itsalloverfatman
12-01-2010, 12:23 PM
If I may say so, Doc has put together a stellar history of the spread
offense, in which the Elways played a significant role. It's a
three-part series which will continue tomorrow and conclude on Friday. I
hope you'll enjoy it - Doc worked awfully hard on it, as did TJ on the
play diagrams...
- Doug
The Elways and the Spread, Part 1
Doc Bear Dec 1, 2010 12:00 PM
Note: This is the first of a three-part series on the history of the spread offense. Part 2 will appear tomorrow (Thursday), and the series will conclude on Friday with Part 3. Special thanks to TJ for providing the play diagrams that appear throughout this series.
You’ll find very few Broncos fans who would argue that John Elway wasn’t the greatest Broncos quarterback of all time. Many fans in and out of Denver have called him the greatest quarterback of all time. That’s high praise for anyone, especially a player who was once dedicated to becoming a running back. The story of how that changed, and its link to the current Broncos QB Kyle Orton, is a tale worth telling. Settle in, and I’ll set the stage for you. The full production will begin in the second section, but without the background, you won’t catch the full effect. Let’s begin in the State of Washington. In fact, let’s begin with Washington State University.
Many years ago, Coach Jack Elway was on the coaching staff of Washington State University along with a young man by the name of Joe. They became close friends, despite an 11-year age difference. When each left, Jack Elway moved south to the LA area to coach at Cal-State Northridge, and later San Diego State - along with him he took his young son, who was about to go into high school.
Joe headed north and coached the defensive line for the Calvary Stampede of the Canadian Football League before becoming its assistant GM. He would later spend a 12-year stint as head coach of an American university, where he would teach the spread formation offense. How did they each learn the spread? That, friends, is the key question, because it links together Jack and John Elway to Kyle Orton’s performance in Josh McDaniels’ version of the spread. It took a long history of great coaching minds and the willingness to change of a certain high school coach to alter the course of modern football. But, let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
There are dozens of theories, beliefs and opinions on the development of the spread formation. A couple of years back, someone published an article claiming that Urban Meyer was the architect of the approach, and that he had taught it to Bill Belichick and Josh McDaniels. It was a statement that was breathtaking in its errors and utter lack of research, but it was mostly based on a simple confusion on names. Back in 1952, a brilliant football strategist named Meyer published a book called Spread Formation Football. He was decades ahead of his time, but it was former TCU coach L.R. ‘Dutch’ Meyer, not Urban, who wrote the book on the spread.
There was also a rumor that Bill Belichick - with acolyte Josh McDaniels in tow - visited Urban Meyer over the spring of 2007, and that the team’s success later that year was dependent on them absorbing Meyer’s wisdom. Again - this is absurd. Belichick and McDaniels did make a ‘Southern Swing’ that year, visiting Urban Meyer and Nick Saban, among several others. McDaniels had worked for Saban in the past at Michigan State, while Saban had been the Cleveland Browns’ defensive coordinator under Belichick from 1991 to 1994.
There is no substance to suggest that this trip changed their basic approach to the offense, although it is true - and always will be - that coaches sit, drink beer and talk and diagram football with each other (No one else speaks their dialect), and that each year, the offense changes in degree. But, putting that on a meeting with Urban Meyer is less than realistic. They used a couple of his concepts in 2007, perhaps three or four plays out of the encyclopedic playbook, according to both McDaniels and Belichick, but that was all. The offense and defense of each team will change in degree every season, to throw new wrinkles at the opposition. There’s nothing new there.
Continued at IAOFM (http://www.itsalloverfatman.com/broncos/entry/the-elways-and-the-spread-part-1)
offense, in which the Elways played a significant role. It's a
three-part series which will continue tomorrow and conclude on Friday. I
hope you'll enjoy it - Doc worked awfully hard on it, as did TJ on the
play diagrams...
- Doug
The Elways and the Spread, Part 1
Doc Bear Dec 1, 2010 12:00 PM
Note: This is the first of a three-part series on the history of the spread offense. Part 2 will appear tomorrow (Thursday), and the series will conclude on Friday with Part 3. Special thanks to TJ for providing the play diagrams that appear throughout this series.
You’ll find very few Broncos fans who would argue that John Elway wasn’t the greatest Broncos quarterback of all time. Many fans in and out of Denver have called him the greatest quarterback of all time. That’s high praise for anyone, especially a player who was once dedicated to becoming a running back. The story of how that changed, and its link to the current Broncos QB Kyle Orton, is a tale worth telling. Settle in, and I’ll set the stage for you. The full production will begin in the second section, but without the background, you won’t catch the full effect. Let’s begin in the State of Washington. In fact, let’s begin with Washington State University.
Many years ago, Coach Jack Elway was on the coaching staff of Washington State University along with a young man by the name of Joe. They became close friends, despite an 11-year age difference. When each left, Jack Elway moved south to the LA area to coach at Cal-State Northridge, and later San Diego State - along with him he took his young son, who was about to go into high school.
Joe headed north and coached the defensive line for the Calvary Stampede of the Canadian Football League before becoming its assistant GM. He would later spend a 12-year stint as head coach of an American university, where he would teach the spread formation offense. How did they each learn the spread? That, friends, is the key question, because it links together Jack and John Elway to Kyle Orton’s performance in Josh McDaniels’ version of the spread. It took a long history of great coaching minds and the willingness to change of a certain high school coach to alter the course of modern football. But, let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
There are dozens of theories, beliefs and opinions on the development of the spread formation. A couple of years back, someone published an article claiming that Urban Meyer was the architect of the approach, and that he had taught it to Bill Belichick and Josh McDaniels. It was a statement that was breathtaking in its errors and utter lack of research, but it was mostly based on a simple confusion on names. Back in 1952, a brilliant football strategist named Meyer published a book called Spread Formation Football. He was decades ahead of his time, but it was former TCU coach L.R. ‘Dutch’ Meyer, not Urban, who wrote the book on the spread.
There was also a rumor that Bill Belichick - with acolyte Josh McDaniels in tow - visited Urban Meyer over the spring of 2007, and that the team’s success later that year was dependent on them absorbing Meyer’s wisdom. Again - this is absurd. Belichick and McDaniels did make a ‘Southern Swing’ that year, visiting Urban Meyer and Nick Saban, among several others. McDaniels had worked for Saban in the past at Michigan State, while Saban had been the Cleveland Browns’ defensive coordinator under Belichick from 1991 to 1994.
There is no substance to suggest that this trip changed their basic approach to the offense, although it is true - and always will be - that coaches sit, drink beer and talk and diagram football with each other (No one else speaks their dialect), and that each year, the offense changes in degree. But, putting that on a meeting with Urban Meyer is less than realistic. They used a couple of his concepts in 2007, perhaps three or four plays out of the encyclopedic playbook, according to both McDaniels and Belichick, but that was all. The offense and defense of each team will change in degree every season, to throw new wrinkles at the opposition. There’s nothing new there.
Continued at IAOFM (http://www.itsalloverfatman.com/broncos/entry/the-elways-and-the-spread-part-1)