Tell Me Why I'm Wrong: II

[Sooner04]

Every time I see another team trot out that ridiculous "swinging gate" punting formation or some stupid variation of the Wild(insert mascot name here) I'm reminded that the biggest copycats on Earth are football coaches. If one single, solitary soul does something that sorta works the line of coaches there to replicate it stretches from Slaughterville to Pink.

And then I watch games on Saturday night stretch into the wee hours with 27 lead changes in the fourth quarter and I wonder when coaching staffs will wake up to the possibility that their precious scoring drives are taking up too little time. Yeah, we scored. Yeah, we're ahead, but the Wampus Cats over there have three minutes left to stick that knife right into our gut.

And then I realize that somebody, somewhere, someday is going to do something about it. He may be coaching placekickers at Panhandle State, but it's going to happen. That coach out there in the wilderness is going to come to the end of a ballgame and realize that he's GOT to be able to run the ball on 3rd and 2 if he wants to win. Everyone in the stands from the peanut venders to the perverts knows it too, but can he do it?

So this coach looks around and sees Georgia Tech having some success. And then he sees Florida running the single wing on steroids. He watches these games and he sees how short they are. How a touchdown drive means something because yes, it scored seven points, but it also took seven minutes.

So he goes and does his research, and he comes across an offense that won national championships by the truckload. And he asks defensive coordinators across the country what offenses are hard to prepare for and he gets the same answer in hushed tones, almost as if they're afraid it might come back for good.

Of course I'm talking about the greatest offense ever created............the Wishbone.


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2b/Wishbone_Formation.PNG



My question is this: why won't it come back? Why won't somebody take the old principles of greatness, sprinkle in some of what makes the spread tick and unleash Wishbone 2.0 on America? You know if somebody starts winning with it coaches will heave this dink-n-dunk horse**** out the window and get back to the cold, ruthless efficiency of a ten-play, eight-minute scoring drive......the type of drive that drives fans in the stands to fall on their swords in agony. The type of drive that feels like a slow, constant churn of a screwdriver to your heart.

Tell me why I'm wrong. Why won't it work?


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[Sooner04]

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[Sooner04]

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[Sooner04]

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[Sooner04]

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[Sooner04]

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[OKLA21FAN]

you are wrong.....(but there is no good reason why)


and Barry has said for a decade the Bone would still work in today's game with a for minor tweaks.

[jduggle]

Florida doesn't run the wishbone, but the Tebow quarterback option is a variant.

[stoops the eternal pimp]

God, I can just imagine what Soonerfans message board woulda looked like in those days....

"Running on 3rd and 15...WTF?"

[OUDoc]

I think it would work, about like it did for us in the mid '80's. It would win you a lot of games as long as you never fell too far behind and the opposing team wasn't as fast as you.

[Partial Qualifier]

Marcus Dupree.. damn, he coulda started for 26 different NFL teams as a 19-year-old. What a waste of talent. :(

I think defensive schemes (not to mention individual speed) have caught up so much that all things being equal, you'd have a lot of 3rd-and-longs instead of 3rd and 2's because the running portion of Wishbone 2.0 would get stuffed. And if it's a true "2.0" there must be a new aspect, like a true, every-down passing option which puts a ton of pressure on a QB.

I wonder if the thought process stops at "I'd need QBs who can be a true run threat, make snap decisions based on X many variables and have reliable arms" .. not too many QB's fittin' that bill

[BigRedJed]

Wishbone or no, a properly executed option is one of the most beautiful things in sports.

[Mjcpr]

I think it would work, about like it did for us in the mid '80's. It would win you a lot of games as long as you never fell too far behind and the opposing team wasn't as fast as you.

And didn't ever play anybody with better (faster) athletes which you wouldn't get because they would not come to a wishbone school because it doesn't prepare you for the NFL (if that sounds familiar to you, it should, that was one of the major complaints against the 'bone towards the end of the Switzer era).

[stoops the eternal pimp]

Jamelle Holieway told me there isn't any difference between what you see now from spread option teams and what he ran except for the lack of a fullback....

[boomermagic]

No doubt about it.. It WOULD work..

[Sooner04]

In the "sophisticated" defenses of today, a busted assignment may not kill you if the QB doesn't make a good throw to exploit your mistake.

In defending the Wishbone, a busted assignment is almost certain death.

[ouwapiti]

have you watched georgia tech, navy.....????

