run the spread, or so says this article... especially against LSU http://www.saturdaydownsouth.com/2013/sec-coaching-records-against-the-spread/
If Urbs and his Buckeyes can take the pressure of being at or near the top all season when it really counts....if they can.....then KP I think the Buckeyes would be a very tough out in the BCS Title game....very tough. And in light of Corey's stats.....even tougher.
MCG, Yeah I hear you and eventually someone is going beat the SEC rep, but "potential" can be a bitch. :wink:
KP, OSU has traditionally fared poorly vs. the SEC......for no apparent reason logically. I wonder if Urban could reverse that trend? If not....then that is some powerful negativity going on there.
Personally, those numbers are rather interesting. Teams so dominant the past decade are just above .500.. and those are the best of them. Saban is no fan of any sort of hurry up spread. I think the closest I've ever seen him come to whining in Tuscaloosa was leading up to the A&M game. I don't really have much of a dog in the fight. I just found those numbers staggering, especially coming from an SEC blog..
I wonder what the results would be if someone did the same type of study on SEC records against the triple option back in the 70's. My point being, while the triple option was very effective for a few years, eventually its limitations were exposed and most teams came back to more conventional offenses. I think the same will happen with the spread and the hurry up. Eventually I think the spread and the hurry up will be used occasionally by teams but won't be the whole basis for their offense. 8)
That's possible. Honestly, the triple option never really went away. They've tweaked line gaps and spread the H/Veer back, but really a lot of offense we see now is simply the option. They've just incorporated a lot of pass option. Hell, BYU's offense was a 'pass option' forever. When Florida 'revolutionized' things under Meyer with Tebow, the truth of the matter is that they just took football back 80 years. I think there's a time (the UF/UT days of the SEC) in which the spread is the last thing you'd want to run against an SEC team. They had undersized but incredibly fast LBs, they seemed to have every future NFL nickleback not playing at USC.. but then things changed. The defenses are huge now. They are built to defend the slugball type of O that Alabama and LSU are running. I'm with you though.. Too much of one thing is bad. Someone will always figure it out. I think the greats are those who change..but really, what 'great' coaches have changed what they've done in the college level recently?
Ummmm fellas.....isn't the article talking about the "spread" as in betting line, not "Spread" as in offensive system?????
These are notes by Roy Exum from a speech the Coach Saban recently gave. Some interesting points. He said the coaches indentified 5 players that were going to cause problems and 4 of those were involved in the robbery/assault this off-season. Anyway for what its worth: quote]Here’s some of the takes from the evening … ON THE FOUR PLAYERS RECENTLY DISMISSED -- You may have heard recently about those four cats we had on the team who were in trouble. Coming off the season, we identified five kids on our team that were going to kill us as a team, in terms of not buying in, being held accountable, attitude … and four of those five screwed up. In 5½ years we really haven’t had one player get in any real trouble. That’s rare and something we’re proud of. But, sometimes you have to sort of prune the trees in order to get to the healthy part that makes it grow. And our team learned from this. AND LATER -- Coach Parcells, and he’s had sort of a lot of success, you know … he speaks at our clinic last year. And he tells us about a sign he posts in all the locker rooms he’s coached at … the Giants, the Cowboys, the Patriots … and it says this: “Dumb players do dumb things. Smart players seldom do dumb things. Which one are you?” We like that, and guess where that’s hanging now? ON RUNNING A SUCCESSFUL ORGANIZATION -- We’re very detailed in how we define what people do here, whether it be a coordinator on down to the secretaries. And I think you have to define every role and every expectation, because it’s chaos if you don’t. It’s impossible to be successful with consistency if you don’t operate that way. I’m telling you – it’s impossible, guys. The first thing you have to do is, like I said, define everyone’s role. When I was with Bill Belichick and the Cleveland Browns, he had everyone’s role detailed and outlined for them. He had one sign in the building: “Do YOUR job.” The next thing you have to do is get the right guys on the bus. And then, if you have the wrong guys on the bus, whether they’re players or coaches, guys, you have to get them the (heck) off the bus. We have two starters off last year’s team that I know will kill us, and with their attitude and work ethic not being what it is, I’ve told them … they’re not going to be starters for this team unless things change. That’s just how it is. Not long ago, we had a receiver that didn't do what he was supposed to do. And he missed a lot of time. Missed spring. And we had a quarterback that wanted him back, really wanted him back. And I was like, Nuh uh. Ain't gonna happen. I can't look at those other 84 guys who have been doing what they're supposed to be doing, what we expect, buying in ... and then just welcome this guy back after he really hasn't done anything right? No way, wasn't going to happen. Then you have to have everyone buy in and you have to have positive energy. You have to have positive energy and you have to know what you are doing and what your role is. If you’re a coach … we didn’t hire you to be an independent contractor. We hired you to do things the way we do them here, because that’s what works for us and it’s been good for us. MORE ON POSITIVE ENERGY -- I ask our kids every day, “Hey, what are you selling me today, man? Positive energy or negative energy? You failed a test, you broke up with a girlfriend, what is it?” Because you’re going to affect people positively or negatively, and you can’t show disappointment. And it’s great, man, because they hold me accountable, too, and can tell if I’ve had sort of a bad day or whatever, and they ask me trotting out to practice, “Whatcha sellin’ me today, coach?’” ON RECRUITING -- You know, recruiting is great and all for these kids, but these services and all … with four stars and five stars … all that’s great, but kids get into that so much and they’re into it for the self-gratification and for the attention … and I’m telling you that we have to spend a whole year de-recruiting (them) once they get here. They have to know they’re part of a team and they have to maybe relearn what that means, but you have to define what that is for them. ON WORKING HARD -- There’s no other way, guys. You have to know what you’re doing and then you have to have guys that want to put in the time. And you have to know that it’s not going to be easy, and you’re going to have to persevere, and most guys don’t like that. Because it’s your human condition to be average, but are you going to settle for that? And you can never feel entitled, and that’s a huge challenge for not just the players but also sort of for us coaches too.” ON KNOWING WHO YOU ARE -- You know our players know, and many of our fans that follow us, that we really try to focus more on us and how we do things rather than what our opponent does. What our opponent does is really pretty technical, but doesn’t really have anything to do with us. Whether we win is going to come down to what we do. Our ability to execute, our proper technique. [/quote]
Really good stuff, kp. It's always cool too learn the philosophy of an eminently successful coach. Reading his words reminds me of how Ara operated. Looks like those 4 guys did him a favor by taking themselves out of the picture early. Maybe when the 5th guy finds himself on an island, he'll turn it around.
Good insight Kp. Sounds like there is a good reason for the atmosphere of success Saban has built at Bama. Good luck to any team trying to unseat the Tide juggernaut.
I thought it was interesting that they identified 5 as being risky and 4 turned out to get in trouble. Like Sid said, I guess the hope is that even the ones identified that way would turn out differently.