Over the years this subject has come up many times and I have yet to meet somebody who can give me a good reason why they prefer the Pro Style other than "it puts guys in the league." As if it mattered what offense our NFL guys played in. Andre Johnson could've played in the **** Wing-T and he would've still balled in the NFL.
I was never a spread fan until I became a Defensive Coordinator. A well-ran spread offense is **** near unstoppable. While watching Sarkisian at a clinic last February I simply found myself SMH @ some of his concepts while racking my brain trying to find ways to stop them. A good spread offense has options on **** near every play and what the QB/WR's do it predicated on the defense's alignments and also leverage, so even if you line up in a defense that gives you an advantage the offense simply adjusts. Each play has several options (or other plays if you will) built in.
Sarkisian has a play that's a run/pass option where they run zone/read and the QB is reading the Outside Linebacker (or whichever defender is lined-up over the slot WR). If that OLB attacks the zone/read, the QB throws a 5 yard hitch pass to the slot for an easy 8+ yard gain. If that OLB stays in his zone to cover the hitch the QB gives the ball to the RB on zone. It's pretty much unstoppable if the defense is in 2-high coverage, which most are against 2x2 offensive formations.
REASONS WHY I LOVE THE SPREAD AT MIAMI:
*The speed and skill talent that Miami has at it's disposal would allow us to assemble a spread offense like nobody has seen in college football. We have access to way more talent than Oregon or Baylor does. We could easily line-up with 4 future NFL receivers on every play.
*It spreads the defense out and forces them to put a 5th DB on the field. That 5th DB is normally a bench player. He's the 3rd best Corner, if you will. Now the defense has a back-up DB covering a slot WR that could (most likely) be a starter/primary WR at most schools in the country. (i.e. a Phillip Dorsett or Stacy Coley) I'll take those odds any day.
*There's probably not another team in the nation that can line-up on offense and have every skill player run 4.4 forties. (RB and WR's) We could do that at Miami.
*It spreads the defense out and makes it easier for the offensive players to read. It's a lot harder to disguise your coverage against the spread. The more you move your defenders around, the more chance you take at losing leverage. It's a lot harder for your defenders to get to their "spots" once the ball is snapped.
*It's easier to run the ball in the spread. The defense is spread out. Less men in the box. On top of that, you can still run all the same concepts you do out of the Pro Style...(i.e. Power, Iso, Counter, etc)...but now you're doing it with less guys in the box.
*It's a lot easier to find personnel for the spread down here. Every high school down here is running spread now. 7-on-7 tournaments are huge. These kids are lining up in spread offenses for 4+ years and then we're bringing them to Miami and putting them in a totally difference offense. Makes no sense. YOUR COLLEGE TEAM SHOULD BE A REFLECTION OF YOUR RECRUITING GROUND. (i.e. Wisconsin)
REASONS THAT I DON'T LIKE THE PRO STYLE AT MIAMI:
*Too hard to find QB's that can play in the Pro. Can it be done? Sure. But why? Why search far and wide for a QB that can take snaps from under center and read a defense while he's dropping back when I can simply run a spread and get most of my QB's from the state of Florida? How many Florida high school QB's do we have to watch excel at spread colleges before common sense kicks in?
*A Pro Style offense is useless without a stud TE. We've been fortunate to have some good ones over the years but let's face it, we had to go out of state to find them. TE's ain't exactly growing on trees in South Florida. Again...can it be done? Sure. But why? If I'm running the spread then I can find H-Back type athletes all over Florida. With the Pro-Style offense, you bring more defenders into the box. You're gonna get a lot of 8-man boxes and without a good TE it's hard to make defenses pay for loading the box.
*Pro-Style = more defenders in the box = harder to run the ball unless you have stud Linemen, a stud Fullback and a good Tight End. Fullbacks and mauling Offensive Linemen are growing on trees in parts of the country like Texas, Midwest and the Northeast. Does it mean that we can't get them at Miami? No. We've had some good South Florida O-linemen come through here. Linder, Feliciano and Flowers are all from South FLA and they were recently drafted. However, wouldn't it behoove me to run an offense that capitalizes off the types of players that do grow on trees in my backyard? (RB's and WR's)
*Pro-Style = harder for the QB to read the defense. I love when I play against a team that runs the Pro. There's so much more that I can do on defense in terms of disguising and blitzing.
*Having only 2 receivers on the field at Miami is a travesty. You got athletes like Coley or Waters sitting on the bench, waiting to get into the game. Who would you rather have on the field? Hurns, Dorsett, Tucker and Walford...or Hurns, Dorsett, Coley and Waters? (or even Walford at TE/H-Back) Maximize your athletes!!!
We've all seen that the Pro-Style can be successful at Miami but let's be realistic and look at some of the players that it took to make that offense successful. Many of the players that made our offense work weren't even from South Florida. We had to search far and wide for some of those players. And when we weren't able to pull those kinds of players in, our offenses sucked!
Why search all over the nation for the pieces you need and hope that they pan out when you can simply reload every year? I can honestly say that Miami would NEVER have a bad offense if they ran the spread. We would be just like one of these schools that's known for offense. However, what makes us more dangerous is that we also have access to top tier defensive talent. We'd be the only Oregon type team that actually had a pulse on defense. The offense would be fun to watch and fun to play in. Kids would be lining up at our door to play in our offense.
