Used to be in college football the coach of one team would sneer at the other team’s defense and declare, “Here’s our offense, stop it.”
Heard that lately? Not so much. Many college football teams do not just run out of the I-formation, the split back or the one-back set with a rock-em, sock-em game plan. They do not even have an offense per se, that they will use, come hell or third down, to bowl over an opponent.
The term “our offense” no longer means a specific design. “Our offense,” for a lot of programs, is a collection of plays. For lack of a better word, the easiest thing to call your offense these days is “multiple.”
When Alabama played Penn State on Sept. 11, the Crimson Tide embarked on a 97-yard drive using a heavy formation of two tight ends. In the same game Alabama ran out of a set with no backs, then one-back, then four wide receivers.
Alabama used a Wildcat formation with a running back as the quarterback. The Tide ran the no-huddle offense and shotgun and also used a half-of-a-shotgun formation where the quarterback stands 3 yards behind the center, not 5 or 6 yards.
It seemed Alabama had spent the entire preseason installing offense. Not just the same plays out of different formations, it was genuinely unique offense, different plays, different formations.
“This week we wanted to give them as many looks as we could to confuse those guys,” said Darius Hanks, the Alabama wide receiver from Norcross, said after the Penn State game. “We got from spread to I-formation to Wildcat to the bunch to no-huddle. We’ve got so many ways to go on offense.”
So what do you call the offense?
“Not for me to say. You’ll have to ask the coaches,” Hanks said.
The Crimson Tide is not the only program with a thick playbook. Penn State had tailback plays that night, but it also had speed sweeps to scatbacks. Auburn’s slot machine offense spits all manner of formations and plays.
No. 3 Boise State does not have an offense; it has plays out of various formations. Some plays are power, some misdirection, some speed, all unpredictable.
“People use the term ‘system’ loosely,” said Phil Savage, the analyst on Alabama radio broadcasts and a former NFL general manager. “It is more a collection of packages and a collection of plays within those packages.
“People feel like they have to be multiple on offense to keep defenses off balance. They feel like if they go out there and line up same personnel and same formations, they feel the defensive coaches can get dialed in on them, particularly the ones that can bring pressure.”
The movement is hardly universal. Georgia Tech's spread-option offense makes no secret that it will run the pitch-out until the opponent proves it can stop it. While Georgia's offense is listed as multiple, it retains some of the classic I-formation elements that have served the program from decades.
Wake Forest coach Jim Grobe said his offense has to be multiple because the Deacons do not recruit to a system. They try to lure the best recruits and then craft an offense to match them.
“We’ve pretty much had to do that in the 10 years we have been at Wake Forest because our talent changes so much,” Grobe said. “It’s hard for us at Wake Forest to go out and recruit players that just fit a certain type of offense. We’re out trying to find the best quarterback we can find. One year it might be the best runner or the best thrower.
“Once you get them assembled, now you have to figure out what do they do best.”
Alabama is multiple for the opposite reason. It can recruit any player it wants. So the Crimson Tide recruits power and speed and uses it all over the field.
Like many schools, Alabama adopted a Pistol formation from Nevada, where Bama quarterback Greg McElroy lines up 3 yards deep . The formation allows a look at the defense, offers some better protection, but is still able to get the running back off quickly with a handoff.
“It’s a way to run the ball effectively out of the gun, you can still run most of the plays in the 3 spot, or right behind the quarterback,” Alabama coach Nick Saban said. “It doesn’t allow the defense to set up pressures relative to where the back is and where protections might be. It gives you a chance to be in a balanced running set and the gun and gives you the option to go either way with your runs.”
What else is new over the last several seasons?
- Florida's offense was one of the first to take the tight end and make him an H-back, flexing him off the line or slightly splitting him out. Aaron Hernandez, a former Gators tight end, developed so much as a receiver that he was a fourth-round pick of the New England Patriots.
- It has become harder to find a traditional fullback because so many high schools use the spread offense. That's one reason why the heavier two-way running back, like Alabama's Mark Ingram (5 feet 10, 215 pounds) and Trent Richardson (5-11, 220) are in demand. They are stout enough to pass protect can also run away from linebackers and defensive backs.
South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier said the play-caller wants options with his offense. If the run is sniffed out by the defense, the passing tree is the ready alternative.
“We all probably have too many plays and can’t call them all,” Spurrier said. “What’s most important is how your players execute and how your quarterback can get you out of a bad play.”
Defenses are not far behind the innovations on offense. They can be just as multiple. Whereas teams ran a 5-2 allignment then a 4-3 with a shell defense of two-deep secondary, now the same team that runs a 4-3 base defense might also use a 3-4, like North Carolina State.
“We have two of our defensive ends who put their hand on the ground (4-3) and both can stand up and play linebacker and we have been able to do that the past couple of games,” said Tom O’Brien, State's head coach.
With his 4-3 defense so easily converted, O'Brien said it makes it more difficult for the quarterback and center to identify rushers and call protections against a 3-4.
“The thing with a 3-4,” O’Brien said, “is that you don’t know where that fourth rusher is coming from.”
“It just goes in cycles,” said Miami coach Randy Shannon. “You’ll see the 4-3 for a while, then the 3-4 for a while. It depends on personnel, the types of bodies. It’s predicated on what’s available.”
Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said he doesn’t think the 3-4 is going to be adopted as a mainstream defense nationally in the college game because of the specified personnel needed to run it.
“It’s really a challenge to get the personnel to match it," he said. "I’m not saying it’s impossible, but it’s a lot more common in the NFL. There are not a lot of teams committed to playing the 34 in college. You better have guys on the outside who rush and play coverage. The good [3-4] teams I’ve seen typically have an outstanding nose tackle and those guys don’t grow on trees.”
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