Running Out of the Spread

By forcing the defense to show its formations and tendencies, teams using the spread offense have begun to run the ball well
by: Steve Silverman
© More from this issue

          
Northwestern has certainly had a long football history - but it has not usually been very glorious.

The Wildcats first started to line up and play football back in 1882 and since that time they have put together a record of 412-563-43. A lot of head shaking and fist-banging has been done by their fans over the years.

The team had endured 23 straight losing seasons heading into 1995 when a bit of magic dust was sprinkled over Evanston. The Wildcats suddenly got good and got nasty. They went from 3-7-1 the year before to 10-2, a Big Ten Championship and an appearance in the Rose Bowl vs. USC. Head coach Gary Barnett was viewed by most as a miracle worker.

The team continued to roll the following year and won another Big Ten title with a 9-3 record before getting beat 48-28 by Tennessee in the Citrus Bowl. It appeared the Wildcats had turned a corner and were on the verge of joining the nation's top programs.

But two losing years followed and Barnett high-tailed out of Evanston for the Big 12 and Colorado. In came Randy Walker from the cradle of coaches at Miami (Ohio). Unlike Barnett, Walker did not bring any fairy dust with him to turn the Wildcat program around. What he brought with him was a plan.

Barnett's formula was one that was very familiar to most coaches and it called for a lot of hard work and conditioning. If Northwestern was going to get back to the level of play it had flirted with during the Barnett era, the Wildcats were going to have to be ready for the long haul.

But Walker's plan wasn't just about rolling up his team's collective sleeves and going to work. The plan also included quite a bit of innovation. He wanted the Wildcats to use a one-RB, spread offense and he didn't want to limit his gameplan to passing from that attack. He wanted the team to be able to run from that offense as well.

"The thing about the spread offense is that it allows you to see where the defense is and what they can cover and what they can't," Walker said. "If your offense plays it tight then the defense will play it tight. In that situation, I think the defense has a major advantage because there's no way for the offensive players or coaches to see what they can cover and what they can't.

"In the spread offense, you can see who's in a position to blitz, who's in a position to cover a flanker and who's in a position to fill the A-gap. Sometimes you see that they aren't in position to stop one of your options. In those cases, your players have to execute properly."

In Walker's opinion, the key factor in the spread offense is consistent passing, and he gets that from QB Zak Kustok. However, most of Northwestern's highlights were on long runs by RB Damien Anderson, a true contender for the Heisman Trophy this season. Anderson ran for 2,063 yards and 23 touchdowns a year ago.

"To maximize what this offense can do, you want to be able to run and run well," Walker explained. "It takes away any advantage the defense may have and it maximizes the offense's advantage. Balance is so important in any aspect of life - and it holds for offensive football. If you combine a powerful running attack with a quick-strike passing offense, the defense doesn't know what is coming and they can't scheme to stop just one thing. Consequently, if the offense executes a play to the best of its ability, it can win the battle more times than not."

That advantage was most apparent when Walker's Wildcats traveled to Wisconsin to take on the Badgers in the fourth game of the season last year. At that point, Northwestern was 2-1 and had just come off a one-sided 41-14 defeat against Texas Christian. This was the Big Ten opener and Walker wanted to find a way to hang in there with one of the league's co-favorites and defending Rose Bowl champions.

The spread offense thoroughly befuddled the Badgers and the Wildcats scored 27 second-half points to push the game into overtime. In the second overtime, the Northwestern defense held Wisconsin to a field goal giving Northwestern the advantage. During the ensuing series, Northwestern had the ball on the 12 and made the play-call at the line of scrimmage - a counter-gap run by Anderson.

An instant before the snap, Anderson had to contain himself. He was so giddy with excitement that he almost started laughing out loud.

"I knew I was going to score on the play," Anderson said. "I could see they were playing the pass - and they were also playing it to the strong side of the field. It was going to happen. I was going to score and we were going to win."

Anderson's vision quest turned out to be reality. The out-of-place Badger defense was not in position to stop the spread since it was thinking pass and overplayed to the strong side of the field. The run appeared to be just an afterthought to the Badgers on the play. This may have been questionable since Anderson had already run for 162 yards.

The Wildcats had gained an advantage from their practice and film study. Walker's players were able to read their keys and know what the defense was going to do. Gaining that understanding may have been just as important as perfecting the running plays that have proven to become a staple of Walker's spread offense. The ability to anticipate correctly what the defense was planning gives the attacking player a sense of momentum at the instant of the snap. Even though the Wildcats didn't run the ball in practice as often as they threw it, the offense still had an advantage because the players recognized what the defense was about to do.

"We saw that on many occasions last year," Walker explained. "When our players could see the advantage before the snap, they were able to run better plays and make big plays. It comes from preparation and repetition."

Alvarez may have been beaten by the spread offense in that game, but like any great coach he was determined to do something about it. He respected what Northwestern had done during the 2000 season and what fellow Big Ten rival Purdue had done in previous seasons, so he has incorporated some aspects of that offense into his team's gameplan for the 2001 season. It may take a while for the power-running Badgers to excel at it, but you can be sure that Alvarez won't rest until the Badgers can run the attack with precision.