[Mjcpr]

Jamelle Holieway told me there isn't any difference between what you see now from spread option teams and what he ran except for the lack of a fullback....

Pfft...what does he know about the wishbone?

[NormanPride]

Lack of recruiting at the QB position

One-dimensionality

recruiting restrictions means you can't recruit everyone and their grandmother just to strike gold on a couple good ones

fumbles

Just off the top of my head... My theory goes like this: Defense should do what everyone else is doing. Offense should do what nobody else is doing. Essentially, if everyone is running wide-open passing offenses then you need small people in your back 7 and amazing pass rushers in your front four. If everyone is running a power game with emphasis on large WRs and a TE that can hit the seam in a cover-2, then you need big guys up front, tall corners, and safeties that can hit like a freight train.

Conversely, if everyone's defense is geared to stop the spread, you need to recruit the biggest, baddest, toughest, meanest SOBs to grind their pathetic little girl-defenders into dust. And if those defenses have behemoths that clog your running lanes and mangle your QB, then you need to spread it out and make their size and inertia a disadvantage.

**** balance. Specializing is the way to go in college anymore. Recruiting limitations make "balanced" teams have too many holes. Recruit the best players of the type that you need. If they grow into something else then awesome, but don't touch that 235lb, 4.8 LB if you're trying to make a spread defense.

[Blitzkrieg]

AD wouldn't have signed with a team that ran the bone. Share the ball with 3 other backs?

[stoops the eternal pimp]

Pfft...what does he know about the wishbone?

a lot as well as what they serve for dinner over at the local jail

[westbrooke]

Those are some beautiful videos. Tears, eyes, all that.

I think the key to your proposal is the "2.0" aspect. Right now, teams that run the option are a novelty, and the offense wins a certain amount of games on scheme alone, but it crumbles against a disciplined, fast defense. It's an offense that will win a lot of games most seasons but will rarely if ever win every game in a season. You pair it with some effective passing to keep the pursuit confused, though, and it goes from an offense that baffles lesser teams to some really sick sh!t. No coincidence that some of our (and Nebraska's) best wishbone teams had a real receiving threat like Keith Jackson. The new wrinkles are what would make this hum.

The comments about recruiting are legitimate though. That's kind of why I feel like this is a good way for an average team to gain an edge on 80% of their schedule, but an elite team may not be able to maintain proper talent flow through the program. I'd love to be proven wrong though...

[The Maestro]

Main problem. Big time athletes don't want to run an offense they won't be able to turn into dollar signs after college. Every kid shows up to college wondering if they will leave after three years for the NFL. All about the benjamins. And OU proved lineman back in those days couldn't make it in the NFL passing scheme offenses.

It would kill recruiting. Look how many players OU is putting in the pros now.

That is the MAIN problem with your theory. You gotta have athletes. Athletes wanna play in the league.

[Sooner04]

AD wouldn't have signed with a team that ran the bone. Share the ball with 3 other backs?
Combined conference and national championships for Adrian Peterson at OU: 2

Combined conference and national championships for Patrick Collins at OU: 5

The following recruiting classes produced more hardware than AD and his one back self: '73, '74, '75, '76, '77, '78, '82, '83, '84, '85.

'79, '80 and '86 produced the same amount as AD.

Viva La Wishbone!

[tulsaoilerfan]

God, I can just imagine what Soonerfans message board woulda looked like in those days....

"Running on 3rd and 15...WTF?"

LOL, not me; i remember games that OU won while running the bone without throwing a single damn pass

[stoops the eternal pimp]

I like the looks of GT's recruiting classes...

[Sooner04]

The setting: a fall Saturday in a hostile environment for our Sooners.

It's 3rd and 1. First down and this SOB is over.

But it's bizarro world. OU walks six yards behind the line of scrimmage and forms some ball of humanity they call a huddle. A receiver hustles in with the play call from the sidelines. There are no coaches moonlighting as traffic cops along the boundary. They stand with arms crossed.

This "huddle" breaks. The team goes to the line of scrimmage. They do not turn around, for there is no need. They know the play. There is no indecision.

You know they're going right. The defense knows they're going right. The two 18-year-olds making out in the student section know they're going right. But can our opponent stop it? Of course not.

We need one. We get three.

Ballgame.

[stoops the eternal pimp]

exactamundo...........

thats why i love the whole "we couldnt run against tcu( or fill in the blank) because they had 8 men in the box" argument...

A good option team could pick up that yard with 13 men and their families in the box..

