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Football's new brand demands more risks
Dan Bickley
The Arizona Republic
Jan. 18, 2007 12:00 AM
The sport of football is changing. More and more head coaches are calling their own plays, and the really smart ones are pushing the envelope, exploiting the boundaries of conventional wisdom.
A new breed is here, and they're going for it.
"There is a wave of guys that are thinking outside the box," said Rod Graves, Cardinals vice president of football operations. "It makes sense. The whole objective of football is to keep the opponent off balance, and part of our excitement about (new coach) Ken Whisenhunt is he's willing to think outside the box."
Yes, this seems to be a wonderful trend, and the current buffet of postseason football has been one big trick-and-treat. Already, we've seen the ingenious spread offense designed by Florida coach Urban Meyer, applauded the gutsy sleight of hand that lifted Boise State and marveled at the Patriots' tricky two-point conversion against the Chargers.
We've seen Texas Tech and their rocket-fuel offense hang a 31-point comeback on Minnesota and its now-unemployed head coach. We saw the always-bold June Jones and a quarterback named Colt light up Arizona State's secondary like a victory cigar.
With all this innovation, fossils such as Lloyd Carr and Marty Schottenheimer have never seemed more out of place.
"Everyone looks at our offense in Pittsburgh and thinks we had all these gadget plays," Whisenhunt said. "We really only used two or three of them, but the real trick is in knowing when to use them. So, yeah, we're going to live on the edge. But it's really (more) about timing and the element of surprise than it is about running trick plays all the time."
Over the years, college football has been more fertile and more receptive to this kind of creative thinking. Before scholarships were capped at 85, the disparity in talent was great, football giants roamed the Earth and undermanned college coaches often had to make up for the talent difference at the chalkboard.
So, if you thought Boise State's play-calling in the waning moments of the Fiesta Bowl was unique, think again.
"I heard they stole a couple of my favorite plays," Penn State coach Joe Paterno said in his post-bowl game news conference. "We used to call it the Sally Rand. A lot of people don't know why it was called the Sally Rand. Sally Rand was a stripper, but you guys wouldn't remember that."
While innovation isn't new to college football, the NFL is another story. Ever since parity leveled the playing field, lucrative coaching careers are now made and broken on bad throws and muffed punts. As a result, the industry is plagued by paranoid control freaks who can't bear to take risks, afraid of losing their jobs (at worst) or looking like an imbecile in front of an entire nation.
They are all missing the opportunity to stand out in a crowd, and that's exactly what they're afraid of doing.
For example, kickers in today's NFL have become scary good at executing onside kicks. But unless you play for the Tennessee Titans, they are used only in times of desperation.
For instance, the NFL now features a cornucopia of multitalented players who can run, pass and tackle. Only a few (Antwaan Randle El, Troy Brown, etc.) get the chance, and in Arizona, we eagerly await the liberation of Anquan Boldin.
Finally, a few years ago, a professor at California Berkeley used a complex mathematical formula to determine whether NFL coaches should punt less frequently on fourth down. After studying three years of data, he concluded that a conservative culture was positively stifling the coaching ranks.
The professor documented 1,100 fourth-down situations in which a team should have gone for it, only to find the head coach to punting away 992 times.
Predictably, NFL coaches scoffed at the study, implying that Mr. Academia needed to come down from the ivory tower and spend a Sunday on a sideline. But there's no denying that conservative groupthink has pervaded the NFL and that the game has suffered from a distinct lack of originality. Fortunately, the league is showing signs of coming out of the dark ages.
In Dallas, Bill Parcells was widely criticized for his conservative playoff game plan against Seahawks. Yet in New Orleans, rookie coach Sean Payton is being hailed for dreaming up ways to get the ball to his playmakers (Deuce McAllister had 274 touches this past season, and Reggie Bush had 271 ).
"I think that, sometimes, we get so wrapped up in what our limitations are that we tend to keep it close to the vest," Graves said.
Alas, in today's NFL - where the stakes are high and job security is scarce - the biggest limitations are often self-imposed. Great rewards await the head coach willing to try something different - if he doesn't get fired first.
