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As some have noticed, it’s a little hard to find something to talk about in sports right now.  We have just hit a slow time.  This past weekend, we saw a Tiger make a valiant effort to win the US Open.  This week, the Celtics finished off LA with a whap, and now the NBA is done.  There is Arena Football, which is fun to watch, but nobody really talks about it.  Major League Baseball is just getting started, and it has a long way to go to be interesting (not that I really care anyway),  And, a couple weeks ago, Lord Stanley found a new home.

There is racing, and, well, it may have more fans than any.  NASCAR, Indy, IMCA, World of Outlaws, and other assorted series around this country are really getting revved up.  I love dirt racing, particularly late model racing.  My favorite site for reading about late model racing is Latemodelracer.  And, while I think that racing is a legitimate sport and worth keeping up with, it rarely makes the headlines of a sports page.  Unless there is a fight.

Now, with all of that behind us, it is officially late June.  What does that mean?  Next stop, football.  All of the preseason magazines are out, giving us almost two months to digest what the experts think will happen this fall.  Gosh, what would we do the rest of the summer?  Of course, we here at Collegefootballtopten.com talk college football.  Therefore, next stop for us is college football.  I’ll leave the pros for someone else.

As for me, I will glancing Inthebleachers, listening to the Sunday Morning QB, searching for the Wizard of Odds, and writing about our Fanblogs.

Go ahead, admit it.  When you play a game on EA Sport’s NCAA Football, you run a high octane, pass happy kind of offense.  You employ a four, five receiver shot gun formation and sling the ball around a like a laser.  You probably don’t use a huddle.  You pretend your the “Mad Scientist” playing mind games with the opposing team’s coach.  And your final scores are 82-35.  It’s a rush.  Your QB probably passed for 650 yards, and you had two receivers with over 150 yards receiving.  Don’t you just love video games?

Well, the original “Mad Scientist” has arrived in Dallas, and he didn’t just bring his A-Game.  June Jones, the mastermind behind the University of Hawaii’s advance to the BCS Sugar Bowl was hired in January by SMU.  The Mustang alumni Ponied up the cash to hire Jones away from the Warriors.  And, Jones’ system is similar to playing a video game.  At least, that is what Mustang receiver Emmanuel Sanders thought.

June Jones played for “Mouse” Davis in the early 70’s, the coach who took the Run and Shoot offense and turned it into a offensive phenomenon.  Then Jones took the offense with him when he began coaching.  The Run and Shoot, which employs a spread the field type of formation, is an offense which uses a series of reads and “hot reads” to exploit the defenses weakness or tendencies.  The offense was used at the University of Houston in the 80’s where Andre Ware became a Heisman Trophy winner.  In short, the Run and Shoot is the type of offense we use when we play EA Sports’ NCAA Football.

In Dallas, Jones should have the ability to recruit better talent to play in his system, which is scary.  Jones doesn’t have to convince a young man, and even more, his mom, to come across the ocean to play football.  While in Hawaii, players only played on the mainland a few times a year.  In Dallas, players will be playing close to home almost every game.  And, Southwest Airlines, based in Dallas, has some good fares as Coach Mangino reminded us.

Furthermore,  Texas is a gold mine for college football talent.  Other teams already come to North Texas to recruit top notch talent.  With Jones in Dallas, players like Texas Tech’s Michael Crabtree might not leave to play football.  Crabtree was a stand out player for Dallas’ Carter High School.  Add to the mix that Jones has a BCS Bowl on his resume, and he should see his share of big time recruit signings.  Mike Leach, the coach of Texas’ only other Run and Shoot type of offense (Air Raid), does not have that BCS Bowl on his resume.  All of these variables, I think, should make for a success at SMU with Jones as the head Pony for the fist time since returning from the “death penalty.”

Why have a blog on college football? I love it. But why? What is it about college football that is so special? I’m glad you asked. Here are the top ten reasons I like college football.

10. Bands–When ABC does their commercials for college football games, what do you hear? The band. It is special! Everybody can remember hearing the Florida State Seminole Band do the war chant. What about the Ohio State band dotting the “I”?

9. Preseason Hype–The magazines come out in the early summer, and the excitement begins. Have you begun buying your magazines? Fans tout the fact that their team will be the national champs in just a few months. I saw this from a Baylor fan on the comment section of an article by Brian of IntheBleachers.net on the Fox Sports website. Huh? I guess everyone has a shot.

