Football 101

[quietfan 233]

OK, I've never claimed to be a great student of the game, so I have a question for some of you with more football knowledge:

Last year, with Borges coming into the SEC, the talk was all about the "West Coast" offense. Recently, with Urban Meyer at Florida, I'm hearing a lot about his "spread" offense. As best I can understand, they're both about giving the defense headaches by opening up the offensive gameplan.

So can some of you coaches or coaching wannabees give me a short tutorial on the differences/similarities of the "spread" vs. the "West coast"?

[AURainman 6]

$0.10 version

Spread offense is a lot like an option attack. Only it is mainly out of shotgun.

The QB has the option to pitch back to a wideout or pitch forward (behind the line of scrimmage) to the running back underneath. It counts on being able to exploit speed deficiencies in the defenses.

Meyer invented the offense as a way to keep sub-par programs competitive against stronger competition. It is yet to be seen if his offense will work against the SPEEDY SEC. We shall see.

West coast is often thought of as a pass-happy attack. Not so.

The West coast style is simply a balanced attack with intermediate routes run by receivers. It involves a lot more than I can explain/understand. Just know it is still the NFL's prime offense.

West coast....Expect ball fakes and crossing routes

Spread...Expect crosseyed linebackers

[hccobb 0]

The thing I've heard that sums up west coast the most is: "Put the ball in the hands of the playmakers" no matter what. That means utilitizing what weapons you have. It's lots of ball control and playing to your strengths. You can have a run based west coast like we had last year, or the pass based west coast like SF did in the 80s. Also a big deal with west coast is show one thing and give them something else.

[vatz22au 142]

IMO the Auburn offense isnt a true West Coast system. If you recall about this time last year, they were calling our offense the Gulf Coast System because it involved the run more than a true West Coast system.

In your West Coast system your going to see alot of 5 yard, and deep outs, alot of slants, mostly its about that short pass that the defense has no time to predict. Sometimes the ball goes deep.

Spread is basically your team in Madden launching the ball up every play or having a couple of HB directs. Thats right, your lining up in the Shotgun everyday.

[rolltoomer 0]

Auburn threw the ball about 35% of the time last year. Look for that number to go up quite a bit this year. I don't know the definition of "Gulf Coast", but Borges is smart enough to get the ball to the producers. Last year's producers are all multimillionaires now.

I ordered Borges' book, "Coaching the West Coast Quarterback", and tried to absorb it. It gave me a terrific headache, plus a lot of respect for Jason Campbell, not that I didn't already respect him.

If any of you saw Haiwaii play our little brother two/three years ago, I think you saw a version of the West Coast offense.

[AFTiger 282]

I like this discussion.

How does Spurrier's Fun & Gun fit in this?

[hccobb 0]

Spurrier was pretty much spread. I don't know how it exactly fit on the offensive spectrum, but it was way near the spread end.

[AUslug 1]

The Fun 'n' Gun was similar to the spread but didn't use the shotgun nearly as much and no option plays at all, but a lot of deep passes and sideline routes. People thought that all Florida did was throw the ball and that was it, the Gators had a several good running backs, and their record when held under a 100 yards rushing was ugly.

The West Coast is all about short routes and mismatches, plus the QB is under center most of the time unlike the spread.

[quietfan 233]

Thanks to all! I'm learning.

[SCWarEagle 4]

I think we will see more of a true West Coast offense this year for several reasons.

First and foremost, we don't have Carnell and Ronnie anymore. Putting both of those guys on the field at the same time was something that Borges had to do, and so he changed his game plan a little to acommodate that fact. I'm glad he did, too.

Secondly, Cox is no Campbell. I'm not slamming the guy. He's got his own set of skills. But he's not 6'4'' and he can't run the way Campbell could. For this reason, I expect to see him back in the shotgun more and staying back there in the pocket. Campbell rolled out a lot to avoid pressure, and I don't see Cox being able to do it as well. He'll have to depend on his OL a little more.

Like people are saying I'm expect more passing this season, too. I wouldn't expect much in the way of an option attack.

I am very excited to see what we have this year. I am confident in our players and our coaches.

[AUDadTwice 0]

I think maybe the best way to explain the difference between the spread and the West Coast is that they emphasize two different things. The spread, as the name implies, likes to spread out the defense by lining up with 3, 4, or even 5 receivers. It will almost always use only 1 running back with no fullback, and the tight end is not highly used. The spread emphasizes the pass a lot more than the run.

In the West Coast, the emphasis is not on spreading the defense so much as it is in timing and keeping the defense off balance. Joe Montana got to the hall of fame by being the best ever at 3-step passes, 5-step passes, and short rollouts, all of which were based on timing. Only once in a while did they throw deep. This is almost the antithesis of the old Oakland Raiders "7-step drop by Stabler and wait for the receivers to get open." Also, most West Coast offenses will make a lot of use of their fullbacks and tight ends. When the 49ers had Roger Craig at fullback, they were practically unstoppable. They had 2 viable running options, a pretty good tight end, and several wide receivers who could get open at just the right time. Defenses had to defend all 5 playmakers every play. The West Coast can run or pass, based on what the defense has. It tends to be more balanced between the run and pass than the spread.

[AFTiger 282]

La Tech ran an offense that always dealt us fits. It was almost like a basketball fast break offense where they would flood an area and dump the ball to the short receiver. The effect was the receiver immediately had several blockers in front and usually made good yardage. Of course it helped to have Tim Ratay as the quarterback.