Like 2017 and 2018 and 2019?
We have tried a "modified pro style" a lot more than we have committed to an up tempo spread offense
Next OC: Air Raid!! 4WRs, go go go.
Screw "complementary" football. That is just code for "run first".
Well that's the thing it's a misconception that some of these teams don't run. Heupel, Briles, Riley and others mention the importance of it and often are near the top in rushing.
Briles' Baylor teams were around top 15 or top 10 in rushing.
Heupel has been around top 25 or better, Tenn was #12 in rushing last year
TCU is #13 this year
Arkansas with Kendal Briles is #10
People just see the highlights of them flinging it around but they run the ball and the fact that they spread the field helps them run it. The tempo does as well.
Kiffin last year threw it more with Corral but this year has had 2 good RBs so has run it more. Ole Miss is only behind Army/Air Force in rushing and actually ahead of Michigan even.
This is from an Athletic article and I've referenced it. Does Saban sound like somebody who doesn't think it was going to work in the SEC. Now we can see that it does.
Excerpts from the article:
Nick Saban was, in a car in the parking lot. And he wanted to talk to Bennett, a friend since they were running Big Ten defenses in the 1980s — Bennett at Purdue, Saban at Michigan State. It was early 2015, checking-on-recruits season, but Saban had also been thinking about Baylor’s field-stretching, hyper-pacing, record-breaking offense.
“He wanted to get together to talk about it,” Bennett recalled. “Nick and I are a lot alike in the things we do, the matchups we look for, and he wanted some insight, some ideas on how to stop it. He told me, ‘It hasn’t made it all the way to me yet. But I know what’s coming.’
The Tennessee offense looks most like the Briles offense with receivers split extremely wide, a relentless tempo that keeps defenses from substituting, frequent vertical shots and
a devotion to running the ball. But Heupel hiring
Iowa State tight ends coach Alex Golesh to be his offensive coordinator at
UCF — replacing Briles disciple and current Oklahoma OC Jeff Lebby — represented another shift. Golesh came with Heupel to
Tennessee and has expanded the run game and added elements of burliness to help the Vols in short yardage and the red zone.
“It’s not fun,” Narduzzi said of playing against this offense, and the sentiment was the same after Narduzzi’s
Michigan State defense of 2014 gave up 41 points to Baylor in three quarters in the Cotton Bowl before a wild comeback and 42-41 win.
Bennett: “People say, ‘Oh it’s just a passing offense.’ Bull—-. It’s a numbers count. It’s an angles count. We had a few guys rush for more than 1,000 yards at Baylor.”