EmeraldIngot
Five-Star Recruit
The West Coast Offense, like pretty much any offense these days, is more about a philosophy of attacking the defense. Its primarily seen as a 'dink and dunk' or 'Nicole and dime' kind of offense, mostly short quick passes, screens, bubbles, slants, in and out routes, but also some smash and levels concepts, all focused on stretching the defense horizontally. Its where the term 'spread' originally came from, because it spreads the defensive secondaries out, which opens holes in zone coverage, and the sharp cuts in the pass routes allow receivers to get open against man.
Now, something that everyone needs to understand is that literally EVERY offense has run some elements of the WCO since 1990. Yes, even Tom Osborne ran some of the same pass patterns. Because it was so effective against the defenses of the time. The pure WCO still works, but less so than it used to because defenses have adjusted to counter it. 409 had a scheme that was murder to the pure WCO.
Now, the high flying offenses of Baylor, Oregon, tOSU, Auburn and so many others use elements of the WCO to spread defenses horizontally, and elements of the Air Coryell system to stretch them vertically, all in the same play. The blending of the two combined with a zone running offense and some read option and some speed option have become the current trend in high octane offenses, and its very effective because defenses have to literally account for everything every play. From sideline to sideline and from the LOS to the end zone has to be accounted for.
Now that your understand that, think about this: HCMR has run elements of all of this (save for zone read and other option attacks) all through his college career. He has run deep attack systems when he had a QB with a strong arm. He has run a zone based running attack when he had a shifty RB. He has run a dink and dunk WCO when he had a quick, accurate passer (most recently, Sean Mannion) He can combine wrinkles like jet sweeps, middle screens, bubble screens, tunnel screens, and play action passes as needed to counter whatever a defense is doing. All he needs to do it is blend in some read option (which, according to some early interviews and what I saw in the spring game makes me think he already has) and we have the potential for an offense that will look more like a spread option attack like Oregon, like Ohio State, like Baylor and Auburns and so on. While Tommy needs more polishing on his short routes for certain, this new staff will build him up and adjust the playbook to what Tommy does best. We have the RBs to run zone well, we have DPE and others on jet sweeps, we have Carter for pass routes both short and long, we have other TEs and FBs for blocking and short yardage packages... This year, I believe, is shaping up to be something special, with the only worry I have being the OL due to inexperience. All the pieces are there. The staff and players just have to put it together, crank the ignition, and roar to an 11-1 regular season.
Now, something that everyone needs to understand is that literally EVERY offense has run some elements of the WCO since 1990. Yes, even Tom Osborne ran some of the same pass patterns. Because it was so effective against the defenses of the time. The pure WCO still works, but less so than it used to because defenses have adjusted to counter it. 409 had a scheme that was murder to the pure WCO.
Now, the high flying offenses of Baylor, Oregon, tOSU, Auburn and so many others use elements of the WCO to spread defenses horizontally, and elements of the Air Coryell system to stretch them vertically, all in the same play. The blending of the two combined with a zone running offense and some read option and some speed option have become the current trend in high octane offenses, and its very effective because defenses have to literally account for everything every play. From sideline to sideline and from the LOS to the end zone has to be accounted for.
Now that your understand that, think about this: HCMR has run elements of all of this (save for zone read and other option attacks) all through his college career. He has run deep attack systems when he had a QB with a strong arm. He has run a zone based running attack when he had a shifty RB. He has run a dink and dunk WCO when he had a quick, accurate passer (most recently, Sean Mannion) He can combine wrinkles like jet sweeps, middle screens, bubble screens, tunnel screens, and play action passes as needed to counter whatever a defense is doing. All he needs to do it is blend in some read option (which, according to some early interviews and what I saw in the spring game makes me think he already has) and we have the potential for an offense that will look more like a spread option attack like Oregon, like Ohio State, like Baylor and Auburns and so on. While Tommy needs more polishing on his short routes for certain, this new staff will build him up and adjust the playbook to what Tommy does best. We have the RBs to run zone well, we have DPE and others on jet sweeps, we have Carter for pass routes both short and long, we have other TEs and FBs for blocking and short yardage packages... This year, I believe, is shaping up to be something special, with the only worry I have being the OL due to inexperience. All the pieces are there. The staff and players just have to put it together, crank the ignition, and roar to an 11-1 regular season.
