In football, it's OK to 'spread' the wealth
West Virginia became a team of choice in video games. High school coaches sought out Missouri film. The New York Times Magazine sent a best-selling author to profile, of all things, the head football coach at Texas Tech -- in slightly less than 9,000 words.
In recent years the world of college football has become flatter. Conference expansion, new television deals and some future playoff system could eventually destroy that balance of power. But for the moment the spread offense is winning hearts and minds, and turning programs from afterthoughts to trendsetters.
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Naperville Central tight end Cam Brate plays in the geographic footprint of the Big Ten, but he loves watching the Big 12: "Every game's a shootout."
Walk into any high school stadium in the Chicago area on a Friday night, and there's an excellent chance you'll see some elements of the spread.
"When you bunch it up and you try to be a powerful offense, sooner or later, you run into somebody that's just as powerful as you," Metea Valley coach Ted Monken said. "You have to just be so much better to win the big games. You can win consistently, cause it's still good offense. The old pro-I that Ohio State, Woody Hayes ran -- it's still good offense. The NFL runs the heck out of it.
"But sooner or later, you got to have so much better personnel to win the big games. When you spread people out, (it's) a big football field, almost 54 yards. There's a lot of space. All it takes is one missed tackle and that 4-yard gain becomes a 24-yard gain. That 20-yard gain becomes a touchdown. You spread people out, you thin them out and you give an opportunity for more athletes to be involved."
There are various reasons for the shift beyond just the inherent copycat nature of coaching.
Benet switched to the spread last season in part because of zone-blocking schemes that allow its linemen to take sharper angles instead of pushing north-south. As Redwings coach Gary Goforth said: "Year in and year out, we're not gonna have the kids that are gonna knock somebody off the ball."
Naperville North began incorporating the spread several years ago as a counterweight to its double-wing offense.
It would fit the skill sets of its mobile quarterbacks, none taller than 5 feet 11 inches. Greg Wunderlich is expected to be the senior starter this season for the University of Nebraska at Omaha, a Division II program. North Central College's Aaron Fanthorpe is a Division III preseason all-American. Jordan Tassio became the Chicago Sun-Times player of the year during that 2007 state championship season.
"When the time is right, we can go to spread and be able to throw (and) run the ball," North coach Larry McKeon said. "Other times we might just hunker down in the double-wing and go after people (or) run play-action.
"We don't abandon one offense for another."
That's how it has evolved as a football idea. Running the spread is almost vague at this point, like being for the environment.
"There's been a lot of talk (about) whether people are going to catch up to the spread offense," Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez said. "I understand the chatter about that, but most spread offenses aren't just one formation and one type of scheme. I mean you run the gamut of different plays."
Rodriguez -- along with Texas Tech coach Mike Leach -- is considered one of the system's many pioneers because of his work at West Virginia. After finishing 3-9 in his first season at Michigan, we'll see how it works in Year 2.
"Now 15-20 years ago when I was first running the spread, sure, it was two or three formations and you never were under center and you had very limited run game," Rodriguez said. "Now it's changed -- everybody runs a little bit of everything and so one spread's not like another spread. If you look at some of the schools in the Big 12 -- they're more of a passing spread. Other teams have done different things in the run game."
No one knows exactly what the game will look like 15 to 20 years from now, but the net result will no doubt be influenced by the spread offense.
Contact Patrick Mooney at pmooney@scn1.com or 630-416-5107.
