Spread 101, Part I: Welcome to the Spread

The biggest storyline coming into the 2009 season is Virginia’s introduction to the Spread Offense. It hass taken decades for the Hoos to progress past an offense that ran off-tackle for four yards on 3rd & 6. OK, that’s not exactly true. As recently as 2003, Matt Schaub chucked the ball over 400 times in a single season (of course, those attempts were largely of the Ron Prince dink-and-dunk variety, but 400 attempts is 400 attempts). So Virginia hasn’t exactly been running the wishbone all these years. But it is fair to say, especially under Al Groh, that the offense has been often underwhelming, particularly when compared to a usually reliable defense.

So Virginia has taken the leap into the next big thing with the hiring of former Bowling Green Head Coach Gregg Brandon. Surely many Virginia fans have visions of four wide-receiver sets, lots of deep passing, and 49-42 games. Well, its not quite that simple.

What exactly will the spread look like? As Wikipedia tells us (and as Michael Scott will tell you, Wikipedia is the best thing ever), the spread the spread evolved from the run and shoot. ESPN traces it back to an Oregon high school coach. Both probably have a little bit of the truth.

But its an oversimplification to think that Virginia is going to turn into the early 1990s Houston Oilers. The spread is not the run-and-shoot. Its an evolution of the run-and-shoot. And even in its original form, the run-and-shoot was never predicated on the vertical passing game. Instead, it was based on spreading the defense horizontally. Making the defense defend not only the yardage between the line and scrimmage, but the 53 1/3 yards between the sidelines.

In terms of the college game, run and shoot principles have led two one of two general variations of the spread. The first looks a lot like the old run and shoot. Four or five wide receivers, passing on almost every down. But not vertical, deep passing. Rather, with only five blockers (six if a team leaves a back in to help block), teams that run the passing variation of the spread don’t have time to get the ball down the field. Instead, passing is predicated on hot routes, quick reads, and hitting receivers in stride to run free through spread out secondaries.

The second variation is more likely what Virginia will run under Brandon (more on that in Part II tomorrow). It still usually means four receivers, but teams that run this variation of the spread tend to run as much as, if not more than, they throw. That’s easier to do because of two things: (1) the defense is spread out to cover all those receivers (think of it as having a draw play option on every play); and (2) the return of the best athlete on the field playing QB, as it often happens in high school.

Surprisingly enough, former ND Coach Bob Davie had the best breakdown of this that I’ve found on the web. If you’re really into the Xs and Os, there’s a whole website committed to the spread offense and how to run it.

Who’s running the spread? Better to ask who isn't. Al Groh maintains that his teams have been moving towards the spread for years, 2009 will represent Virginia’s first true foray into the college offense of the 21st century. More on what that is likely to look like tomorrow.