The Spread offense along with the timing of HUNH causes talent to be negated because the defense is caught out of position. The combined Spread is nothing more than using unfair advantages given to the Offense that allow them to change personnel, go to the line, and Prairie Dog quickly so that your defense can’t adjust. The offense can snap the ball anytime in prairie dog mode so you can’t adjust or change personnel. The mismatches and reads by Def players that are out of position leave Offensive players WIDE OPEN. The RB’s have wide open running lanes, the WR’s are wide open and the QB’s can throw sloppy passes since the WR’s don’t have a defender anywhere around them.
Spread QB’s and WR’s have a terrible transition into the NFL. The QB’s don’t always have to throw into tight coverage and they are always in the shotgun. WR’s don’t always have to go up for the ball in tight coverage. The QB and WR don’t have to read defenses because the mismatches negate the X’s and O’s.
The combined HUNH Spread has ruined HS FB in that the kids have the same problems as stated above. It is a concern to me that HS FB in DFW has been taken over by HUNH spread and it may changed the elements of the talent.
I hate it as well, but this will continue until one of two things happen. 1) Defensive changes are made to the extent that the offense is easier to stop. People tell me the wishbone was once the feared offense. By the time I was playing HS ball, we considered the wishbone to be one of the easiest offenses to stop. If you knew your reads, and played your responsibility, you could shut it down. I would expect a similar evolution here.
Market forces will drive the HUNH out. If the things you mention ultimately materialize to the point that fans “tune out,” rule changes will be made to bring lost revenue back in. Fans may not “tune out,” as the HUNH is designed to turn the “have nots” into “haves.” If fans don’t “tune out,” we’re back to 1).
The wishbone was not popular at a time when the offense was given all of the advantages they have now. Right now the timing of the HUNH is what makes the Spread work so the defenses can’t do much until the Offense’s enormous advantage is mitigated. The substitution rules can be changed and you will see HUNH Spread impacted. It will fail when it can’t use the Prairie Dog set at the line to hold the defense hostage with a bad personnel grouping or misaligned from a quick snap. This is proven by how it performs when starting play or in a normal mode after stoppages.
True, but when enough programs resort to the HUNH, the majority of defenses will change to negate the offensive advantage. Defenses can substitute when offenses can. In the future, we may see base defenses that are leaner and faster than traditional base defenses. The offense can “prairie dog” all they want, but if the defense can match them “step for step,” their advantage will be gone. As is stands now, too many offenses still run jumbo packages. Defenses designed to stop the HUNH can’t stop those, so we haven’t seen a defensive “sell out.” That being said, perhaps the best way to stop the HUNH is with a grinding Jumbo offense that eats clock. If a defense can’t get you off the field without scoring, and you eat huge chunks of the clock, the HUNH won’t have the time to score enough points to win. The HUNH isn’t really a faster offense, as many believe. It’s just faster to the LOS, as you point out.
You are right about the jumbo packages working, because that is what the HOGS have been doing against Spread HUNH teams. I think a “tune out” factor that could help, is that many people are tired of the HUNH spread coming down to who has the ball last most of the time. It is not about coaching, talent or scheme, but all about the luck of who gets the ball last.
Since I was a young man, several things have happened. First the single platoon system was junked, then the rules of blocking were changed to allow pushing and grabbing etc. that before were illegal use of hands. Then not allowing any contact with a receiver after ten yards all added to a passing game. If you want to see where it is headed, watch an Arena or Canadian football game. It will soon be a seven on seven game and IMO not worth watching.
Over the course of time major rule changes have been made to benefit the Offense, and leaving loop holes for the Offenses to exploit, ie the HUNH.
Case in point recently the head to head contact, which I believe to be a very important change to negate serious injury, but it is often called 90% of the time when the offensive player ducks his head just before the point of contact resulting in nullifying a picture perfect tackle and Defense charged the penalty. I wonder if some of that isn’t coached into the play/player by some HC’s/OC’s these days.
When DC’s catch up to the HUNH and begin slowing it down, look for other rules changes to rectify that as well.
