This was such a wild and wacky college football season filled with surprising teams and surprising losses. I'm still trying to sort out and process everything I've seen this season. Sure there are the obvious statements like the BCS formula and selection process should be changed to prevent Oklahoma from ever going to the Fiesta Bowl and Ohio State from ever going to the championship game again, but I'm looking for deeper analysis. Will the spread offense continue to proliferate around college football? Can you win a national championship with a QB that will actually be good in the NFL? Which is the most important position to recruit well? Based upon a quick recall, it sure seemed like defensive lines really dominated the bowl games.
The spread offense is nice and everything, but it's not the future or is it going to change the game. I don't think that's what you meant, I've kind of gotten that impression from some people on radio and TV. And this is just an observation, but bottom teams in BCS conferences are playing more competitive against the power programs in those conferences. Defensive linemen are very important to recruit, but I also think having depth in case of injuries is key. Does it make a difference when during the season you lose, if you're a one loss team?
I think the spread offense is creating more of an emphasis on speed players and those who can play multiple positions. McFadden played QB to get the ball in his hands in a zone read scheme, Tebow and Harvin were basically a two-man offense for Floriday, Mizzou had Jeremy Maclin returning kicks, running, receiving. I think it's easier to have a spread scheme, because you don't need a great QB to run it, but more so a better athlete, and the proliferation of the spread offense is in full force, but I think it's because teams haven't made sure-fire defensive schemes to be able to stop it. With all the spread offenses gaining, more defenses will be geared to stopping it, and it will even itself out again. Overall, I find the spread offense as sort of "an easy way out". I do think a team can win with a pro-style quarterback, but you need to also have a line that can protect him and solid wide receivers, which is harder to do than simply run a spread/option scheme. Line play has always been important, but these bowls really showed that to the country. Having depth on the lines is crucial, by trotting out big bodies and keeping them fresh, that really can help a team.
The spread is all about getting your best offensive players in position where they are matched up against a minimum number of defenders. It is has sustainability because teams can run and pass out of it. I don't agree that it is an easy way out, but it is a good equalizer that allows teams with less overall talent to be damn effective. Speaking of offenses, did anyone else notice LSU using the pistol formation in the BCS game? I wonder how many more copycats we will see next season with teams basing packages on the pistol.
Exactly, it helps the lesser talent teams compete. Which is why more and why are using it. There are 2 different types as cpaw mentioned, the spread option offense (WV's O) and regular spread offense where it's pass first instead of run first (Kansas, Mizzou, Texas Tech all run this). It will be around for a long time and probably never go away. Only way I see it stopping is more and more schools putting their more faster players on the defense, which not many can do. But it'd have to be similar as you can get to an NFL type defense. There's a reason why that offense isn't run that much in the pros. Too much speed everywhere. Yeah, LSU borrowed that pistol formation from Nevada. Oregon uses it sometimes as well. I'm sure more will incorporate it into their systems.
The NFL defenses have both size and speed. There are a lot of teams that have or could have fast defenses, but they would only have 1 or 2 NFL sized players playing at their NFL position. Look at all the DE's that have to move to LB.
We have learned that Knowshon Moreno is the shit. And that Mike Teel is a D1 quarterback when he's healthy.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (JCB @ Jan 11 2008, 04:41 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>And that Mike Teel is a D1 quarterback when he's healthy.</div> I still haven't seen that against any good teams
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (cpawfan @ Jan 11 2008, 04:51 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (JCB @ Jan 11 2008, 04:41 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>And that Mike Teel is a D1 quarterback when he's healthy.</div> I still haven't seen that against any good teams </div> He played above average against most legit teams when he wasn't even able to bend his thumb. He destroyed the teams he played when he was healthy. There's no reason to think he won't be effective next year in he's healthy. Only time will tell though. Hopefully Natale is healthy enough to be his back-up next year if he gets hurt though. Jabu won't cut it.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (JCB @ Jan 11 2008, 05:02 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (cpawfan @ Jan 11 2008, 04:51 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (JCB @ Jan 11 2008, 04:41 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>And that Mike Teel is a D1 quarterback when he's healthy.</div> I still haven't seen that against any good teams </div> He played above average against most legit teams when he wasn't even able to bend his thumb. He destroyed the teams he played when he was healthy. There's no reason to think he won't be effective next year in he's healthy. Only time will tell though. Hopefully Natale is healthy enough to be his back-up next year if he gets hurt though. Jabu won't cut it. </div> Which games on Rutgers schedule last season did Teel carry the offense? Which of those games did Rutgers win? Good teams still invite Teel to throw becuase the odds are heavily in their favor that he'll make a mistake. Don't get me wrong though, I'm the last person that wants to see Teel replaced as the Rutgers starting QB. I wish he still had 3 more seasons of eligibility.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (cpawfan @ Jan 11 2008, 05:13 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (JCB @ Jan 11 2008, 05:02 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (cpawfan @ Jan 11 2008, 04:51 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (JCB @ Jan 11 2008, 04:41 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>And that Mike Teel is a D1 quarterback when he's healthy.</div> I still haven't seen that against any good teams </div> He played above average against most legit teams when he wasn't even able to bend his thumb. He destroyed the teams he played when he was healthy. There's no reason to think he won't be effective next year in he's healthy. Only time will tell though. Hopefully Natale is healthy enough to be his back-up next year if he gets hurt though. Jabu won't cut it. </div> Which games on Rutgers schedule last season did Teel carry the offense? Which of those games did Rutgers win? Good teams still invite Teel to throw becuase the odds are heavily in their favor that he'll make a mistake. Don't get me wrong though, I'm the last person that wants to see Teel replaced as the Rutgers starting QB. I wish he still had 3 more seasons of eligibility. </div> Don't be silly. I never said Teel carried the offense. No QB would EVER carry the offense with Ray Rice as their running back. All I said is that he was a D1 quarterback, which he is. That's all. I'm not calling him Andre Woodson or anything.
