Mandatory time between plays as a possibility with the HUNH?

Re: Mandatory time between plays as a possability with the HUNH?

Snuffy Smith said:

This is what I was saying the other day. The officials cannot keep up. To do so they really have 3 options:

1 - Slow the game down with a rule change (not a big fan of this)
2 - Slow the game down by having the official that sets the ball keep the offense from snapping it until all officials are set and ready
3 - Add additional officials - may even take 3 or 4 of them to truly be able to keep up with the pre-snap reads and maintain the hectic pace.

Personally I think CFB would probably prefer the 2nd option because of the additional cost involved with adding the officials.

If nothing is done - they might as well adopt arena or Canadian rules because right now the officials just cannot keep up with the pace of the game.

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Another option would be to open up certain penalties to automatic video review, such as 5 men in the backfield and 12 men on the field. Since those aren't really judgement calls like holding, pass interference, etc, and can easily be called from the booth, that would relieve the wing officials from their pre-snap duty of counting players on/off the line as well as the deep officials from counting defense and referee/umpire counting the offense.

Re: Mandatory time between plays as a possability with the HUNH?

I gotta be honest, this whole thread sounds like a bunch of sour grapes. People were saying the same things about the triple-option 30 years ago. Does anyone know what killed the triple-option? More teams started running it and teams started seeing it a lot more and then learned how to play against it and stop it. We are seeing more and more teams do it. It started with the weak sisters of the poor teams doing it and they gained some traction and got some wins. Some bigger schools decided 'why not' and jumped in with it. The more teams do it, the more practice you are going to get in trying to stop it. I'm going to make a prediction, this thing has maybe 5 more years before it's dead. If you'll notice, our non-con games seem to be teams that run the funky offenses we need practice against. Teams we can line up and just beat up, but we get to look at the goofy offense and not really worry about getting beat by it just on sheer athletecism.

For the folks throwing jabs at Wimp Sanderson and how he played Loyola Marymount...what's wrong with you? That was sheer genius! If you are an outdoors, real grass, cold weather team, and you are playing an indoors, artificial turf team, where do you want to play in January? Your place! Make them play your game, or at least change theirs so much it throws them off. Sure we had some real studs on that basketball team, that hadn't been running crazy up and down the court all season. They had about 10 that had been playing that type of offense all season. Do you realize how many people thought they could run with that bunch...and failed miserably? We took them out of their element by slowing it down and not letting them run and get in a rhythm. Came within a couple points of pulling that off.

I've been saying this all along. 10 seconds minimum between plays other than last two minutes of half and game.

No, I think let it play out. As long as it's in the rules, let it play out. Why should there be a Bama/Stanford rule to slow down fast pace offenses? That would make us look silly. Don't underestimate Coach Saban's ability to adjust (or any other good football coach for that matter). IIRC, Coach Bryant made changes to use the wishbone in the 70's. And the rest ... is history. Roll Tide y'all!!!

CrimsonForce said:

I've been saying this all along. 10 seconds minimum between plays other than last two minutes of half and game.

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If it is not fair to run it in the other 56min of the game, how can it be fair to run it in the other 4? It should be either in or out, the clock should have no bearing.

I don't agree with a rule change to help the defenses but after reading some of these posts, I realize the burden put on the referees. I can visualize a referee just getting in position and turning to check the formation and count the number of players just in time to see the ball snapped. This may be why the ref's miss calling penalties for illegal formations, illegal procedure, etc. The ref setting the ball should have his first priority in assuring that the other referees are in place and have the opportunity to do their jobs properly. This has been an interesting thread that I was initially ready to ignore...


My main problem with the Loyola Marymount game was the complete pull back from open fast-break opportunities when Bama would steal the ball or block a shot. There were times when Bama could have built on their lead and still been able to keep the pace down and apply tough defense. Alabama had one of the only (in not the only) teams in the nation that year that could come close to matching UNLV physically and athletilly. Love talking basketball on the football forum...

I like the idea of adding the extra official. Sometimes these changes are necessary to keep up with the evolution of the game. This would go a long way in ensuring that all players and officials are in place and set. I am not in any way in favor of a rule change to eliminate or scale back the HUNH. I think the offense is creative and a proven winner. That being said, we have said the same of many others over the years (Wing T, Wishbone, West Coast, Spread, Triple Option) and time and time again coaches come up with schemes and defenses to contain them after a while. Gus is an innovator and he is keeping DCs on their toes and lighting up the scoreboard. Props to him. Let's see where he is in 3 years. My guess is not at the zenith he is right now. John Chavis held him in check quite well. Other coordinators will follow suit. We didn't lose to Barney because of the HUNH. We lost because of poor fundamentals and execution in all 3 facets of the game.

I believe OU was one of the first big schools to use HunH in 08. As others have said it's a trend,and I believe that it will always have a place, but it is taxing on your defense if they are on the field forty min. OU realized this and they are now trying to be more balanced and be able to control the clock abd pound away which if your line can constantly get you four yards you are going to win 90+ % of the time

#BeatBama

One thing I'm curious about is if Auburn's success is based on their plays, the HUNH, or a combo of both. It would be interesting to see them play a game at a slower speed using the same plays they do now. Would they still have the same success?

