Blog question:
I've read on smartfootball.com that in the past Urban Meyer consulted with Coach Rod about the spread offense.
How similar is Florida's offense to what we might see from Michigan in the future?
F.
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Thanks for the question.
Florida does use parts of the "quarterback read option," the basis of Coach Rod's offense, but not very much.
What Coach Meyer and Florida confered with Coach Rod and staff about, mostly, was the use of the no-huddle offense, Michigan's signaling system, and how to speed up the game to prevent the defense from substituting in order to tire out the defense.
If you watched the BCS game, you saw this used to perfection. Both offenses use a quarterback-based offense, where the play of the quarterback is vital to the overall success of the offense. The Florida running game featured direct snaps to the quarterback who is used much like a halfback in the old single wing offense. Coach Rod's version is based more on the veer option. The quarterback in Coach Meyer's offense is used differently in the running game than in Coach Rod's: the way Tim Tebow is used at Florida, he's a "fullback" that can throw the ball.
As for the passing game, Florida is more advanced as far as using the vertical game and combination routes. At West Virginia, Coach Rod used the combination routes very well, including the use of the "max back" in the passing game, We did not see that at Michigan this year, but do expect to see it in the future. Florida's passing game is also more complex and multi-faceted than Michigan's at this time.
Written by CoachBt and ErocWolverine
1 comment:
I wonder whether it doesn't really depend more on the personnel you have to work with. While at Bowling Green, Meyer ran a much more conventional offense (a lot of I-formation and splitbacks), but he favored a mobile QB over a tall, drop back rocket launcher type.
At Utah, Meyer focused on the finesse game and incorporated the spread formation and ran a lot of QB option plays, including the infamous double option run with Eric Weddle, etc. Urban's personnel at Florida are much bigger and faster than at BG and Utah. And Tebow is a freak-of-nature strong QB that can run and pass equally well. Guys like Tebow come along once every 20 years, in my view. They are rare.
As for Michigan, the Wolverine downfield passing game could have been explored much more, but a 27% 3rd down success rate cut this opportunity well short. Sheridan and Threet were two of the least accurate throwers in the league, and they were not confident in the system being run until around the
7th or 8th game. Just look at UM's receiving numbers. They are incredibly low and reflect the poor throwing accuracy, not dropped passes.
RR believes in downfield throwing (vertical passes). See the 1998 Tulane stats for receiving and the quantity of pass catchers. It is shocking! But all of this depends heavily on the QB's abilities and personnel. While at WVU, Clemson and Tulane, RR never had 3 4-star, 6-3 wideouts like he does at Michigan. RR must be itching to get the ball deep and to the edge because doing so could be devastating to opponents and it would only open up the inside running game of the QB/TB/SBs, and keep defenses honest.
Threet and Sheridan, with their limited knowledge, experience and abilities, could not possibly spread the field in the true sense nor keep opposing defenses honest.
We have to somehow keep reminding ourselves that Michigan displayed probably 35% of the playbook in 2008 - at most.
That will no doubt change in 2009.
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