It sure seems like offense is evolving in some very different ways. To NFL fans who notice the trends, more athletic players lining up at the quarterback position seems to be the direction the league is headed. We saw the
It sure seems like offense is evolving in some very different ways. To NFL fans who notice the trends, more athletic players lining up at the quarterback position seems to be the direction the league is headed. We saw the success teams like San Francisco and Washington had with the “read option” — a college staple — and began to assume it could become a pro staple, as well.
There’s a familiar saying about what happens when you assume, so I decided to get the opinion of someone with far more knowledge of offense than you or I have, since he happened to be standing about 10 feet from me.
“I’m not sure that’s necessarily true,” said University of Hawai‘i head coach Norm Chow, Saturday after the Warriors completed their outer-island practice at Lihu‘e’s Vidinha Stadium. “I think that (Colin) Kaepernick has made it so that people are always thinking about that, but in the long run, those quarterbacks are such high-priced players that you’re not going to see much of that.”
When the NFL schedule was released last week, there was plenty of buzz about a Week 1 matchup between the Washington Redskins and Philadelphia Eagles, which could potentially pit quarterback Robert Griffin III — if he’s able to return from offseason knee surgery in time — and whatever new schemes former Oregon head coach Chip Kelly brings with him to Philadelphia. While that Monday Night Football showcase will magnify the hype surrounding new offense, it shouldn’t overshadow what the majority of the league continues to practice.
“When you look at the Super Bowl, yeah, Kaepernick made a big hit but it was (Joe) Flacco” and the Baltimore Ravens who took home the championship, Chow said. “The pro athletes are so good at what they do. You can catch them once in a while, but they will stay up with the trends. Pro football coaches and athletes are so talented at what they do that it’s tough to make that complete change.”
When teams began to implement the “Wildcat” — placing one offensive player, often times not a quarterback, in the shotgun formation — it was initially tough for defenses to adjust their schemes. Tough, but not impossible.
“Football is cyclical,” Chow said. “If you come up with the Wildcat, people catch up with the Wildcat. You have to come up with something else. Just like the ‘Tampa 2’ defense. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers went to the Super Bowl, so all of a sudden, everybody’s coming up in what they call ‘Tampa 2’ coverage. Well, offenses know how to beat that now. That’s what makes this game — whether it’s college or the NFL — that’s what makes it so exciting, is that you have a chance to study it and try to do new things.”
Just like economic or social philosophies, all offensive and defensive schemes are great in theory. It’s when you add the human element that things can go haywire. Personnel, more so than anything written on a chalkboard (if they still do that), is what ultimately determines success. Combining the right players with the right scheme is more important than either on its own. Coach Chow feels this is even more true at the college level.
“I think, as coaches, we have a very big responsibility and that’s to allow young people to be successful,” he said. “If I’m stubborn that we have to run this type of offense, and we don’t have the players, it doesn’t make any sense. So you have to be flexible and be able to change according to the people you have.”
• ‘My Thoughts Exactly’ appears Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays in The Garden Island. Email David Simon your comments or questions to dsimon@thegardenisland.com. Follow David on Twitter @SimonTGI
