Football analysis and strategy from Chris B. Brown
The Most Important Game in the History of the Spread Offense, and its Legacy
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The Most Important Game in the History of the Spread Offense, and its Legacy
The 2000s were undoubtedly the decade of the spread offense. We’re still feeling the reverberations of the tectonic shifts; what began in backwater practice fields, the synthesis of old ideas with new ones, is now omnipresent — overexposed, quite possibly — on most levels of football, and even the NFL is now beginning to adapt.…
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Study up: John Jenkins’ Houston run and shoot
Before Mike Leach or Dana Holgorsen, there was John Jenkins of run-and-shoot fame as maybe the original air-it-out southwest mad scientist (other than Dutch Meyer of TCU, of course). Back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, what Houston was doing on offense was heresy, particularly the way they did it: by slaughtering foes with…
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What were the seminal offenses/defenses of each decade?
Inspired by this post, remember the definition of “seminal” when answering. Think of it (as it was in the original post) as The Great Gatsby was to books in the 1920s as X was to offensive/defensive schemes in Y. Here are my picks. Add your own: 1900s – 1910s: Single-wing. 1920s: Notre Dame Box. 1930s:…
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Strategic trends for the next decade? Start with defense
In their tag-teamed auguries for the next decade of college football, Stewart Mandel and Andy Staples reflect on the decade of the spread and look to the option offenses of the ’70s to predict what big things might come next: 8. The spread and pro-style offenses will learn to coexist College offenses constantly go in…
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Montana Magic
Stumbled across these great videos of Joe Montana, grand executor of Bill Walsh’s precision offense. There are many great things to notice from these clips, but in particularly focus on Montana’s footwork. This is one area where quarterbacks as a whole have regressed.