8. Uniforms–College football uniforms are great. They have color, they have style, and they are unique. Oregon sets the trend with their flashy uniforms. Let’s just say, they have their Knight in shining armor. Even the simple uniforms are classics, see Alabama, Notre Dame, and Penn State.

7. Controversy–We hate debating playoffs and who’s number one every year, don’t we? Sometimes I wonder. It has been noted (See Stewart Mandel) that controversy is part of the winning formula for college football. I still want a playoffs, but it’s hard to argue with the numbers.

6. Rivalries–The Red River Shootout (oops, I mean Rivalry), The Iron Bowl, The Border War (uh, Shootout), Army vs. Navy, World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party, The Big Game (Cal/Stanford), The Egg Bowl, Michigan vs. Ohio State, and Georgia vs. Georgia Tech, just to name a few.

5. Cheerleaders–They are cute, they lead the crowd in the traditional cheers, they keep the crowd loud, and they are really good students.

4. Stadiums–105,000 fans! That is just astounding. The Big House, The Coliseum, Between the Hedges, Death Valley. College football stadiums are unbelievable.

3. Statue of Libery/ The Hook & Lateral–Only in college football can you run these plays and they work.

2. Passion–College football fans are die-hard fans. Tailgating is a ritual. But don’t miss the game!

1. The Student Athlete–What I like about college football is, when a 3rd string tailback, can enter the game and rush for 205 yards and help lead an underdog to a big time victory. What a thrill!

I wrote an article outlining the possibility of a weekly air show in the DFW area earlier this month. Now, if I had a mailbag like Stewart Mandel or The Denton Record-Chronical’s Mean Green Blog, I might have an email asking me about the kinds offenses that are used at UNT (The University of North Texas) and SMU (Southern Methodist University). Some may simply ask, “What kind of offense did you say that was?” Others may ask something like, “What is the difference between the No Huddle Spread Offense and the Run and Shoot?”

Now, as if there weren’t enough teams running a spread of some kind, it seems that the Oklahoma Sooners are going to spread it out next year. The Texas Longhorns have runned some version of the Spread Offense dating back to the Vince Young era. Tulsa runs a high octane version of the Hurry Up No Huddle Spread Offense. Therefore, there are many college football teams in the DFW area running something in the way of a Spread Offense.

SMU runs June Jones’ version of the Run and Shoot. The advent of the Run and Shoot dates back to the 1950’s and 60’s when an Ohio high school football coach developed the offense. Jones himself played QB in the Run and Shoot at Portland State under “Mouse” Davis who popularized the offense. Jones has extensive experience running the Run and Shoot in college, the NFL, the USFL (the United States Football League which no longer exists) and the CFL (Canadian Football League). Jones, the Mustang coach, has brought an offensive system to Dallas that he not only has experience coaching and playing, but one in which he was a major part of its own development. The Run and Shoot uses four receiver sets, or double slots. The key to exploiting the defense is the ability of both the QB and the receiver to read after the snap of the ball to what the defense is doing. Such a tactic is called a “hot read.” The “hot read” is still an important element in the NFL even though the Run and Shoot’s use has largely faded from the NFL playbooks. In fact, just playing EA Sports’ Madden football will leave a fan familiar with the concept of the “hot read.” Some of the subsequent reads happen prior to the snap. Often, the QB knows exactly where he is going to go with ball for it is snapped, or least he knows his best options.

The Spread Offense is very similar in that the offense often employs the use of four receivers. The idea is to spread the defense horizontally and sometimes vertically with deep passes. The Run and Shoot also tries to spread out the defense horizontally. What are the differences? For starters, those that run the Spread Offense are not afraid of using a Tight End. Missouri Tight End Martin Rucker was an All-American at that position for Missouri’s Spread Offense. Usually, a team that uses the Spread likes to use a TE or some kind of H Back. With the need for defenses to have extra defensive backs on the field to cover the spread formations, a TE becomes a major match-up problem. An H Back is usually built like a TE or a Fullback. However, in addition to his ability to block, he has the ability to catch the ball. Imagine an extra Cornerback standing at 5′10″ or 5′11″ and weighing 190 lbs covering someone, by accident, who is 6′6″ 255 lbs. So, while the Spread Offense likes to spread out the defense, at times they use a more TE or H Back type player instead of all four receivers.

