CFB: Explaining the Spread Offense
In football, running a spread offense is like living in New York City. It is fast, exciting and sometimes can be very confusing. Now I, having watched and played football, have a general sense of what works in the sport and what does not. It may not be orthodox because it is a fairly new system, but what I have found to work best at getting the ball into the end zone, is a spread offense. The first step in running a spread offense is to have a quick and well-conditioned group of athletes on an offense. Agile and durable offensive team members are key, because the pace of play is very quick and non-stop.
It is important to address this in practice, by conditioning the team very well by a lot of running and practicing speed technique. Contrary to most offenses where a team will huddle up in between plays, a spread will often feature a no-huddle offense. This means that instead of huddling up, the quarterback will quickly yell out what play they are running once everybody on the offense quickly gets set up following the preceding play. With a slow, unconditioned team, a spread offense could not work due to no-huddles and most plays in a spread requiring quick and speedy movements.
Next, it is crucial to have a good playbook. The playbook will be based most importantly upon the speed of the quarterback, running back, and wide receivers. In my opinion, the playbook should focus around three play style sets which are shotgun, option, and trick play. A shotgun formation is where the quarterback will take the snap typically five yards from the center. This allows for quick throws and hand offs as soon as the ball is snapped. The second formation is option, which is where the quarterback will have one or more running backs by him and once the ball is snapped, he will quickly scan the defense.
He will see if he should run it or give it to his team mates. Lastly, a trick play formation could be all sorts of different formations, and the most common in a spread is called the wildcat formation. This is when the running back will take the snap and either throw or run the football. Once a good playbook is established and it is added to the repertoire, a team is ready to manage the clock. Finally, to run a spread offense it is necessary to have good clock management. With spread offenses featuring a no-huddle, scoring can come very quickly.
It is very important to make sure at least a couple of minutes have been passed, to ensure that the team’s defense has rest before coming on the field after the offense. If the team’s defense is tired coming back onto the field, they are more likely to give up points due to a lack of energy. This can commonly be done through the play clock. Between each play there are 40 seconds to get another play off. With a fast paced offense, it is most effective to snap the ball with 20-30 seconds left on the play clock. The quarterback will be in charge of making sure everybody is set and there is enough time on the play clock before running the play.
In conclusion, running a spread offense is the trickiest of all the offenses to run, but the most effective. It can be very exciting and also very frustrating. With so many different styles it can be hard for coaches to find one that not only fits themselves, but their team. One thing is for certain, it is crucial for offense to be effective and the best means of scoring for a team.
Photo Credit: CBS Sports.