A good running team isnt dependant on how good the rb's are....its about lineman and fullbacks getting to the 2nd level and laying out a lb who foolishly tries to fill the gap...

Thats why the option would work...Sure your not gonna get a pro style recruit in to play quarterback, but you'll get a mean mother f'n guard who will make a trillion dollars a year knockin somebody's head off.

[tulsaoilerfan]

The good thing about the option is you don't need the linemen to hold their blocks as long as you do in this offense we run

[stoops the eternal pimp]

Do you guys remember Switzer promising to throw the ball more at the start of every season?...that was quality stuff

[primetime43]

It would be cool to have a "bone package" just like the wildcat. Only use it when you need to run clock.

[cheezyq]

AD wouldn't have signed with a team that ran the bone. Share the ball with 3 other backs?

If you're running the ball 3-4 times as much as the next team, then why not?

[Mjcpr]

Thats why the option would work...Sure your not gonna get a pro style recruit in to play quarterback, but you'll get a mean mother f'n guard who will make a trillion dollars a year knockin somebody's head off.

Who are some of the Pro Bowl linemen we put in the NFL from the Switzer years? I don't even remember one. Even our All Americans weren't very good in the NFL that I can remember....Anythony Phillips? Probably one of our best ever and I don't know that he did **** in the NFL.

[homerSimpsonsBrain]

We keep hearing about the Wild<whatever>. Why not have the wildbone. I dont want Sam or Landry trying to execute the triple option but I'd bet one of the running backs could run it and have the qb move to the wr position. It would be fun to see Broyles as QB for that.

But if you cant keep the DL from crushing the OL, you could have Jesus running it and it wouldnt make a yard.

[stoops the eternal pimp]

Who are some of the Pro Bowl linemen we put in the NFL from the Switzer years? I don't even remember one. Even our All Americans weren't very good in the NFL that I can remember....Anythony Phillips? Probably one of our best ever and I don't know that he did **** in the NFL.

Anthony Phillips was a cyborg he had so many surgeries by the time he left school

[Mjcpr]

But if you cant keep the DL from crushing the OL, you could have Jesus running it and it wouldnt make a yard.

It has already been mentioned that he runs some version of the single wing.

[homerSimpsonsBrain]

It has already been mentioned that he runs some version of the single wing.

:D

[yermom]

It would be cool to have a "bone package" just like the wildcat. Only use it when you need to run clock.

this is what i was thinking

[Sooner04]

The only coach to ever win a national championship at Oklahoma and not begin his career at OU in the Wishbone was Bud Wilkinson.

[stoops the eternal pimp]

Who are some of the Pro Bowl linemen we put in the NFL from the Switzer years? I don't even remember one. Even our All Americans weren't very good in the NFL that I can remember....Anythony Phillips? Probably one of our best ever and I don't know that he did **** in the NFL.

Not pro bowlers but if you go back through his teams, he had a lot of centers and guards drafted by NFL teams......some played not much, some played several years....

[badger]

Everytime an announcer says "wildcat," I make a sick cat noise, because of how annoying it is.

With how many times that happens, you could make it into either a square on Football Bingo or part of a drinking game.

[Mjcpr]

The only coach to ever win a national championship at Oklahoma and not begin his career at OU in the Wishbone was Bud Wilkinson.

:confused:

[Sooner04]

:confused:
Bob's first play against Indiana State in 1999: we lined up in the Wishbone.

:)

[Mjcpr]

Booooo!

I don't remember them doing that but I certainly trust your memory way more than mine.

[stoops the eternal pimp]

I thought it was in the spring game myself but I remember them doing it to somebody

[Oldnslo]

Have you no memory of Miami?

Yes, we were 30--0 against the world, but we went 0-3 against Miami.

Seems that they discovered that it's tough for 5 to block 8, no matter how good the 5 are.

The 2.0 part is intruiging. Make the 'bone a package? THAT does sound interesting. But the reason that the wishbone went out of favor is the same reason that we don't run the Ninja anymore: someone showed the world how to stop it.

Blake, bless him, tried to bring the 'bone back, didn't he?

[stoops the eternal pimp]

Brandon Daniels refused to pitch.....

[stoops the eternal pimp]

and I disagree with the bone going away just because of miami....the whole time the bone was ran it was against a loaded front....in those days, a lot of teams played with D with 5 guys on the line....

but losing 3 games to an OOC opponent doesn't prove much IMO....

