By William Qualkinbush.
By William Qualkinbush.
Over the next two days, we will be examining ten big-picture trends to watch during the upcoming college football season. These trends will impact the way the game is played and organized in 2014 and beyond. Today, we begin with the first part of the series.
1. #tempo
It’s the newest fad sweeping the nation. Tempo (or “#tempo”, as Chad Morris’ Twitter followers know it) is all the rage in college football. The hurry-up no-huddle execution of offense is perhaps the defining characteristic of this era of the game.
At this point, the question isn’t whether or not a program is utilizing HUNH principles. It’s how much and when, and with which personnel groupings. This is true everywhere but Tuscaloosa, where Nick Saban spent an entire offseason attempting to figure out how to lessen the effects of the evil spread offense.
If that’s not enough proof of its validity and impact, I don’t know what is.
Believe it or not, the “#tempo” approach to offense is about to get even more prominent. Several new coaching staffs at a variety of programs across the country are transitioning from more antiquated philosophies of offense to the HUNH spread. This is sure to delight fans of rapid-fire action, as the average time between plays might be even shorter than normal this season.
2. Long Games
This seems to go completely against the “#tempo” movement, but it’s a real thing. Games are taking forever now.
Over the past five seasons, the average length of a televised game has risen nine minutes—from 3:09 in 2009 to 3:18 in 2013. This may not seem like much until you realize the reforms that have taken place to allegedly curtail this rise.
The new play clock rules were designed to keep action moving and cut down on stoppages. Faster play and a greater emphasis on snapping the ball quicker means, in theory, less time is wasted between plays when the clock is stopped.
Based on this, one might surmise the average game time would go down. But there are other factors pushing game times upward.
Instant replay is one of them. As replay expands, more and more plays are reviewed for a longer list of reasons—both by booth review and by coach’s challenge. Officials are also embarrassingly slow to make calls, a phenomenon that is plaguing athletics in general due to a reliance on technology to make correct calls.
So, in 2014, expect the action to be quicker and the games to be longer. If that makes your head hurt, join the club.
3. Instant Gratification
This gets worse every year. It’s directly related to the way society can’t see anything before or after today.
Jameis Winston, enjoy your time in the limelight. We won’t forget about you, but we won’t be satisfied with you either. I’m convinced Winston won the Heisman largely because college football nation got bored with the idea of just Johnny Manziel. Manziel is never boring, and Winston won’t be either, but we just need something else.
Here’s a bold prediction: Even if Winston duplicates his 2013 season in both substance and statistics, he won’t be the obvious frontrunner. We need something new to hold our attention, which means anointing a new up-and-coming player and team at the moment the games commence.
4. More DBs
I recognized the blend in the back seven of the defense reading one of the plethora of preseason magazines at our disposal. This particular one had Travis Blanks listed as a starting linebacker on Clemson’s defense.
Now, I love Travis Blanks. I’m a fan of him as a person. He’s a friend of mine, and I don’t fraternize often with athletes. I’ve legitimately never met a more mature and polished college student than Travis Blanks.
But Travis Blanks is simply not a linebacker. He’s a safety playing in the box, or maybe a nickel cornerback.
I’m sure he could be if he bulked up considerably, but no one worth anything in and around the game would call him a linebacker. The identifier is more of an indication that the line between strongside linebacker and nickel back has never been blurrier.
This is a subject for another blog, but teams rarely run a traditional 4-3 in today’s defensive culture. Quickly, we are seeing the 4-2-5 (or some other variation) become the default alignment for coaches who like to play with an even number of down linemen. When I was a kid, that particular defense used to be the choice of coaches who were about to be fired (although Joe Lee Dunn would dispute that notion). Now it’s the best way to counter the spread offenses of the day.
5. Neutral Sites
Apparently Arlington, Texas is now the mecca of college football. At least, that’s what the schedule tells me.
Two games of magnitude (Oklahoma State-Florida State, UCLA-Texas) will be played there before the middle of September. Places like Houston, Atlanta, and even Dublin, Ireland have gotten into the game by hosting early-season noncon showdowns.
These things are cyclical, and this is a good cycle. Years ago, Nebraska used to play in these kickoff classic things on an annual basis, sometimes even ahead of the rest of the country. Then, they all went away, and now they’re back.
Enjoy them while they last, and come back tomorrow for the rest of the list.
God Bless!
WQ