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Big 12 football analysis

Smashmouth spread

Baylor’s history with the power run game

March 27, 2020 by ianaboyd

Over on Twitter I recently had a brief conversation with Travis Roeder and Cameron Soran about new Baylor offensive coordinator Larry Fedora’s fondness for power run schemes. I think this is the tweet that kickstarted the convo about his power run game. Baylor has been uniquely power run oriented since their rise under Art Briles. … [Read more…]

Posted in: Big 12 football Tagged: Art Briles, Baylor Bears, D-gap power, Dave Aranda, duo, GT Counter, Larry Fedora, LSU Tigers, Matt Rhule, Power run game, Revenant offense, Smashmouth spread, Tight zone

Breaking down 2020 space force enlistment: The Lone Star private schools, TCU and Baylor

March 3, 2020 by ianaboyd

It’s more than a little interesting to observe the TCU-Baylor rivalry these days. The Frogs aren’t even really a strictly Texas school anymore, their admission is over 50% comprised of out of state students, and the football program has served them well as an advertisement for kids from California and other locales. Baylor on the … [Read more…]

Posted in: Big 12 football, Recruiting Tagged: 2-4-5, 4-2-5, Baylor Bears, Big 12 recruiting, Dave Aranda, Gary Patterson, Joe Wickline, Larry Fedora, Peso defense, Smashmouth spread, Space force, Space force cadets, Space-force enlistment, TCU Horned Frogs

Contrar-Ian says passing wins championships

December 16, 2019 by ianaboyd

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…]

Posted in: Uncategorized Tagged: Alabama Crimson Tide, Clemson Tigers, Flyover football, LSU Tigers, Pro-spread, pro-style offense, Smashmouth spread, TOFKAP

What should Arkansas do next?

November 10, 2019 by ianaboyd

Today it was announced that Arkansas is firing head coach Chad Morris, meaning that they’ll be joining Florida State and probably USC in hunting for their next head coach in the upcoming silly season. Chad Morris is a fellow who’s had a major impact on the game of football, even without having much in the … [Read more…]

Posted in: Recruiting, SEC football Tagged: Arkansas Razorbacks, Chad Morris, Matt Campbell, Mike Norvell, Smashmouth spread

Defined by intention: What is the “pro-style spread?” and what differentiates spread offenses?

September 12, 2019 by ianaboyd

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…]

Posted in: Theoretical ramblings Tagged: 11 personnel, HUNH spread, power-spread, Pro-spread, pro-style offense, Pro-style vs College-style, Smashmouth spread, Spread-Iso ball, Spread-option

Tebow vs Ehlinger

July 23, 2019 by ianaboyd

Over on Twitter I built a long thread filled with GIFs from Tim Tebow’s 2008 campaign where the Gators won the SEC and national championships. Here’s where it begins: It’s really something to behold the Gator O creating time for Tebow and advantages for their receivers every time they run play-action off their counter schemes … [Read more…]

Posted in: Big 12 football, SEC football Tagged: Florida Gators, RPO spread revolution, Sam Ehlinger, Smashmouth spread, Texas Longhorns, Tim Tebow

The Cyclone run game

April 23, 2018 by ianaboyd

I studied Iowa State’s 2017 run game pretty carefully this past week for a post over at Football Study Hall on whether it can propel them up yet another level in 2018. Iowa State is a “smashmouth spread” in every sense of the word, using pass concepts that create vertical stress and running them off … [Read more…]

Posted in: Big 12 football Tagged: David Montgomery, Inside zone, Iowa State Cyclones, Kyle Kempt, Matt Campbell, pin and fold, Smashmouth spread

Phil Montgomery is back for another season of “junkyard wars”

June 23, 2017 by ianaboyd

At football study hall I explained some of Montgomery’s fun run game tactics at Tulsa and how they’ve been using the veer and shoot offense to torch opponents in the AAC. There’s a pretty good chance he’s the head coach at Texas Tech in 2018 so Big 12 fans may want to read up on … [Read more…]

Posted in: AAC football, Big 12 football Tagged: Art Briles, Baylor Bears, Bryce Petty, Chad President, Dane Evans, Junkyard wars offense, Phil Montgomery, Pulaski Academy, Scrapheap offense, Smashmouth spread, Texas Tech Red Raiders, Tulsa Golden Hurricane, Veer and Shoot, Will Hefley

Auburn is going to phase 2 of the smashmouth spread

April 6, 2017 by ianaboyd

That’s where you add pass-options, particularly vertical pass options, to your two-back runs. With the additions of OC Chip Lindsey and former Baylor QB Jarrett Stidham, War Eagle now has the main components needed to do this successfully. Gus Malzahn was an early innovator of the smashmouth spread and you can read my man Alex … [Read more…]

Posted in: SEC football, Theoretical ramblings Tagged: Art Briles, Auburn Tigers, Baylor Bears, Chip Lindsey, Gus Malzahn, Jarrett Stidham, SEC football, Smashmouth spread

Breaking down TCU’s 2017 recruiting class

February 16, 2017 by ianaboyd

I speculated back when Doug Meacham left TCU for a fairly unimpressive gig at Kansas that TCU was looking to change things up on offense once again. Obviously the switch to the Air Raid was very good for them and resulted in back to back 10-win seasons. But the big key was that the switch … [Read more…]

Posted in: Big 12 football, Recruiting Tagged: Gary Patterson, Jalen Reagor, National Signing Day 2017, NSD 2017, Omar Manning, Shawn Robinson, Smashmouth spread, Sonny Cumbie, TCU Horned Frogs

Popular posts

College football’s escape from trench warfare.

Space force enlistment: My new metric for evaluating Big 12 recruiting.

Contrar-Ian says passing wins championships.

Old becomes new with the inverted Tampa 2.

Breaking down the football in “Friday Night Lights”

Breaking down the football in “Remember the Titans”

95 Nebraska and the myth of championship recruiting

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