[the_ouskull]

God, I can just imagine what Soonerfans message board woulda looked like in those days....

"Passing on 3rd and 15...WTF?"

FTFY.

the_ouskull

[Sooner04]

Have you no memory of Miami?

Yes, we were 30--0 against the world, but we went 0-3 against Miami.

Seems that they discovered that it's tough for 5 to block 8, no matter how good the 5 are.
I was waiting for this one.

And yes, I do remember Miami. And I also remember that for one, fleeting half we got to see Wishbone 2.0. What Switzer had Aikman doing in the '85 game is what it takes to win today while running the Wishbone. Flinging it to Shepard and Jackson while staying true to the Wishbone's principles. Heck, Troy-boy even rattled off about a 50 yarder that was nullified for stepping out of bounds, albeit BARELY.

Yes, we lost to Miami in Miami in '86 and '87. Do you know who else did? Every single team who went down there to play them for about ten years.

I'm with Switzer. At its core, it can still work. Implement some facets that get the ball to the outside quicker. Perhaps more motion?

[Partial Qualifier]

The 2.0 part is intruiging. Make the 'bone a package?

I thought 'bone' and 'package' were one-and-the-same. Talk about getting old... kids, these days!

[OklahomaTuba]

Why not just run the damn dive play all the time like Florida does??

[Mjcpr]

Blake, bless him, tried to bring the 'bone back, didn't he?

Yeah, for like one series.

[cheezyq]

Why not just run the damn dive play all the time like Florida does??

Cuz our players don't run 2.4 second 40 times, don't bench 1200 lbs. and don't have the good Lord's blessing on our QB?

[stoops the eternal pimp]

I remember the offseason of Blake deciding to go with the option...Brandon Daniels was moved to quarterback and it was going to be the greatest thing ever...

Well Brandon absolutely refuses to pitch the entire time....not once....I think the score was 10-6 at the half over.....NORTH TEXAS!!

Patrick Fletcher comes in and plays like a superstar, completing all 5 passes and OU wins 37-9....

[prrriiide]

I don't think you're totally wrong. I think that your viewopint might need a little expansion. I don't think that the good old-fashioned hit 'em in the mouth wishbone can really be a bread-and-butter offense.

My thought about Wishbone 2.0 is that there needs to be a 4th option: a receiver.

If you run it a half dozen times and run the standard triple option, the chances are that some of those options are going to get stuffed. Defensive team speed and the lack of really good option backs coming out of high school ensures that this would be the case.

But say on that 6th option play, the QB fakes the handoff to the FB, and sweeps right. Also say that the guy playing the trailing back was a serviceable passer. QB pitches, RB pulls up and throws to an open receiver (RB read on that option). That should be an easy 6 the first time you pull it out.

You could also use the bone as a disguise for a bootleg play-action pass. Run the option a few times and get the D biting on it. Then the deep routes should be open, especially if the back side receiver is a good actor and plays the role of whiffing a block before he releases. Run it just like the option, except that the RB and QB take a little deeper route down the line. The TE has to block down on the the DE. Then bring the RB over on the LB block and pull up the QB and throw it downfield.

The key to a wishbone 2.0 is to make it flexible enough to run some spread-type plays out of it. You also need to be able to run option out of your spread and pro sets.

I think that one of the biggest weaknesses of any coach is in becoming married to a single style of formation. A good OC needs to have his players ready to run nearly the same play out of the spread, the bone, the pro set, the WC set, and even the split-t and single wings. There are literally dozens of offenses that have been very successful to dominant over the years that have only gone into hibernation because defenses figured out how to contain them. BUT if a shrewd OC started running some plays native to one set out of several different sets, that offense could get some good yardage IF you have the players to pull it off. Basically just confuse the bejeebers out of the defense.


EDIT:

Implement some facets that get the ball to the outside quicker.

You clarified your position as I was posting, and I think we're kind of on the same page. Actually, I think it's more important to get the flow to the outside quicker. Then you can get the ball up inside a few times as well.

[stoops the eternal pimp]

I remember the offseason of Blake deciding to go with the option...Brandon Daniels was moved to quarterback and it was going to be the greatest thing ever...

Well Brandon absolutely refuses to pitch the entire time....not once....I think the score was 10-6 at the half over.....NORTH TEXAS!!

Patrick Fletcher comes in and plays like a superstar, completing all 5 passes and OU wins 37-9....

Just to continue on talkin about this dream season, the offseason plans of Blake is what caused Justin Fuente to transfer to Murray St.......

