Post by airitout616 on Dec 23, 2007 23:56:19 GMT -6
Rodriguez' spread offense: From the beginning to now
by Jim Carty | The Ann Arbor News
Sunday December 23, 2007, 7:56 AM
It's been 16 years since Jed Drenning followed Rich Rodriguez from West Virginia, where he was a backup quarterback, to Glenville State College, where he convinced the new University of Michigan football coach to make the shotgun snap a key part of a spread offense that would come to be Rodriguez's signature.
Drenning, 37, now works as a pharmaceutical rep, but has remained close to Rodriguez as the coach climbed college football's career ladder. Soon after accepting the Michigan job on Sunday, Rodriguez was on the phone with Drenning, seeking his opinion on how Michigan's talent would fit the new spread offense.
Like many West Virginia fans, Drenning has seen almost all of Rodriguez's best moments with the Mountaineers - the 2006 Sugar Bowl victory over Georgia, this year's run to the No. 2 ranking before being upset by Pittsburgh - but he's one of the few witnesses to the struggles as the coach's unique spread offense was being invented.
Those struggles included being sacked 20 times by West Virginia State in 1991.
Even then, Drenning insists, you could see the potential if the offense ever really clicked, and soon it did.
This week Drenning agreed to share with The News his insights into Rodriguez, the offense, and how both will fit in at Michigan.
Q: Was there a "eureka'' moment at Glenville when Rodriguez's first experiment with the spread clicked and you knew it would work?
A: Absolutely. The turning point was a game against Wingate College, out of North Carolina, who - in 1990, Rich's first year there - Wingate beat Glenville, 63-0.
Well, the following year, in 1991, Wingate was coming to town somewhere in the top five teams in the country.
When you run the run-and-shoot, there's a lot of very complicated footwork. By the time you hit the third step, you've made three or four reads, and it was really tough. I kept telling Rich, "Put in the shotgun, make my life easy.''
So, after the West Liberty game ... he said, "This is going to be the week. If we go in the gun, how often you want to be back there?'' I said I'll run the clock out back there if you let me. We went into the shotgun, and we ended up racking up 500 or 600 yards of total offense and losing on a botched field goal at the end.
So we went from a 63-0 disaster the year prior to coming within one play of knocking off the second- or third-ranked team in the country. From that point on - that was about the midpoint of the '91 season - from that point on, it really, really took off. I think the last half of the year we averaged 500 or 600 yards per game.
We've been in the shotgun pretty much ever since that week, predominantly.
Q: How has the offense developed over time?
A: It's kind of a living, breathing thing. When we first installed it in 1991, it was old school, Mouse Davis run-and-shoot, but it had a lot of shortcomings. We didn't have any sight-adjustments or man-adjustments built in. Our pass protection scheme had a lot of problems with it. Rich rectified some of those things during the season - but that off-season proved to be the first of many off-seasons since where he sat down and really took a look and did a self-scout and said, "How can I improve this?'' He's done it every year and continues to do it, because what he recognizes is the teams I'm playing against are going to change things, and going to change how they play me, so I better do it, too, to stay alive and keep moving forward.
It's the same system, but then again, it's not. The analogy I like to use is if you speak the language, there's a whole lot of new words in it each year.
Q: How is the Rodriguez spread different from what Texas did with Vince Young, or what Ohio State did with Troy Smith?
A: The biggest difference is, this offense was built for the spread, and then (added) everything else on it. Those other offenses were built from a more conventional or traditional system and added the spread. It's all about foundation, you know? That's what it comes down to. Every offense in the country has four-wide packages, but that doesn't make you a spread team.
The difference is in mind-set. The offense itself is perfectly in keeping with Rich's mind-set, and that's a very aggressive one.
Q: What would you say to skeptics who believe you have to play a bruising, ground-oriented style of football to succeed in the Big Ten?
A: I think that's part of the reason it's going to work. The Big Ten has incredibly talented football players, but there is a certain style you see in the Big Ten, and ... for the most part, stylistically, it's kind of a brutish approach built for the cold. Teams have had success doing those things, so it stands to reason people would stand back from the outside and (be skeptical).
I can understand why anyone would suggest (a spread might struggle). They've seen the teams in the Big Ten traditionally win the conference, your Ohio States, your Michigans, your Penn States, don't do these things - four wides, shotgun, no huddle. It's different. But, that being said, in some respects it might make it ultimately more difficult to defend.
