News Article: Amari Cooper Credits Lane Kiffin's Offense as Reason Behind His Big Scrimmage

Tradition4ever

1st Team
Oct 16, 2004
463
4
42
47
Carlsbad, NM
Most of these HUNH offenses, especially the type Auburn uses, are not complex. It's 5-10 plays out of a bunch of different formations with the final read done by the QB at the line of scrimmage prior to the snap. It just looks complex because you've got dummy routes and guys running around in the backfield like their pants are ablaze. What you'll find in the college game, with all the restrictions on practice time, is that simple and quick will beat complex and slow-developing 9 times out of 10. There are two main reasons some schools don't run the pro set. The first is that they can't recruit the talent for it; the second is they can't practice it enough during the week to master it. So if Alabama is moving more towards a check-based system that cleans up a lot of the pre-snap junk that Sims/Coker/Morris/Bateman have to deal with, it's probably a good thing.
I think this might be the most misunderstood part of the college game. You're correct in that the success of these simplified offenses that have taken the college game by storm lately are due in large part to practice restrictions. The simpler the scheme, the easier to learn, less time needed to alter and perfect gameplans. I agree with the notion that we'll start seeing these HUNH offenses start to come back to earth now that more and more programs are recruiting players and installing defensive schemes based on countering these HUNH, basically spending more of the limited practice time on stopping it.
 

TIDE-HSV

Senior Administrator
Staff member
Oct 13, 1999
84,528
39,619
437
Huntsville, AL,USA
This is going to come across as a shock to a lot of people, but I knew someone who, I'll just say was in a position to know this, told me that the most "complex" offense Alabama has had in his time around the program was the one Mike Shula used. Playbook size, terminology, etc., was overwhelming. This was, however, before Nussmeier was hired, so I don't know if it changed post-Nuss. Either way, it's kind of shocking to me, since Shula seemed to use the same five plays over and over. Proof, at least, that complex does not automatically equal good.

Most of these HUNH offenses, especially the type Auburn uses, are not complex. It's 5-10 plays out of a bunch of different formations with the final read done by the QB at the line of scrimmage prior to the snap. It just looks complex because you've got dummy routes and guys running around in the backfield like their pants are ablaze. What you'll find in the college game, with all the restrictions on practice time, is that simple and quick will beat complex and slow-developing 9 times out of 10. There are two main reasons some schools don't run the pro set. The first is that they can't recruit the talent for it; the second is they can't practice it enough during the week to master it. So if Alabama is moving more towards a check-based system that cleans up a lot of the pre-snap junk that Sims/Coker/Morris/Bateman have to deal with, it's probably a good thing.
Jess, I had some of the players during the Shula era tell me that they practiced like crazy on a complex game plan all week long and then the Shula "brain trust" would narrow it down to the handful of plays you mentioned, when it came time to call the plays...
 

Latest threads

TideFans.shop : 2024 Madness!

TideFans.shop - Get YOUR Bama Gear HERE!”></a>
<br />

<!--/ END TideFans.shop & item link \-->
<p style= Purchases made through our TideFans.shop and Amazon.com links may result in a commission being paid to TideFans.