Blue and Gold Illustrated

CHALK TALK BRYAN DRISKELL from the line and the running back is directly behind him. Spread offenses rarely, if ever, hud- dle between plays. The goal is to get the defense to line up as quickly as possible and force it to show its inten- tions, giving the offense the opportu- nity to attack a specific area or player. Every spread offense looks to force the defense to defend the width of the field by building in post-snap read concepts. How this works is different, but the objective is to give the quar- terback a defender to read and based on what that defender does, the QB will hand the ball off or keep it. At that point whether the quarterback throws the ball or runs with it is de- termined by what style of the spread is preferred. Spread offenses use formations and unique alignments to gain a numbers or leverage advantage against the de- fense. If it can accomplish both, even better. Some variations between spread of- fenses include the tempo with which teams like to snap the ball, the splits between the offensive linemen and the specific run schemes being employed. For example, Notre Dame prefers to use traditional zone and power schemes as the foundation of its rush- ing attack. The objective is to be physi- cal and attack downhill. Other teams like to use the gap- and-pull method of blocking, which is designed to attack horizontally in an attempt to create vertical creases in the defense. Notre Dame used this in 2010 and 2011. Tempo is without question the big- gest difference between spread of- fenses today. Some teams — like Oregon for example — want to run as many plays as possible. Once the current play is over, the offense hur- ries up to the line of scrimmage and gets set. Teams that attack with tempo put more emphasis on the quantity of snaps and less focus on precision and the quality of a specific play. Team's that utilize tempo are trying to accomplish three main objectives. The first is the force defenses to be as basic as possible with how they line up and defend the offense. Defensive coaches do not have the time between plays to make long calls that require a great deal of thinking. The second objective is to put as much mental stress as possible on the defense in hopes of creating more post-snap assignment mistakes, which can lead to big plays for the offense. The final objective is to physically wear down defenders by having to play at a much faster pace than they are used to and by being on the field for more snaps. With such variety in today's spread offense, properly defending it changes week to week. What works against a run-oriented spread offense that wants to push the tempo is going to be significantly different than defending a pass-oriented spread offense that uses motion and shifts to gain num- bers and leverage advantages. ✦ Bryan Driskell has been a football analyst for Blue & Gold Illustrated since April 2015. He can be reached at bdriskell@blueandgold.com.

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