Last year, when RickRod went to Michigan it seemed very possible to me that, at long last, the Spread had jumped the shark. While our mainstream media still treats it as an exotic beast, the fact is that it's now the norm. It's almost more exotic to NOT run a spread offense.

A few weeks ago the estimable Smart Football opined on The Rise of the Terrible Spread Team. With the ubiquity of the strategy, the inevitable downsides of it's overuse are emerging:

...The offense just isn't an equalizer anymore, but instead more of an amplifier. If you have great athletes you can isolate them in space, but if you don't then you're just giving them one-on-one matchups they can't win and asking your quarterback to play perfect or you can't win.

Which, if you've been paying attention at all this season would seem to suggest one SEC team in particular. Interestingly, Smart Football, doesn't agree. The problems with Auburn's dysfunctional offense, he insists, are internal - not part of the strategy it employs. What has emerged is an offense going too many directions at once and, says Smart Football, the result is predictable:

It's the converse of Bobby Bowden's old quote about defense: If you try to stop everything, you stop nothing. Here we could say if you try to be everybody's spread, you're nobody's spread.

The next obvious question, it seems to me, is "What next?" Football is an evolving sport and as soon as one strategy begins to become entrenched another is certain to emerge to counter it. Logically, with the spread, this would seem to be a defensive approach.

Turns out, Football Outsider's Mike Tanier has taken up this line of thought with an article this week (which I blatantly stole the title of). His primary concern is the pro game and how the elements of the spread have matriculated upward to it but he's got an interesting point about defenses at the college level that I completely agree with.

Roll the college highlight reels from recent weeks, and you will see more quarterback keepers getting stymied, more slip screens broken up or returned for pick-sixes, and a general sense that fewer defenders are fooled by the sprint-option right/toss back to the left tactics of coaches like Meyer. College coaches used to see one or two spread option teams per year. Now they see ten. They had to adapt or change careers.

The changes, at the pro level include: Cornerbacks and other edge defenders are protecting their legs better and shedding blocks on the edge,  more cornerbacks are lining up five yards deep and going for the pick when the quarterback throws the receiver screen, defensive ends are aligning extra wide and leaping to disrupt outside screen and linebackers are keying the run more aggressively in shotgun sets.

I'm very interested to watch this week's games and see how these elements are showing up in the games. But where this analysis really makes me feel good about things is when I consider it in light of Smart Football's essay on Bama's defense in anticipation to the Clemson game.

It seems to me the heart of the strategy employed in Saban's defense is ideal for this anti-spread approach particularly since we've seen such strides in the ability of our linebackers and secondary.

Saban's philsophy of controlling the middle of the field pushes teams to the outside where the more risky plays lurk. It dares a weak spread team to do it's worst and - as Smart Football points out - you are essentially asking the quarterback to try and beat you.

If that strategy works on someone as able as Stafford, I'll work against the legions of B-grade spread teams lurking out there. Yep, you still have to find a way to defeat the Tebows of the world but now it's an achievable task. Particularly when we now have a decent offense emerging.

And, on that point all of this kind of omits how our O is able to compete in the world of this shifting paradigm. My feeling is 'quite well' but I'm certainly not expert enough to make a detailed assessment of it. I welcome any input or links to articles that might shed some light on that score.

 

 

ed- in our continuing effort to make roll bama roll your roll bama roll, from time to time we'll be soliciting random tens from you, the readership. y'all know how to play by now, so leave your random tens in the comments section below, and if you'd like to host in the coming weeks, let us know.

So Todd asked me to man the Random Top Ten this week and I agreed with a slight caveat - it won't be that random.

You see, way back in the day when I was drinking my way out of the university I haunted the communications building as a DJ at WVUA. These were the carefree days of the mid-80s college rawk that was doing its thing across the SEC radio waves. Bolstered with jangly guitars, unabashed affection for country music and a love for Alex Chilton that knew no bounds it set my heartstrings aflutter from the start.

About the only band still remembered from that era is R.E.M. but there was lots more great stuff where that came from, I can assure you. So come with back to those wonderful days of yesteryear when Mike Shula was destroying the team as just a quarterback, Cornelius Bennett had yet to meet Steve Beuerlein and we were just a single coach past the Bear Bryant era.

1) Guadalcanal Diary - "Watusi Rodeo"  A fantastic barn burner by Marietta GA's favorite sons. This dusty video was made by the band way in '83 while on tour across SEC country. It'll make you a little wistful if you remember those days long gone by. (Not to mention seeing Nina Blackwood introduce it.)