Q: After playing under Rodriguez, did you leave believe he'd become a big-time college coach?
A: There was no doubt about it. I don't think anybody around him ever questioned that.
Q: Why not?
A: Just knowing the guy, and being a part of what he accomplished there. There are certain people you're around that you just can't imagine failing. He's one of those guys, he really is. I don't know that a lot's changed in terms of the key points that make Rich what he is.
There's a lot of fire in his stomach. He's a guy to get behind. He has, really, an infectious attitude. He really gets you fired up. You recognized pretty early on that this was a guy who was going to have a lot of success and you wanted to be a part of it. You get the sense when you're around him that he wants to strap it on and go against the other head coach. He's that kind of guy. As a player, you respect that, and there's a lot to be said for that.
He's a guy who's willing to try things that are different. He's not a conformist by any stretch of the imagination. He's going to try what he thinks he needs to do to win, and if that's not a popular notion, or it's not a mainstream idea, it's not going to stop him.
You could see that back then.
Q: How hard is it for you, as a West Virginian and his friend, to see him leave?
A: Oh, it's tough. It's tough. He called me Sunday night asking how I thought Michigan's personnel would fit to our system, and the corpse was still warm. I kind of joked with him about it, but the way I was feeling, it was almost like asking how my wife looks with the plumber's arm around her.
It's hard, but it is what it is. That's the profession. I'm a guy who ... you know, people ask how do you feel? Well, I feel like I just had half a dozen good friends move. How would anybody feel? That's what I feel, but I'm happy for him.
People have tried to simplify something that really doesn't lend itself to simplicity. This was a complex situation. There's a lot of variables at play, a lot of forces that made this happen. It wasn't an easy decision on any level. But this is Michigan. That's why he's there, you know? It doesn't get much better than that. If you're head coach of the Dallas Cowboys and Michigan calls, you hear them out. It's just one of those jobs.
Q: What advice would you have for Michigan's players?
A: You've never worked harder than you're about to work, and you've never had more fun than you're about to have.
Read more from Jim Carty at blog.mlive.com/jim_carty. He can be reached at 734-994-6815 or jcarty@annarbornews.com.
www.mlive.com/wolverines/index.ssf/2007/12/a_friends_insight_on_rodriguez.html
by Jim Carty | The Ann Arbor News
Sunday December 23, 2007, 7:56 AM
It's been 16 years since Jed Drenning followed Rich Rodriguez from West Virginia, where he was a backup quarterback, to Glenville State College, where he convinced the new University of Michigan football coach to make the shotgun snap a key part of a spread offense that would come to be Rodriguez's signature.
Drenning, 37, now works as a pharmaceutical rep, but has remained close to Rodriguez as the coach climbed college football's career ladder. Soon after accepting the Michigan job on Sunday, Rodriguez was on the phone with Drenning, seeking his opinion on how Michigan's talent would fit the new spread offense.
Like many West Virginia fans, Drenning has seen almost all of Rodriguez's best moments with the Mountaineers - the 2006 Sugar Bowl victory over Georgia, this year's run to the No. 2 ranking before being upset by Pittsburgh - but he's one of the few witnesses to the struggles as the coach's unique spread offense was being invented.
Those struggles included being sacked 20 times by West Virginia State in 1991.
Even then, Drenning insists, you could see the potential if the offense ever really clicked, and soon it did.
This week Drenning agreed to share with The News his insights into Rodriguez, the offense, and how both will fit in at Michigan.
Q: Was there a "eureka'' moment at Glenville when Rodriguez's first experiment with the spread clicked and you knew it would work?
A: Absolutely. The turning point was a game against Wingate College, out of North Carolina, who - in 1990, Rich's first year there - Wingate beat Glenville, 63-0.
Well, the following year, in 1991, Wingate was coming to town somewhere in the top five teams in the country.
When you run the run-and-shoot, there's a lot of very complicated footwork. By the time you hit the third step, you've made three or four reads, and it was really tough. I kept telling Rich, "Put in the shotgun, make my life easy.''
So, after the West Liberty game ... he said, "This is going to be the week. If we go in the gun, how often you want to be back there?'' I said I'll run the clock out back there if you let me. We went into the shotgun, and we ended up racking up 500 or 600 yards of total offense and losing on a botched field goal at the end.