Thank God Jake Sills stuck around

[tulsaoilerfan]

Not pro bowlers but if you go back through his teams, he had a lot of centers and guards drafted by NFL teams......some played not much, some played several years....

Kyle Davis, Greg Roberts, Karl Baldischwiler, and Sam Claphan are the ones i can remember off the top of my head

[tulsaoilerfan]

Have you no memory of Miami?

Yes, we were 30--0 against the world, but we went 0-3 against Miami.

Seems that they discovered that it's tough for 5 to block 8, no matter how good the 5 are.

The 2.0 part is intruiging. Make the 'bone a package? THAT does sound interesting. But the reason that the wishbone went out of favor is the same reason that we don't run the Ninja anymore: someone showed the world how to stop it.

Blake, bless him, tried to bring the 'bone back, didn't he?

Newsflash for ya Miami had better players and a helluva lot more of them; for proof just check out any NFL rosters from 86 to about 97 or so and compare them to what OU put into the NFL

[Statalyzer]

Tell Me Why I'm Wrong: II ... Every time I see another team trot out that ridiculous "swinging gate" punting formation or some stupid variation of the Wild(insert mascot name here) I'm reminded that the biggest copycats on Earth are football coaches. If one single, solitary soul does something that sorta works the line of coaches there to replicate it stretches from Slaughterville to Pink.

You aren't wrong. And even Mack Brown and Bob Stoops, two of the best coaches in the game today, are proof of this.

Mack Brown trots out the WildCat / WildHorn. No reason at all to do this, because Chiles isn't a better runner than McCoy. All it does is telegraph that we are running the ball to the defense, unless Colt McCoy comes behind the QB on an "end around", in which case it telegraphs to the D that we are passing and gives them a couple of seconds to prepare b/c the play is so slow-developing. Came very close to backfiring and Texas was lucky not to get sacked there, with possibly another fumble. I guess Mack/Greg think it's a great formation because it resulted in one good play against TexasTech...

And Bob Stoops counters with the 7-3 punt formation. There's a reason most teams have nine guys on the line and only 1 protector for the punter. Those 2 guys that get moved back have to block defenders with a full head of steam, instead of blocking defenders who are starting from a dead-stop. Came very close to backfiring and Oklahoma was lucky not to get a punt blocked there. Texas is up there with VTech in blocking kicks and we love it whenever some new team decideds to trot out that punt formation...

[tulsaoilerfan]

Hell every time we run that damn shotgun draw play i keep hoping that one of the backs will pull up and throw the damn ball

[Fraggle145]

Those are some beautiful videos. Tears, eyes, all that.

I think the key to your proposal is the "2.0" aspect. Right now, teams that run the option are a novelty, and the offense wins a certain amount of games on scheme alone, but it crumbles against a disciplined, fast defense. It's an offense that will win a lot of games most seasons but will rarely if ever win every game in a season. You pair it with some effective passing to keep the pursuit confused, though, and it goes from an offense that baffles lesser teams to some really sick sh!t. No coincidence that some of our (and Nebraska's) best wishbone teams had a real receiving threat like Keith Jackson. The new wrinkles are what would make this hum.

The comments about recruiting are legitimate though. That's kind of why I feel like this is a good way for an average team to gain an edge on 80% of their schedule, but an elite team may not be able to maintain proper talent flow through the program. I'd love to be proven wrong though...

I thought Va. Tech had a fast disciplined defense...

[Fraggle145]

Main problem. Big time athletes don't want to run an offense they won't be able to turn into dollar signs after college. Every kid shows up to college wondering if they will leave after three years for the NFL. All about the benjamins. And OU proved lineman back in those days couldn't make it in the NFL passing scheme offenses.

It would kill recruiting. Look how many players OU is putting in the pros now.

That is the MAIN problem with your theory. You gotta have athletes. Athletes wanna play in the league.

Florida isnt having a problem filling their roster with great athletes...

[Oldnslo]

Newsflash for ya Miami had better players and a helluva lot more of them; for proof just check out any NFL rosters from 86 to about 97 or so and compare them to what OU put into the NFL

Lots of tactics work against inferior teams. What's your point?

[GottaHavePride]

Damn.

I think 04 and jkm may be my favorite posters in this whole place.

[tulsaoilerfan]

Lots of tactics work against inferior teams. What's your point?