Joe Tiller has been using the spread at Purdue since arriving at West Lafayette, Indiana in 1997. Tiller inherited a team that struggled to put points on the board and struggled to win.

Tiller had installed the one-RB, spread offense at Wyoming and it proved to be sensational. Not only did the Cowboys tie for the WAC championship in 1993, they also won the league's Pacific Division championship in 1996. In the process, the offense became a prolific crowd pleaser. The '96 Cowboys scored 464 points on its way to a 10-2 record and exceeded the 40-point mark seven times.

Tiller has had the same kind of success at Purdue. The Boilermakers have gone to a bowl game in each of Tiller's four seasons at the school and they tied for the Big Ten championship last year and went to the Rose Bowl for the first time in 33 years. His spread offense has never scored less than 381 points in any of his seasons at Purdue.

Tiller's first four years of success with the Boilermakers were highlighted by the performance of QB Drew Brees, who was drafted last April by the Chargers with the first pick in the second round.

Brees, a true student of the game, was a pinpoint passer with the ability to come through in the clutch. But the running attack has been a big part of the Purdue offense. Last year Montrell Lowe gained 998 yards and averaged 4.4 yards per carry. He also got into the endzone six times. Brees also ran for 521 yards and averaged 5.5 yards a pop himself. The combination of Lowe and Brees running the football allowed Tiller's offense to have its maximum impact.

Tiller sees no reason to change his offense at this point. "It hasn't been a passing fancy for me," Tiller said. "The way our society is, with all the options people have, you need to entertain them when they come to the stadium. You also have to win. Throwing the football is the way to do it. I don't think this offense is going away. I think it will continually get changed and refined, but it's going to stay. And running the ball is a very important part of it."

Rich Rodriguez will be using the one-RB spread this year at West Virginia as he takes over the reins from Don Nehlen. Bob Stoops' Oklahoma offense featured a high-powered spread attack. Offensive coordinator Marc Mangino's play-calling play went a long way in leading the Sooners to the national championship last year and they employed the run very successfully.

Why was Lou Holtz able to lead South Carolina back from the depths to a 24-7 win over Ohio State in the Outback Bowl? In large part because of the spread offense that offensive coordinator Skip Holtz had the Gamecocks running.

Illinois head coach Ron Turner has always been impressed by the spread offense, but the job Northwestern and Oklahoma did last year with running plays from the formation has truly gotten his attention.

"It was always a good offense and a dangerous offense," Turner said. "But the running that Northwestern and Oklahoma did last year running the ball from the spread is very significant. It was always a passing formation and now I think it may be an even better running formation."

Stopping the spread is no small task but it can be done. Nebraska showed it had the scheme and the players to stop the offense in its Alamo Bowl 66-17 thrashing of Northwestern last year, and Frank Solich's black shirt defense didn't do anything special in that game to stop Anderson or Kustok. Instead, the Cornhuskers used their strength and quickness in the trenches to overwhelm the Northwestern offensive line. DE Kyle Vanden Bosch appeared to live in the Northwestern backfield because he was just too quick for the offensive line.

Additionally, the Nebraska defense didn't favor the run or the pass. The lack of "cheating" and the inability to read the defensive keys kept the normally aggressive offense on its heels. As a result, Northwestern's coaches had a tough time making adjustments on the line of scrimmage and their normal play-calling advantage disappeared.

Obviously, winning the battle in the trenches is important at any level of football. The team that wins the battle at the line of scrimmage will win the game 95 percent of the time. That's no secret.

But winning that battle against a spread offense is even more important because of the wide slants taken by the offensive linemen. If the defense is quicker off the ball and can get quick penetration, the offense only has one choice - bring the blockers in tighter to protect the quarterback. That adjustment may keep the quarterback off of his back, but it takes away the attacking aspect of the spread and renders it conservative.

If that goal seems familiar, that's because it was often echoed by one of the game's true legends - Hall of Fame Alabama head coach Paul "Bear" Bryant. "Our defensive objective is to limit the offense to as small an area as possible," the late Bryant once said. "By limiting their attack, we can hem them in and catch them."

But if the offense can spread the defense out - and win the battle on the line of scrimmage - the advantage returns to the attackers. If they can run the ball successfully, that advantage can lead to championship seasons and bowl appearances.
Backs like Texas Tech's Ricky Williams can take advantage of the lanes created by the spread.

"The thing about the spread offense is that it allows you to see where the defense is and what they can cover and what they can't."


OU's Quentin Griffin has used the spread and his small size to find good running lanes.
Balance is so important in any aspect of life - and it holds for offensive football. If you combine a powerful running attack with a quick-strike passing offense, the defense doesn't know what is coming and they can't scheme to stop just one thing.

NEW BOOK!

Digital Download - 304 Pages of Football Forms for the Winning Coach