(more after the jump)

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This is an actual advertisement in the concourse of Jorge Chavez International Airport in Lima, Peru. It touts the mobile phone service Telefonica Movistar which originates in Spain.

It's worth noting that, partially due to the lure of Macchu Picchu, more than 2 million tourists from all over the world are likely to see this sign this year. Making it one of the most effective international emissaries for UT.

(I have no idea if it appears elsewhere but I'll be keeping an eye out for it from now on.)

 

Having marked up a heaping helping of righteous indignation for slapdash journalism this week I felt it important to highlight a fantastic piece of investigative and explanatory reporting courtesy the Indianapolis Star.

Earlier this week Mark Alesia authored a thoroughly researched piece examining the issue of "special admits" in NCAA athletics. These are the students admitted under exceptions to normal admission standards for reasons including "special talent." Often these are students whose academic eligibility is in question.

The University of California topped the list with 95 percent of its freshman football players on scholarship were special admits, compared with 2 percent of the student body. In their defense, officials with the institution defended the figures saying they are the result of a strict in accounting for special admits.

And as hazy as the numbers are for this practice, the info for the graduation rates for these athletes is even more difficult to discern.

Because there are no national statistics on graduation rates for special admits, it's difficult to judge the degree to which schools are educating these athletes.

The numbers for football players at SEC schools involved in the report are as follows…

• Georgia – 94%
• LSU – 82%
• Kentucky – 64%
• Alabama – 21%
• Florida – 18%
• Auburn – 12%
• Mississippi – no special admits
• Mississippi State – no special admits
• Arkansas – did not respond

HT - Fanbogs

Seems Ms. Horne, who is actually employed as a sportswriter for FoxSports, has taken a degree of umbrage with the Alabama fanbase.

Crimson Tide fans take living in the past to a whole new level. How long has Bear Bryant been gone? They brag about how many titles they've won and proclaim their rivalry with Auburn the greatest ever, but they're on an 0-6 streak in the Iron Bowl. Maybe they're the ones who started this whole "SEC" chant thing; if your team can't win, hide behind your conference's success.

via FoxSports

I guess we should be honored we only came in eighth in her list of offensive fanbases. Or something. If nothing else, it's nice to know the interns have upward mobility working for Uncle Rupert.

Following the super-fantastic mega-exciting episode of the "RBR Radio Hour" tonight (WHAT!?!! You missed it!?! Get thee to the podcast young man!) I chatted with Todd briefly about the possibility of getting RBR into the t-shirt business. Because, you know, all the cool kids are doing it this year.

While there are a few obvious things we can put on shirts and offer them up in exchange for your hard-earned cash (like this example I whipped up on the fly during the show) Todd thought it would be best to hear from you guys – what are your ideas to go on official RBR paraphernalia?

So if you have suggestions feel free to post them here and comment on the ideas of others. Remember, you can "rep" people’s posts so feel free to use that function for the ones you think might be best.

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So Saturday night I ambled down to the Corner Pub on Larco here in Lima, Peru to watch my beloved Crimson Tide systematically disassemble Clemson.

Sadly, I had to abstain from drinking because I had plans for early Sunday morning - the Human Race 10K.

This is the first race in my effort to qualify for the Boston Marathon and rather important since it's a benchmark for my training over the next three months.

Since this race was a Nike production (the Lima run was one of 25 races held in cities across the globe on Sunday) they had all the gimcracks you might expect. The big thing was we all had to wear these red shirts that had our racing numbers printed on them.

So there I was at 9 a.m. among 8,500 or so folks dashing through the streets of Lima - actually the municipality of Miraflores - while still riding a rather wondrous high from the victory the night before. (My time - by my watch - came in at 44:38. Pretty good but there's a lot of work for me over the next 12 weeks.)

So I was happily surprised to pick up Lima's main paper, El Comercio, this morning and see a big picture of the race on the front page. And then I laughed out loud when I read the headline: "Una marea roja inundo Miraflores." or "A Red Tide Floods Miraflores."

Yes, you certainly could say that.

Chris over at Smart Football has put together a glorious exegesis on the upcoming Bama/Clemson matchup for EDSBS. It's an incisive look at Saban's defense versus Spence's offense and a bit of what we should expect to see in terms of general strategy on Saturday.

No pick 'em here, just glorious analysis ranging from coaching pedigree, historical trends and all those geeky X's and O's which will make the next several days that much more agonizing.

Smart Football (and EDSBS)