That Miami won those 3 games cause they had better players, not because OU was running the wishbone

[boomermagic]

That Miami won those 3 games cause they had better players, not because OU was running the wishbone



EXACTLY CORRECT !

[ashley]

Fellas, lots of you are making it to hard. If your QB goes down, nothing looks the same.

[stoops the eternal pimp]

I guess if Sam wouldnt have come back, we couldn't fall on that...?

[stoops the eternal pimp]

Damn.

I think 04 and jkm may be my favorite posters in this whole place.

Oh yeah.....well...I've got your dad's favorite poster name...

[Salt City Sooner]

That Miami won those 3 games cause they had better players, not because OU was running the wishbone
As much as I hate giving credit to him, they also had an ex-OU DL coach who knew what it took to shut it down.

[Sooner04]

Fellas, lots of you are making it to hard. If your QB goes down, nothing looks the same.
We won a national championship with a backup QB who was younger than our current guy.

[Soonerus]

We won a national championship with a backup QB who was younger than our current guy.

But he was a field mouse...big difference...

[westbrooke]

I thought Va. Tech had a fast disciplined defense...

Not this weekend, they didn't.

Let me reiterate, per the terms of the original question, I think this could work. Some random coach could resurrect the wishbone, add some wrinkles, and become a force to be reckoned with overnight. I believe an elite school would be hesitant to do so because of the recruiting issues previously mentioned. You cite Florida as a counterexample, but remember that Florida has modified their offense to suit current personnel and will do so again once Tebow is gone and Brantley takes over. Their recruiting is not a good barometer of hypothetical success for a team devoted to this scheme.

[starclassic tama]

I remember the offseason of Blake deciding to go with the option...Brandon Daniels was moved to quarterback and it was going to be the greatest thing ever...

Well Brandon absolutely refuses to pitch the entire time....not once....I think the score was 10-6 at the half over.....NORTH TEXAS!!

Patrick Fletcher comes in and plays like a superstar, completing all 5 passes and OU wins 37-9....

the first game i ever went to!!!!!!!

[Fraggle145]

Not this weekend, they didn't.

Let me reiterate, per the terms of the original question, I think this could work. Some random coach could resurrect the wishbone, add some wrinkles, and become a force to be reckoned with overnight. I believe an elite school would be hesitant to do so because of the recruiting issues previously mentioned. You cite Florida as a counterexample, but remember that Florida has modified their offense to suit current personnel and will do so again once Tebow is gone and Brantley takes over. Their recruiting is not a good barometer of hypothetical success for a team devoted to this scheme.

They do have a fast defense and they still got beat by Ga Tech that runs *cough* the option *cough*.

When Urban Meyer had Alex Smith they ran the option... They will run it with Brantley. And they still get THE FASTEST DUDES EVAR to play at UF.

Teboner creates the 4th option in their spread option with the fake run - jump pass.

[Crucifax Autumn]

I've always been of the opinion that some hybrid spread/wishbone could be successful with the right personell. I'm thinking something similar to our hurry-up where the guys can either set up in a bone or in a spread and everything in between. It would take more discipline than either system though, but it's the only way it would work consistently with today's defensive speed.

[primetime43]

Georgia Tech only threw the ball 7 times while only completing one pass in their win over Virginia Tech. I thought that was a crazy stat.

[westbrooke]

They do have a fast defense and they still got beat by Ga Tech that runs *cough* the option *cough*.

When Urban Meyer had Alex Smith they ran the option... They will run it with Brantley. And they still get THE FASTEST DUDES EVAR to play at UF.

Teboner creates the 4th option in their spread option with the fake run - jump pass.

I listed two qualifications: fast and disciplined. I was speaking about the discipline, but I'm happy to make that explicit here. I never said Georgia Tech didn't play the option, but thanks for the reminder. Speed isn't enough. Think about when we beat Nebraska in 2000. We were plenty fast, but we got torched for 14 quick points. It wasn't until we settled down and played our assignments that we shut them down.

And again, I didn't say Meyer didn't run a spread option with Smith at Utah. But the balance was tilted a lot more toward spread passing (and can therefore attract the necessary passing personnel) than it was to option running as it is with Tebow now. The number of carries Tebow got in 2007 was far more than Smith ever got in a single season and was approaching the total carries Smith got in his entire Utah career. Brantley will be used more like Smith and Leak were. And yes, Meyer recruits. I didn't say otherwise. See previous point about Florida not being a good barometer for recruiting into a wishbone-type scheme.