Mailbag question:

I am confused about this no huddle offense:

It seems like it would be difficult to substitute players quickly, a must if you want fresh bodies on the field. Why do they send the plays in from the sidelines via hand signals, as it would seem not only would it slow down the offense, but also at away games, the crowd noise would make it hard to shout out the play from a set formation or audible?

I assume only the QB is looking at the sideline. What ever happened to the rule that the QB could tell the ref he could not hear, and the ref would warn the defense, and after so many times would give them a penalty, I remember in the old days, all Michigan QB used this. Did they change the rule? Really my question boils down to what is the fastest and most effective way to utilize the no huddle along with all our skilled players rotating to take advantage of a tired defense, and did they do a rule change on crowd noise.

Jeff
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Thanks for the question. The idea behind no huddle is limit substitutions by the defense. The defense needs to substitute fresh players into the game because defense is more tiring to play.

No huddle also allows offense to prevent defense from substituting situational players into game. Making for better mismatches for the defense. Ohio State did a great job of this in 2006, using no huddle and prevents Michigan from getting into nickel packages. This force the infamous mismatch of Chris Graham on a wide receiver (Gonzo).

Hand signals are the most proficient way to get plays onto the field. You can literally be standing at the line of scrimmage watching what the defense is doing before signaling in the play. Wrist plays make this process easy and limit mistakes. When offenses want to stress a defense with speed and no huddle they will many times practice all week off scripted plays. Offense will literally memorize a set of 4 to 6 plays and work on them all week. Yes crowd noise rule was changed a few years ago.

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