I hear Brian Kelly runs a spread offense. What does that mean?
The term "spread offense" has become very broad over the last five to ten years. Originally, the spread offense was exactly what it sounds like – it was an offense that literally spread the field. While traditionally teams lined up with the quarterback under center with multiple tight ends and fullbacks, the spread offense put the quarterback in the shotgun with three, four, or even five receivers. Gone were the fullbacks and the big blocking tight ends; in their places were slot receivers and running backs.
The spread offense began as a way for smaller schools to compete with the big boys of college football. By spreading the field with multiple receivers, the offense forces the defense to stretch itself out. Those big linebackers now need to drop into coverage instead of blowing up plays in the backfield. By playing exclusively in the shotgun, the defense needs to go farther to get to the quarterback. One of the most important aspects of the spread offense was incorporating the quarterback into the run game with option plays, draws, and the ubiquitous zone read. The defense suddenly needed to account for the quarterback on every play. Spread offenses also usually ran at a hurry-up pace and didn’t huddle between plays. Defenses could no longer sub in and out players between plays and often had difficulty getting lined up, creating another advantage for the offense.
Of course the spread offense has evolved over the years. "Spread" is now used to describe offenses as diverse as the run-first offenses of Chip Kelly and Rich Rodriquez to the pass-first offenses of Mike Leach and Dana Holgorsen. Simply put, any offense that operates out of the shotgun with three or four receiver sets is typically referred to as "spread."
So that means Notre Dame runs a spread offense, right?
This is where things get tricky. Brian Kelly ran a no-huddle, pass-first spread offense at Cincinnati prior to taking the head coaching job at Notre Dame. When he arrived in South Bend, his first task was to teach his style of offense to players used to playing in Charlie Weis's pro-style offense. And sure enough, the Irish looked a lot like Cincinnati (in style, not in points) through the first half of the 2010 season.
But then October 30th happened and quarterback Dayne Crist went down with a knee injury against Tulsa. In his place stepped true freshman Tommy Rees. With such an inexperienced player at quarterback, Brian Kelly began to change his offense. The pace slowed way down and the running game became a bigger part of the offense with less pressure put on the quarterback. Multiple tight end sets started to pop up and Rees even started taking snaps under center. This trend continued into the 2011 season.
Today, the Notre Dame offense resembles more of a spread/pro-style hybrid. The quarterback still operates out of the shotgun most of time, there are still four and five receiver sets, and the quarterback is still expected to run the ball, but the quarterback also takes snaps under center occasionally and tight ends are sometimes used as fullbacks.
Why doesn't Kelly just stick with his spread offense? Why all the changes?
Kelly has always been known as a coach who likes to adapt to his personnel. For example, in 2009 Cincinnati's starting quarterback, Tony Pike, missed a few games with an injury. Pike was a great passer but not much of a runner, so Cincinnati threw the ball a lot. But his backup, Zach Collaros, was more of a runner than a thrower, so Kelly played to his strengths and didn't ask him to win games with his arm.
When Kelly arrived in South Bend in 2010, he had a former 5-star quarterback in Dayne Crist, a star wide receiver in Michael Floyd, a future second-round NFL draft pick in Kyle Rudolph, and an offensive line that underperformed greatly for Charlie Weis. Kelly's system seemed tailor-made for the Notre Dame's roster.
But in reality, the spread is an underdog strategy. It was originally designed for teams that faced a talent disadvantage on a week-to-week basis. Notre Dame can recruit beefy offensive linemen, hulking tight ends, and tall wide receivers. You don't need to use David's strategy when you can recruit Goliath's players. Thus we are seeing Kelly fit his offense to his personnel and add in pro-style elements so the Irish can over-power teams when the situation is right.
That isn't to say the spread is bad. Its main focus is getting your best athletes the ball in space, something I think everyone can agree is a good thing. But when you can line up and push the other team around, that's also a good thing. Putting those things together just makes sense.
So how does Kelly's offense work?
Let's start with the running game. The most important thing to know is that the Irish are primarily a zone blocking team.
Zone blocking? What's that?
Zone blocking means...
