are flourishing? All of this is to boil the frog slowly as CTE ends the collision nature of the sport to turn it into something like last weekend’s Pro Bowl.
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We have close friends whose son played 13 years in the NFL (OL) and is now in the CTE protocol system. When I was talking to him about it he said “it was worth it” and that even knowing what he now knows he would “do it again”.
With that in mind I doubt we will see a huge defection from football.
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The players may not do anything differently in retrospect especially if they took care of themselves and their families financially. OTOH, the lawyers are going to go after the deep pockets (equipment manufacturers, the owners, and the universities).
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The days of a top talent like Eason or Fields patiently taking multiple years to learn a complicated pro-style system are over. Now they can jump right in to a spread offense and still make it to the pros and succeed so why accept a slower development system that doesn’t give you big stats. I trust that Kirby has changed partially so he can keep recruiting five star QB’s like Vandagriff.
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Doesn’t hurt that the NFL’s top QB is a guy who would have been dismissed as a “System QB” as recently as a few years ago in Mahommes.
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Lamar Jackson’s success as the ultimate dual threat QB helps too.
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I certainly don’t remember that.
Are you sure that was a wishbone you thought you saw??
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Is a football play like a football move? Impossible to define, but you know it when you see it.
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imho very simple to have explosive offenses when OL dudes are allowed to be 7 yds down field when the QB chunks it to the WR
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It all looks easy when you draw it up….
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Every formation i see on TV, college or pros, just looks like the whole idea is the football version of a basketball in-bounds play. Stack em up and send everyone flying in multiple directions to create advantage through uncertainty and rub routes (ie pick plays).
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College and pro are merging. Free agency and pay to play. Transfer w/o a year lay off. These are all good for the sport. No Fun League minors is coming to a college near you.
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Your argument boils down to giving players more power sucks for you as a fan.
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Exactly you football mind out there I ask what you see in basic zone reads ? These are basic bone plays and not far removed from the veer. Even with the wishbone which you’ll agree is basic ground game to eat up time of position there were RPO’s that were run off of options reads which are base remnants but with more receivers than the bones WR and TE. The evolution of the H back was a fall back on the bones FB with more options.
I remiss to Dean Smith as dismissed for the 4 corners offense in basketball to his acknowledgment of numbers of possessions and points scored off of each offensive possession. Simply put now if the offense can run 70-80 plays per game the higher percentage you will score. Time of possession was once a major factor in college football as well as the premise that the better athletes were first consider on the defensive side of the ball. Basic theory has changed from teams will stop your numbers of possessions with great athletes to now out scoring teams by elevating the numbers of plays to where the college game has become The NBA’s version 3 on 2 fast break.
Commercials are not the only issue of 4-1/2 hour college game but the stopping of the clock on incomplete passes along with the insistent reviews by the talking heads.
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