2014 College Football Thread: The Will Muschamp Memorial

[Plow]

This article from a few years ago is fucking awesome:

http://smartfootball.com/offense/the...sen-and-beyond

Particularly these 2 parts early on that really explain a whole lot about both big 12 offenses and defenses really simply:

Indeed, the coaches who’ve taught and learned the Air Raid have changed, the players and formations have changed, and even the plays themselves have changed. The offense, however, remains, both shaped by these coaches and their players and somehow shaping each of them in the process. The wishbone and the Wing-T were playbooks, Bill Walsh’s West Coast offense a meticulous method of gameplanning, but the Air Raid is something more akin to an idea, or at least several related ones: that to get an advantage in modern football you need to be particularly good at something, and to be good at something you have to commit to that something, and if you’re going to commit to something it might as well be different. And thus the principles underlying the Air Raid exist externally from the many coaches who have taught it: a diligent, many-reps approach to practice; a pass-first and spread the wealth philosophy; and, above all else, a willingness to live in the extremes, to do things just a bit differently, to be willing, in a game where conformity is king, to be just a little bit weird.

These plays were almost not even plays at all, but concepts that serve as the building blocks of every passing offense. Gillman, decades earlier, had the simple insight that if one properly allocated receivers across the field at varying depths with space between them, no zone defense could cover them.

Although the offense only has five potential receivers while the defense can drop seven, eight, or even nine men into coverage, if the offense can always threaten both vertically and underneath, the field is simply too large for a zone defense to cover a well orchestrated passing attack. And if zone defenses could not stop such passing, then passing concepts could be constructed to also defeat the inevitable man coverage they’d face through the route choices that placed those receivers around the field. Defenses, in turn, would have to find ways to bring pressure to disrupt this design, and thus the cat-and-mouse game between offense and defense would continue on that basis.

That second passage in particular reflects a lot on the defenses; when there's guys like Crabtree and Dez and Blackmon and Maclin and Shipley etc. all over the place that are nearly impossible for college kids to cover in man, you end up with one simple option:

Shrink the field with a deep zone and play man underneath when you can. Hence the bend but don't break mentality almost every team in the big 12 is playing with these days, and the fact that speed runners are starting to tear shit up.

[Headspace]

running a big 12 offense

You mean a C-USA offense.

[archibaldcrane]

So, I bumped up my Dish subscription to get Big10 network and NFL Redzone this year, and now I have 7 different CFB games to choose from.

But Ohio state v. Navy isn't one of them?

[octopus]

So, I bumped up my Dish subscription to get Big10 network and NFL Redzone this year, and now I have 7 different CFB games to choose from.

But Ohio state v. Navy isn't one of them?

CBS Sports Network

[Anoat]

Stone Cold Steve Austin on Game Day, drinking beers and shooting guns. AND THATS THE BOTTOM LINE, 'CAUSE STONE COLD SAID SO.

[Anoat]

Georgia Southern up on NC State 17-3 at halftime. ALSO...Navy is up 7-6 on Ohio State at the half. College football is so amazing.

[Bregor]

WVU looks good running a Big East offense

[Headspace]

WVU looks good running a Big East offense

I think you mean an AMERICAN offense.

[Abandon]

georgia clemson just kicked off, and yes, i am up at 1230 in the morning to watch college ball

[Abandon]

clemson D looking strong so far

[Abandon]

nvm

[Serra]

Gurley is looking good so far.

[Buffy]

derp

[Serra]

How is Ash still Texas' QB..?

[Abandon]

they kicked all the other starters off a few weeks ago

[Serra]

Least our defense is looking good.

[Serra]

Against UNT... >.>;

[Abandon]

goooooo mean greeeeeeen

[Headspace]

Can this fucking game start yet

[Abandon]

someone wanna stop gurley today?