Print this article Choose File Print or Ctrl P or Apple P
Most emailed pages Today | This Week
Football's new brand demands more risks
Dan Bickley
The Arizona Republic
Jan. 18, 2007 12:00 AM
The sport of football is changing. More and more head coaches are calling their own plays, and the really smart ones are pushing the envelope, exploiting the boundaries of conventional wisdom.
A new breed is here, and they're going for it.
"There is a wave of guys that are thinking outside the box," said Rod Graves, Cardinals vice president of football operations. "It makes sense. The whole objective of football is to keep the opponent off balance, and part of our excitement about (new coach) Ken Whisenhunt is he's willing to think outside the box."
Yes, this seems to be a wonderful trend, and the current buffet of postseason football has been one big trick-and-treat. Already, we've seen the ingenious spread offense designed by Florida coach Urban Meyer, applauded the gutsy sleight of hand that lifted Boise State and marveled at the Patriots' tricky two-point conversion against the Chargers.
We've seen Texas Tech and their rocket-fuel offense hang a 31-point comeback on Minnesota and its now-unemployed head coach. We saw the always-bold June Jones and a quarterback named Colt light up Arizona State's secondary like a victory cigar.
With all this innovation, fossils such as Lloyd Carr and Marty Schottenheimer have never seemed more out of place.
"Everyone looks at our offense in Pittsburgh and thinks we had all these gadget plays," Whisenhunt said. "We really only used two or three of them, but the real trick is in knowing when to use them. So, yeah, we're going to live on the edge. But it's really (more) about timing and the element of surprise than it is about running trick plays all the time."
Over the years, college football has been more fertile and more receptive to this kind of creative thinking. Before scholarships were capped at 85, the disparity in talent was great, football giants roamed the Earth and undermanned college coaches often had to make up for the talent difference at the chalkboard.
So, if you thought Boise State's play-calling in the waning moments of the Fiesta Bowl was unique, think again.
"I heard they stole a couple of my favorite plays," Penn State coach Joe Paterno said in his post-bowl game news conference. "We used to call it the Sally Rand. A lot of people don't know why it was called the Sally Rand. Sally Rand was a stripper, but you guys wouldn't remember that."
While innovation isn't new to college football, the NFL is another story. Ever since parity leveled the playing field, lucrative coaching careers are now made and broken on bad throws and muffed punts. As a result, the industry is plagued by paranoid control freaks who can't bear to take risks, afraid of losing their jobs (at worst) or looking like an imbecile in front of an entire nation.
They are all missing the opportunity to stand out in a crowd, and that's exactly what they're afraid of doing.
For example, kickers in today's NFL have become scary good at executing onside kicks. But unless you play for the Tennessee Titans, they are used only in times of desperation.
For instance, the NFL now features a cornucopia of multitalented players who can run, pass and tackle. Only a few (Antwaan Randle El, Troy Brown, etc.) get the chance, and in Arizona, we eagerly await the liberation of Anquan Boldin.
Finally, a few years ago, a professor at California Berkeley used a complex mathematical formula to determine whether NFL coaches should punt less frequently on fourth down. After studying three years of data, he concluded that a conservative culture was positively stifling the coaching ranks.
The professor documented 1,100 fourth-down situations in which a team should have gone for it, only to find the head coach to punting away 992 times.
Predictably, NFL coaches scoffed at the study, implying that Mr. Academia needed to come down from the ivory tower and spend a Sunday on a sideline. But there's no denying that conservative groupthink has pervaded the NFL and that the game has suffered from a distinct lack of originality. Fortunately, the league is showing signs of coming out of the dark ages.
In Dallas, Bill Parcells was widely criticized for his conservative playoff game plan against Seahawks. Yet in New Orleans, rookie coach Sean Payton is being hailed for dreaming up ways to get the ball to his playmakers (Deuce McAllister had 274 touches this past season, and Reggie Bush had 271 ).
"I think that, sometimes, we get so wrapped up in what our limitations are that we tend to keep it close to the vest," Graves said.
Alas, in today's NFL - where the stakes are high and job security is scarce - the biggest limitations are often self-imposed. Great rewards await the head coach willing to try something different - if he doesn't get fired first.