Another difference between the two formations is how the Spread Offense uses the QB. The QB is called on to make plays with both his arm and his feet. He is the ultimate playmaker on the field. He uses instincts to make a positive play. Coaches usually make the calls from the Press Box based on what kind defense is being run. Often, teams in the Spread Offense do not use a huddle and look to the coaching staff to make the call based on the defense’s alignment. Reads are made before the snap most of the time. However, some teams use a Hurry Up style of No Huddle Offense in which the object is to snap the ball within 3-5 seconds. Such a philosophy does not depend on what the defense is running, particularly because the defense is out of place because of the quick snap of the ball. Other teams, use the run oriented option out of the Spread Offense. West Virginia has been the best example of this under Coach Rich Rodriguez. Some incorporate what is known as the Zone Read. Vince Young excelled using the Zone Read when he was playing at Texas. All of these variations rely on the playmaking ability of the QB with both his arm and his feet. Such a QB is known as a dual threat QB.

A Run and Shoot is usually more geared toward a passing game. Texas Tech’s Air Raid offense is more of a Run and Shoot offense. Texas Tech QB Graham Harrell averaged 54.8 attempts per game. There was not a lot of emphasis on the running game at Texas Tech. As we have seen, the Spread Offense has several different variations which include a pass oriented, a balanced oriented and a run/option oriented. Todd Dodge’s No Huddle Spread Offense is a little more of a passing oriented attack. However, he does like to use the running game. At Southlake Carroll High School, Dodge enjoyed the use of Texas recruit Tre Newton. Further, all of his QBs were mobile and were considered a threat to run the ball.

Now that you know some of the differences between these two offenses, check out SMU and UNT this fall to see how they are used by each team.

Note: A number of websites and webpages were used to help construct this article. Below is a list of those sites and pages.

Americanfootballmonthly.com
Doubleslot.com
Wikipedia Articles Run & Shoot, Spread Offense, Todd Dodge, June Jones, Mouse Davis
Espn.go.com Bob Davie Column
Maddenscecrets.com
ohsfca.org
scribd.com
smartfootball.blogspot
Video from Espn.go.com with June Jones
sports.espn.go.com
thespreadoffense.com
spreadoffense.com
tulsaworld.com: Oklahoma, Todd Graham
usatoday
Video: Colt Brennan demonstrates Run & Shoot
everything2.com
ezinearticles.com

In a metropolitan area which is home to two of the largest airlines in the country, three NCAA Bowl Subdivision football teams will take the field in 2008 logging as many air miles as any team in the country. It’s an exciting brand of football for the fans to be sure, and with signing of June Jones to be the new head coach at Southern Methodist University, the tickets just might sell. Texas Christian University, Southern Methodist University and the University of North Texas are neighbors in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex.

If anyone throws the ball as much as Jones did at the University of Hawaii, it would be Todd Dodge out of his no huddle Spread Offense at UNT (University of North Texas) known as “Dodge Ball.” Last year Dodge’s team averaged 46 passes per game for 3476 total yards on the season.

Jones’ Hawaii team averaged 51 passes a game for a total of 5713 yards on the season. In case you are wondering, that’s about 476 yards per game (12 games). Jones uses the old “Run and Shoot” offense that was used so well at the University of Houston in the 80’s. Jones has the services of two year starter Justin Willis, if he can pull it together and get himself back on the team.

UNT, of course, is located in Denton, TX, just north of Dallas, and SMU is located in Dallas. In Fort Worth, Gary Patterson is the head coach of TCU (Texas Christian University), where the passing game has always helped balanced the usually stellar running game. In the past, TCU has used dual threat Quarterbacks to complement such running backs as LaDainian Tomlinson, Lonta Hobbs, and Robert Merrill. However, in QB Andy Dalton, TCU is starting to benefit from a strong, accurate arm. TCU averaged 34 passes per game for a total of 2881 yards on the season, up from 27 passes per game in 2006 and 29 passes per game in 2005. With a more confident Dalton, will the Frogs throw the ball more? The Frogs have never been afraid to throw the ball when it needed to. In recent years the TCU QB has had big passing games. TCU is not a one dimensional team.

DFW college football may be exciting in the 2008 season. While watching a game, you might look to the skies. However, it may not be just to see the airplanes.