Different Types of Spreads

[Burger]

The term "spread" has been too general as it describes offenses made from Urban Meyer all the way to June Jones. Many college fans do not know that each spread is different by the priorities used each and every offensive guru type in the NCAA. There are many different types of spreads, but they all come back to three people, Mike Leach, June Jones, and Urbie himself.

Mike Leach was the man who engineered the Texas Tech offenses to the top most of the seasons he was there. Mike Leach loves to use the mismatch of spreading too much guys in coverage to expose the holes that zone coverage has. He does this using shorter and intermediate routes to make these holes in the coverage exist.

June Jones' offenses were originally named the Run and Shoot. That means that the quarterback would litterally run out of the pocket and find the deepest man open. Hawaii was known for it's explosiveness and the ability to make big plays happen with deeper routes than Mike Leach. His offense was used in Detroit with Andre Ware. This offense is more vertical than Leach's. Compare the types of throws Graham Harrell and Kyle Padron makes.


There are two different variations of Spread Options. We have the Rich Rod type and the Urban Meyer type. The Rich Rod type was the type of spread that compressed your defense, then they tore tiny holes in the front 7. Urban Meyer uses speed of his offensive players like Percy Harvin to strech the defense, then use the combination of a quarterback and runningback to make the rest of the run game.

[StickSkills]

I hate people who just go, "oh they run the spread offense" and just leave it at that like they are all the same.

[Burger]

Every offense is a variety of one in a certain way.

[JHL6719]

Spread offenses in college are traced back further than that. Mike Leach's "Air Raid" version of the spread is the one he learned from Hal Mumme at Kentucky during the Tim Couch days. Leach has made his own tweaks to it (wider splits with the oline, etc.) It is much more short pass oriented. Mumme's version used a lot of mesh concepts to rub linebackers.

June Jones version of the spread goes back to John Jenkins' Run-&-Shoot at the University of Houston in the early 1990's (David Klingler era, etc.) June Jones has made his own tweaks to that system, mainly operating out of the shotgun rather than under center like the R&S used to. The QB used a 3 step drop that turned into a half rollout.... set up directly behind the offensive tackle.

It's a lot more difficult to run quick screens and bubble screens to the WR's from under center, which is why they all operate out of the shotgun nowdays. These versions of the spread aren't "spread to run" systems, they're spread to pass. The numerous bubble and smoke screens run nowdays in these systems are nothing more than running plays to these coaches. A bubble screen is essentially a toss sweep out of the backfield. Same concept.

Art Briles spread at Baylor is another version of this. Except he used extremely wide splits with the WR's, which is designed to stretch a defense horizontally in order to convert zone coverage into man coverage.


Urban Meyer's version of the spread is more "veer" oriented... or "spread to run". It's much more power based in it's concept. He uses more traditional staples of power running plays (pulling guards, kick outs by the TE or H-back, etc.) It's not a typical 4 WR version of the spread that operates mainly off the 4-verticals concept.

Gus Malzahn's version of the spread is essentially the same as Meyer's. It's a "spread to run" that uses a lot of power based concepts and heavier personnel packages (having a TE as opposed to another WR on the field).

Rich Rod's version of the spread is a little bit of both of these. It's more like June Jones and Mike Leach's version of the spread in terms of personnel (4 WR's), but is much more like Urban and Malzahn's in terms of what his bread and butter (spread to run). He uses mostly zone read.

There are many different variations of the spread and spread option that all use different philosophies, and coaches use their own tweaks. But they can all have their roots traced back to the original spread and "Air Raid" coaches that they learned under.

[JHL6719]

Steve Spurrier's offense is a spin-off of Mouse Davis' Run-&-Shoot. Spurrier took Davis' offense and made it more balanced. Mouse Davis is considered the founding father of the Run-&-Shoot, and all the concepts of these Air Raid offenses can all be traced back to him.

All of the innovation that goes on in football has always begun at the high school and college levels. That's where innovation in football is at, and was always at. The NFL just copies this innovation. There are very few innovators at the NFL level, only copycats.

Thus why the NFL is referred to as "a copycat league".

[Burger]

I am a younger fan, and that's why I know more about modern variations more than Hal Mumme, and the older guys. The only spread that this thread forgets about is the Joe Tiller spread. It helped propelled Drew Brees into a top 32 pick. It's more about using the vertical game to spread out the defense and using different levels of routes to confuse different packages defenses employ. This spread is mainly ran at the University of Tennessee, because his former Oline coach Jim Cheney is the Offensive Coordinator there.

You earn mad props for the contributions.

[Punisher]

With a user name of "burger" I thought this thread was going somewhere else haha

[gpngc]

www.smartfootball.com

[descendency]

Another thing that kind of separates the Meyer spread from the others is that Meyer uses a lot of ZR running plays, which means there is little formation change between running a pass play or a running play.

A lot of spreads don't mix run and pass as effectively.

[wend26]

its indeed great to watch the game!!! :)


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[Brent]

The funny thing about the Leach offense: when he was a rookie in training camp, Danny Amendola described the offense as "5 guys running around trying to get open."