Re: Mandatory time between plays as a possability with the HUNH?

The Buzzard is right. The hurry up is also killing the video review rule. Want to make sure your play doesn't get reviewed? Go flying down the field, don't huddle, and snap it before tv can cue up the replay.... They are either going to have to stop catering to the "hurry" team, or they are going to have to admit they are letting the game change the rules.

Re: Mandatory time between plays as a possability with the HUNH?

a couple of surprising teams on the list like western michigan and iowa state??

• Houston clocks in with the fastest average over this time period, and the only team with an average exceeding 3.0 plays per MOP.

Re: Mandatory time between plays as a possability with the HUNH?

Just an FYI for the thread - the umpire is the official charged with setting the ball and then standing over it until the referee gives him the signal to step away.

Re: Mandatory time between plays as a possability with the HUNH?

derek4tide said:

Just an FYI for the thread - the umpire is the official charged with setting the ball and then standing over it until the referee gives him the signal to step away.

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The referee needs to survey the field and make sure the rest of his crew is in position and ready to make calls before he signals the umpire(or the extra official) to step away from the ball. If the HUNH coaches don't like it, tough.

derek4tide said:

Just an FYI for the thread - the umpire is the official charged with setting the ball and then standing over it until the referee gives him the signal to step away.

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In the generic sense, they are all referees as far as I'm concerned...

RollTideMang said:

One thing I'm curious about is if Auburn's success is based on their plays, the HUNH, or a combo of both. It would be interesting to see them play a game at a slower speed using the same plays they do now. Would they still have the same success?

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Auburn seemed to really improve in execution as the year went on. The blockers make good blocks on the correct personnel on many of the successful plays. So, a lot of their success is just execution. I did see a few plays where they started the offense while defenders were still looking around and discussing assignments and what-not.

I guess I just have a personal preference issue as a fan and watching a game full of HUNH offense. This is how I have felt for a couple of years and has nothing to do with the Iron Bowl loss. It reminds me so much of playing my son in NCAA football on the XBox or PS2 and he would always play with Oregon because they seemed to consistently have fast, mobile QB's. He would finally catch me in a vulnerable defense and run the hurry-up over and over and over with the mobile QB by rolling him out and there was space he ran, if not he passed. I could never pick a defensive play, all you could do was try to call a coverage audible or LB Blitz audible if you knew the button combo to do it fast enough. You either sat there and took it or burned a time out.

Seeing the college game turn more and more like this, I tend to wonder why you would spend a ton of money on a Defensive Coordinator that never gets to pick a play, get his personnel packages on the field to defend a 3 and 1 situation or a 2nd and long. You miss out on getting to watch defensive players display their own particular skills and talent. If every team Bama played ran the HUNH for a majority of the game you probably wouldn't get to enjoy watching someone like Terrence Cody with his quick step and run stuffing ability. It just seems to diminish an entire element of the game that some people enjoy watching. I enjoy defense and I enjoy watching the chess matches. Heck, who can't appreciate watching Manning or Brady making changes at the line and the middle LB countering that call.

I guess I am just tired of seeing referees, defenses, and chain gangs running, stumbling, hurrying to get set just so the offense can run a play to exploit a defense that does not get that option. Just pick a play, line up and play football! Heck, I don't see any reason why Auburn even needed to run the HUNH this season; no defenses had an answer for their same 4 - 5 read option plays that they ran over and over.
Ok, I feel better. I'm going to go chug some eggnog, now.

Re: Mandatory time between plays as a possability with the HUNH?

CmdrThor said:

It seems like the opposite is occurring, especially in the Big 12. This year the Big 12 added an 8th official on the field whose sole responsibility is to get the ball set and ready for play as quickly as possible. This relieves the umpire of that duty so he can be in position, and it doesn't really matter if that 8th official is in position because he has no other primary responsibilities. I don't think you will find much success waiting on rules to slow down the HUNH offense. I wouldn't be surprised to see the 8th official in other conferences next year as well.

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Exactly, the powers that be seem to favor the higher scoring garbage of a game because they think the ratings will be higher. Honestly, if we want to help get a fair playing field for the defense, we need to quit watching and buying tickets and jerseys and other over priced items until they enforce the rules in place. However, most college football fans can't imagine not watching, myself included. I did not watch the SECCG, though, because I knew it would be crap and not real football. That realization will lead me to watch less and less "football" until it really is football again.

I'd like to see us or UGA play them again and just run blitz with reckless abandon. They'd score on a couple heave-hos with the secondary blitzing, and throw at least half as many pick sixes. Then their defense would play 50 minutes and give up 40-50 points. No one did that and now they are ranked #2 in the nation.

Don't get me wrong, they earned the ranking, but we let them. IMHO the 10th or 20th best team was allowed to earn/win 2nd place.