Spread offense



The spread offense is an offensive scheme in American and Canadian football that is used at every level of the game including professional (NFL, CFL), college (NCAA, NAIA, CIS), and high school programs across America and Canada. The spread offense begins with a no-huddle offense approach with the quarterback in the shotgun formation much of the time. The fundamental nature of the spread offense involves spreading the field horizontally using 3, 4, and even 5-receiver sets (some implementations of the spread also feature wide splits between the offensive linemen). The object of the spread offense is to open up multiple vertical seams for both the running and passing game to exploit, as the defense is forced to spread itself thin across the field (a "horizontal stretch") to cover everyone.

There are many forms of the spread system. One of the extremes is the "Air Raid" pass-oriented version typified by Kevin Sumlin's Houston Cougars, Mike Gundy's Oklahoma State Cowboys, Randy Edsall's Maryland Terrapins operated by Gary Crowton, Ruffin McNeill's East Carolina Pirates, Dana Holgorsen's West Virginia Mountaineers, Gary Pinkel's Missouri Tigers, Tommy Tuberville's Texas Tech Red Raiders and Todd Graham's Pittsburgh Panthers. This version employs multiple spread sets and is heavily reliant on the quarterback and coaches being able to call the appropriate play at the line of scrimmage based on how the defense sets up. Mike Stoops' Arizona Wildcats (under offensive coordinator Sonny Dykes, who coached under Mike Leach at Texas Tech) also uses a variation of the pass-oriented spread system which has more use of the tight end and the running backs.

The other extreme version is the spread option, consisting of the slot receiver and tail back as well as a speedy quarterback, used by Gene Chizik at Auburn, Rich Rodriguez at West Virginia and also Michigan before his firing, Urban Meyer at Utah and Florida, Dan Mullen at Mississippi State, Chip Kelly at Oregon, and Jerry Moore at Appalachian State. Despite the multi-receiver sets, the spread option is a run-first scheme which requires a quarterback that is comfortable carrying the ball, a mobile offensive line that can pull and trap effectively, and receivers that can hold their blocks. The essence of the spread option is misdirection. Effectively, this is the old triple option except that it utilizes spread sets. In particular, the quarterback must be able to read the defensive end and determine whether he is collapsing down the line or playing up-field contain.

A third version of the spread offense is the Pistol offense which is used by Chris Ault's Nevada Wolf Pack, as well as Rick Neuheisel's UCLA Bruins and some high schools across the nation. The Pistol Offense focuses on using the run with many offensive players, and it calls for the quarterback to line up about three yards behind the center and take a short shotgun snap at the start of each play.

History


The father of the spread offense is Rusty Russell, a graduate of Howard Payne University, in Brownwood, Texas, and coach of Fort Worth's Masonic Home and School for orphaned boys. Russell began coaching Masonic Home in 1927, and due to the fact that his teams were often over matched physically by other schools, they were called the "Mighty Mites". While there, he deployed the earliest form of a spread offense to great success. Russell's team is the subject of a book by author Jim Dent entitled, Twelve Mighty Orphans: The Inspiring True Story of the Mighty Mites Who Ruled Texas Football.

In 1952 TCU coaching legend Leo "Dutch" Meyer wrote a book entitled Spread Formation Football, detailing his ideas about football formations, in which the first sentence was, "Spread formations are not new to football."

Offensive guru Brad Mook led the Tallahassee Knights to 5 consecutive national championships using the spread offense. Relying heavily on the spread option as well as a quick passing game, Mook had one of the most successful careers in history, notching over 280 wins and averaging over 490 yards of offense per game. His high-power spread system made recruiting a breeze, annually reeling in the top classes in the nation which were littered with 5 star athletes. While some contend Mook is the father of the modern spread offense, former Middletown (Ohio) High School football coach Glenn "Tiger" Ellison is hailed by some as the real father. His version is known as the Run & Shoot offense; however, the scheme (which was originally started as a run-first offense in 1958) has evolved over the past 45 years into a much more complex scheme. Its first evolution came about in 1962 when former Portland State offensive coordinator and later Hawaii receivers coach Darell "Mouse" Davis adapted Ellison's philosophy to create a more pass-oriented version. The "Spread Offense" emerged in the US in the mid to late 80's with coaches trying to get the benefits of the Run & Shoot (spreading out defenses and dictating defensive personnel with a 4 receiver set) without having to rely as much on QBs, receivers, and running backs making the correct reads on every play. The Spread allows coaches to be more involved in each play rather than the Run & Shoot which helps protect teams from bad decision making.