So we went from a 63-0 disaster the year prior to coming within one play of knocking off the second- or third-ranked team in the country. From that point on - that was about the midpoint of the '91 season - from that point on, it really, really took off. I think the last half of the year we averaged 500 or 600 yards per game.
We've been in the shotgun pretty much ever since that week, predominantly.
Q: How has the offense developed over time?
A: It's kind of a living, breathing thing. When we first installed it in 1991, it was old school, Mouse Davis run-and-shoot, but it had a lot of shortcomings. We didn't have any sight-adjustments or man-adjustments built in. Our pass protection scheme had a lot of problems with it. Rich rectified some of those things during the season - but that off-season proved to be the first of many off-seasons since where he sat down and really took a look and did a self-scout and said, "How can I improve this?'' He's done it every year and continues to do it, because what he recognizes is the teams I'm playing against are going to change things, and going to change how they play me, so I better do it, too, to stay alive and keep moving forward.
It's the same system, but then again, it's not. The analogy I like to use is if you speak the language, there's a whole lot of new words in it each year.
Q: How is the Rodriguez spread different from what Texas did with Vince Young, or what Ohio State did with Troy Smith?
A: The biggest difference is, this offense was built for the spread, and then (added) everything else on it. Those other offenses were built from a more conventional or traditional system and added the spread. It's all about foundation, you know? That's what it comes down to. Every offense in the country has four-wide packages, but that doesn't make you a spread team.
The difference is in mind-set. The offense itself is perfectly in keeping with Rich's mind-set, and that's a very aggressive one.
Q: What would you say to skeptics who believe you have to play a bruising, ground-oriented style of football to succeed in the Big Ten?
A: I think that's part of the reason it's going to work. The Big Ten has incredibly talented football players, but there is a certain style you see in the Big Ten, and ... for the most part, stylistically, it's kind of a brutish approach built for the cold. Teams have had success doing those things, so it stands to reason people would stand back from the outside and (be skeptical).
I can understand why anyone would suggest (a spread might struggle). They've seen the teams in the Big Ten traditionally win the conference, your Ohio States, your Michigans, your Penn States, don't do these things - four wides, shotgun, no huddle. It's different. But, that being said, in some respects it might make it ultimately more difficult to defend.
Q: After playing under Rodriguez, did you leave believe he'd become a big-time college coach?
A: There was no doubt about it. I don't think anybody around him ever questioned that.
Q: Why not?
A: Just knowing the guy, and being a part of what he accomplished there. There are certain people you're around that you just can't imagine failing. He's one of those guys, he really is. I don't know that a lot's changed in terms of the key points that make Rich what he is.
There's a lot of fire in his stomach. He's a guy to get behind. He has, really, an infectious attitude. He really gets you fired up. You recognized pretty early on that this was a guy who was going to have a lot of success and you wanted to be a part of it. You get the sense when you're around him that he wants to strap it on and go against the other head coach. He's that kind of guy. As a player, you respect that, and there's a lot to be said for that.
He's a guy who's willing to try things that are different. He's not a conformist by any stretch of the imagination. He's going to try what he thinks he needs to do to win, and if that's not a popular notion, or it's not a mainstream idea, it's not going to stop him.
You could see that back then.
Q: How hard is it for you, as a West Virginian and his friend, to see him leave?
A: Oh, it's tough. It's tough. He called me Sunday night asking how I thought Michigan's personnel would fit to our system, and the corpse was still warm. I kind of joked with him about it, but the way I was feeling, it was almost like asking how my wife looks with the plumber's arm around her.
It's hard, but it is what it is. That's the profession. I'm a guy who ... you know, people ask how do you feel? Well, I feel like I just had half a dozen good friends move. How would anybody feel? That's what I feel, but I'm happy for him.
People have tried to simplify something that really doesn't lend itself to simplicity. This was a complex situation. There's a lot of variables at play, a lot of forces that made this happen. It wasn't an easy decision on any level. But this is Michigan. That's why he's there, you know? It doesn't get much better than that. If you're head coach of the Dallas Cowboys and Michigan calls, you hear them out. It's just one of those jobs.
Q: What advice would you have for Michigan's players?
A: You've never worked harder than you're about to work, and you've never had more fun than you're about to have.
Read more from Jim Carty at blog.mlive.com/jim_carty. He can be reached at 734-994-6815 or jcarty@annarbornews.com.
www.mlive.com/wolverines/index.ssf/2007/12/a_friends_insight_on_rodriguez.html
