Cal coach Jeff Tedford will use those parts of the spread offense that will make the Bears even more high octane
Thursday, August 03, 2006
JOHN HUNT The Oregonian
The spread offense may be proliferating in college football, but hardly anyone expected it to reach Berkeley, Calif., and California coach Jeff Tedford. Cal, which has taken so much from Oregon the past few years, is taking the Ducks' offense, too -- or at least part of it. "I was surprised to see Jeff do that," said Oregon coach Mike Bellotti, under whom Tedford coordinated the Ducks' offense from 1998-2001. Others are surprised, too, given Cal's success in Tedford's system. After all, Cal has ranked in the top 25 in the NCAA in scoring during each of Tedford's four seasons with the Golden Bears since leaving Eugene.
For 2006, Cal hired Northwestern spread guru Mike Dunbar to head its offense, much like Bellotti hired Gary Crowton from BYU last year. But Cal isn't ready to fully embrace the spread just yet, so that's where the similarities end. Last season, the Ducks finished fourth in the Pacific-10 Conference with 439 yards per game (third-best all-time at Oregon) and averaged 34.5 points while running their new offense with three quarterbacks. Bellotti compared the offensive switch to jumping into the ocean and "off the safety of the island." Cal is dipping its toes in the water. After all, the Golden Bears have perhaps the conference's most talented pair of feet -- those of running back Marshawn Lynch, who rushed for 1,246 yards last season.
"He's going to be OK either way," Bellotti said of Lynch. "Is it easier to run in the spread? I think it's pretty easy. I think you can do a lot of things." The spread has been around in various forms for some 30 years since Mouse Davis brought it out at Portland State, but it has gained popularity recently thanks to Bellotti's friend and current Florida coach Urban Meyer after Meyer's success at Utah.
One of the things that drew Bellotti to the spread-option offense was his team's trouble with quarterback sacks -- it's easier to keep your passer upright in a spread.
Tedford, whose staff includes six who coached at Oregon -- not to mention new fund-raiser Jim Bartko -- said the offense, which spreads the defense to take advantage of the field's width, simply fits his personnel. "There are certain parts of the spread offense that match our talent very, very well, to spread the field and get some of our talent out in space," said Tedford, who plans to have running backs Lynch and Justin Forsett on the field together often. "We are not completely changing philosophies, we're just going to use some of the concepts that carry over. We're not getting into an offense where there's a lot of trial and error."
But don't try telling Oregon center Enoka Lucas that going to the spread and its shotgun formation won't involve trial and error.
"It took me a long time," Lucas said of learning the shotgun snap. "Almost like up until the first game." And there's an obstacle for Cal that Oregon did not confront: that first game.
The Golden Bears travel to Knoxville, Tenn., for a Sept. 2 season opener with Tennessee. Last year, the Ducks got to iron out their spread-option kinks against Houston and Montana before its first real test, a Week 3 game against Fresno State in Eugene. This season, the Ducks and Golden Bears meet Oct. 17 in Berkeley. By then, Cal might have smoothed its spread -- or, the spread might have been scrapped altogether. USC coach Pete Carroll isn't quite ready to believe that Cal will use the new offense -- even if it did hire the man who last season directed Northwestern to more than 500 yards of offense per game.
"We don't know that they are going to do that yet -- we'll wait and see," said Carroll, who said he doubts Cal can get much more effective. "This conference is so loaded with style and tactical approach. I don't know if it can be a whole lot more productive than it's been." But certainly the trend is toward the spread. Bellotti said he can plainly see it on the high school level, meaning more players will enter college programs with spread experience -- both running it and stopping it -- and fewer fullbacks and tight ends will be coming out of high school.
"I spoke in Texas, probably 10 or 12 years ago and watched Texas high school football, and everything in Texas high school football was two backs, a tight end and all that," Bellotti said. "I spoke a year ago in Texas, and everything was spread offense based on what they've done at the colleges there. So I see it becoming a trend at the high school level."
Washington coach Tyrone Willingham said teams only will continue to look for ways to make the forward pass more of a weapon. "Today, it's sideline to sideline," Willingham said. "And because of that, passing the football enables you to pick up huge chunks of yards with very simple passes." And one of the easiest passes will be the dump-off to Lynch, one of the team's best receivers, although that skill has been hidden. "We're going to combine these two and we should be hopefully very efficient with both," Tedford said. "It's really just an added dimension."
Defensive-minded Arizona coach Mike Stoops wasn't about to question Tedford's reasoning.
"We don't see it much in our league," Stoops said. "Who's to question? He's got a great offensive mind."
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