The biggest question that everyone raises about the LSU Tigers isn’t the state of their space forces, which are tremendous, but their infrastructure. The decision-makers on the field and the architects of the system. On offense the space force is unassailably talented. They lose Justin Jefferson and Saahdiq Charles but return multiple athletes that project … [Read more…]
I was pretty bearish on Mario Cristobal’s Oregon team heading into 2019. Justin Herbert never really convinced me he was elite, the offense seemed overly focused on running the ball behind the offensive line, and the strategy of building Oregon around the offensive line always struck me as a dubious method. Every school is always … [Read more…]
In part II the other day, I broached the same topic I’ve mentioned when I was explaining the theoretical advantage of the “bash bros” against the “Raid bros” in the Big 12. That didn’t work out so great, because it turns out that having easy answers for 3rd and 1 isn’t as valuable as being … [Read more…]
Before Urban Meyer’s run or the less successful eras of Will Muschamp and Jim McElwain, the original breakthrough Florida Gator teams were the Steve Spurrier squads of the 90s. Those squads won six SEC titles and a National Championship in 1996. Those Gator teams come up tangentially in my book… …his 95 team went to … [Read more…]
Not the state, who’s approach to the COVID pandemic under Gov. DeSantis was one that had a sizable chunk of citizens and commentators projecting disaster up until recently. I mean the football program coached by Dan Mullen that is returning their quarterback, four starters on the offensive line, and star “space force dreadnought” Kyle Pitts … [Read more…]
Over at Inside Texas I broke down a playoff game between a couple of Texan quarterbacks of great interest to Longhorn fans, Southlake Carroll’s Quinn Ewers and Duncanville’s Ja’Quinden Jackson. It took a long time to break down that film so I’ll have nuggets I pull from there for a while to come. A tidbit … [Read more…]
Over the last couple of years, particularly while researching and writing my book… …I developed a theory that the college football playoffs essentially come down to which teams have the best spread passing attacks. I reference this theory all the time here, at Football Outsiders, and at Inside Texas but I haven’t fleshed out the … [Read more…]
LSU vs Auburn, Tigers vs Tigers, was a big moment in the history of the spread offense’s inexorable march across the game of football. We’ve seen a few big time spread battles in the SEC before. Texas A&M introduced the Air Raid back in 2012 and had a pair of big seasons with Johnny Manziel … [Read more…]
Almost everyone runs the spread now. Using multiple receivers, spacing, and the forward pass as the key components to your offensive strategy is pretty well accepted now as a best practice. The hurry-up, no-huddle (HUNH) is also close to being accepted as a best practice. Obviously Kansas State is out here running A-gap power from … [Read more…]