7 on 7 is where it is headed as you so brilliantly stated. I had forgotten blocking rules since it has been changed for so long. The Offensive lines have too much of an advantage with their use of hands. It is especially bad when combined with the HUNH Spread, because the defender is caught out of position. Out of position means that you are out of leverage so the Oline’s use of hands is more powerful.
I don’t think it is ruining the game but its just another phase or transition to deal with. I foresee recruiting changes if HUNH continues to proliferate. I suspect you will see lighter,faster,and stronger DE’s and DT’s alongside secondaries that can man-to-man press coverage. It could be a vanilla look to the offense every time so it never knows where/type of blitz is coming. In short to QB MUST be running for his life most of the time. Great LB’s are a must. HOGS YA’LL.
I saw a couple articles today, forget where, but NFL coaches say the hurry up stuff is really hurting them at draft time as they say the QB’s are not prepared for NFL football and the defensive linemen are nowhere near NFL needs. In general they are unhappy with college players to some extent. One person in one article said not having a minor league to develop players is hurting the NFL right now. I suspect the NFL may very well adopt the hurry up stuff anyway in time.
I’m not sure that you can run the HUNH combined with the spread in the NFL with a 53 man roster. Fatigue will set in and it will be quite bad with a 16 game schedule. The HUNH element will be bad for the NFL too as it prevents the defense from substituting thus puts the defense in a position of having the wrong players on the field for that down and distance, thus the offense uses that mismatch to their advantage. It has nothing to do with talent versus talent or scheme versus scheme. The moment the ball is able to be snapped, the defense must be in a position to defend and fully substituted if the offense snaps the ball, thus they are being held hostage by the offense getting over the ball aka prairie dog time.
I agree and there is a lot of pressure to increase the schedule to 18 games. I see no reason to except the one thing that counts most these days, money from TV.
The SEC has been dominant because of big fast physical Def Tackles, def Ends and OLineman. The SOUTH has the market cornered on big athletic guys, and that has always set us apart in bowl games. Our Dlines dominate the Olines of Big 12 or Big 10 teams in the BOWL games. The HUNH Spread rose as something different that schools could use to gain an advantage that was difficult to prepare for when all other schools ran conventional offenses and play sequences. The HUNH Spread allows a school to use lesser talent overall, but react to misalignments of the defense, and fatigue the defense with plays run as often as you can.
Houston and Baylor are a perfect example of how the HUNH allows a team like that to compete at a higher level than any other team from the state of Texas, including the whorns, who have 5* recruits banging at their door year in and year out. Allowing this HUNH wave to continue does nothing but bring the SEC down. The SEC has built its reputation by fielding big ugly dudes who DOMINATE you on defense. Saban, Miles and Bielema have made a strategic choice against the HUNH Spread, but Bama has integrated some of it with Kiffin. Our Hogs are starting to succeed by being different in the same way that made the HUNH Spread take off…being different.
The HUNH Spread has taken over the other SEC teams, which are switching to smaller players that can handle the fatigue. Bama is trying to change to meet the rule that allows the insane play speed, but they are even having trouble with new style. I heard one coach say teams like LSU or Arkansas should stay away from it is based on the ability to recruit players with size AND athleticism, use of complex schemes, and the use of advanced level pre-snap and post-snap reads. Saban is a freak about pre-snap reads.
Many HUNH Spread teams trade some degree of player size and strength for the conditioning necessary to run plays at break-neck speeds. Athletes that are bigger, stronger, smarter, and faster than their peers aren’t exactly a dime a dozen. Strength and conditioning programs have to specialize their programs to develop their players for the offensive system the team runs. Anti-HUNH coaches would recruit LARGE and strong players over smaller, faster and better conditioned players especially when it comes to Linemen.
Eventually the trend will come back around to what Arkansas is running now and you already hear coaches alluding to this. We run an NFL offense so recruits recognize that we can help their chances to get into the NFL.
Simply said, I think the HUNH is going to ruin the SEC’s dominance in college football.