While early versions of the spread were sometimes quite limited, modern coaches like Joe Tiller (Purdue), Jerry Moore (Appalachian State), Mike Leach (Texas Tech), Rich Rodriguez (West Virginia and Michigan), and Chip Kelly (Oregon) and most recently Urban Meyer (Florida) have taken this run and shoot variant to a new level. High school coaches across the nation have adapted some version of this scheme with great success, most notably Todd Dodge at Southlake Carroll High School in the Dallas-Fort Worth area (now at North Texas), Stan Weinke at Tuscola High School in Illinois, Kendrick Parker at Pasquotank County High School in North Carolina, Art Briles at Stephenville High School in Central Texas (now at Baylor), Gus Malzahn at Springdale High School in Arkansas (later offensive coordinator at the nearby University of Arkansas and now in the same position at Auburn), and Phil Mauro at Edgewood High school in Ohio. Rush Propst using it won 5 state titles at Hoover High School in Alabama. Due to Propst success many teams in Alabama run the spread.

NFL
Professional teams have also used various versions of this scheme beginning with the former Houston Oilers, the Atlanta Falcons, and Detroit Lions. The 2007 New England Patriots utilized the spread with quarterback Tom Brady and wide receivers Randy Moss, Wes Welker, Donte Stallworth, and Jabar Gaffney. In addition, the San Diego Chargers (1980s) and the various West Coast schemes developed by Bill Walsh and the San Francisco 49ers (1980s) built their offenses, in many ways, on Ellison's and Davis' designs. In addition, a new offense known as the "spread-flex" is emerging among many programs. This offense combines the flex-bone and the spread offense together in order to cause confusion for defenses and to take advantage of mismatches. This dynamic offense has worked its way up into the smaller colleges and universities such as Air Force who use it very effectively. It can be effective in many ways to spread the ball out to the wide receivers as well as using a lot of pre-snap shifting and motion to run the option zone read plays. Imagine combining the offenses of Navy (a heavily run-oriented triple option offense that has frequently led the NCAA in rushing in the 2000s) and Texas Tech (one of the most pass-oriented college offenses) and you have the "spread-flex".

The 2008 Miami Dolphins also implemented some form of the spread offense in their offensive schemes. Lining up in the "wildcat" formation, the Miami Dolphins, borrowing from Gus Malzahn's college spread offense, “direct snap” the ball to their running back, Ronnie Brown, who was then able to read the defense, and either pass or keep the ball himself.

High school
In recent years, the spread offense has become a very popular term used in context of the high school game with the offense's innovative ways to make the game faster and higher scoring. While it has changed the game, and teams that successfully run it are scoring more points, there is debate whether the offensive system is as effective as it seems.

Some coaches have taken to packaging their offensive system and marketing them to programs around the country, such as Tony Franklin, who served as an assistant coach at the University of Kentucky under Hal Mumme where he developed his offense based on Mumme's "Air Raid" system.

As a reaction to the success of the spread offense in high profile colleges, such as The University of Florida, innovative high school coaches began retooling the system to work on high school teams. Now the system has become quite widespread, with numerous schools achieving success with the system. Defenses are left with the challenge of defending more of the field than ever before, while the offense was given the advantage of having numerous running and passing lanes created by the defense being so spread out.

Defensive reaction
Recently, use of the spread has led to new defenses, most noticeably the 3-3-5 Stack. Traditional defenses use 4 or 5 down linemen sets to stop an offense, but with the growing number of spread offenses, teams are looking to smaller, faster defensive players to cover more of the field. The strategy and philosophy behind this thinking has been widely debated and many coaches have found success using a 30 front, or using a 40 front against the spread. Gary Patterson at TCU has consistently produced one of college football's best defenses in the first part of the 21st century by using a nickel with a 40 front, or 4-2-5, as a base defense. Combined with his program's emphasis on defensive speed, TCU has proven capable of defending against many spread offenses.