Pro-Style Offense

So, I'm on the couch in the family room watching the Boston College game, something I suspect many BG fans are doing today.  One thing I think people are watching for is to see the Loeffler offense.

What you are seeing is a pro-style offense.  If you have been watching, you've seen the formations entailed in that.  BC has been under center and they have generally be in a 12 or 22 personnel group.  Just as far as that goes, I think it has been pretty rare for BG to be in a 22 since Clawson was here and that's even partly true of a 12.

I found a couple articles about the offense.  First, here's one about the pro-style challenging the spread for popularity and here's one from a Virginia Tech blogger extolling the virtues of the offense Loeffler himself was installing.

A few things to note.

• The pro-style is designed to be a balanced attack.  You balance run and pass and there are a lot of play-action passes, as opposed to a reliance on RPOs.
• The offense uses TEs and a lot of them.  That's why the Joey Carroll signing was so important, because BG went to a Babers offense where you literally need no TEs to this one, where you might have 3 on the field on certain plays.
• Coach Loeffler has talked about how you can challenge the defense with different formations out of the same personnel group.  For example, you might be in 12, but split one or two of the TEs out and make them into slot receivers.  The defense can put a set of players onto the field for a specific personnel, but they don't know the formation and it can create match-up issues.
• The offense also requires a line to be equally adept at both run and pass blocking, and if there's one part of the team that might have adjustment issues, that could be it.
• Also, switching to being under certain can be an issue for a QB.  It is more different than you might think.

Who plays this attack?  Michigan.  Texas A&M.  Stanford.  Boston College.  Virginia Tech.  Georgia.  Alabama.

There are people who aren't crazy about a pro-style attack.  They feel it doesn't take advantage of the full field, can get sluggish and also be less effective when you are behind.  You certainly hear criticism of the Michigan offense, for example, for being rigid and undynamic. 

It pretty much has to be paired with a good defense.  Because it is more time-consuming than spreads, it can pair well with a bend but don't break defense. 

One last thing.  Obviously, you will see spread techniques in a pro-offense.  More importantly, you can play with pace from any formation and attack.  So, to the extent that you are capitalizing on a matchup, it is possible to force the defense to keep the same personnel and yet vary the attack.

I have often said that my favorite kind of football is the one where we have more points when the game ends.  Clawfense, spread, pro-style, Baylor...doesn't matter to me.  I think pro-style could be a good fit here for a couple reasons.  First, it transports well to November.  Also, it might fit the type of ball played by Ohio and Pennsylvania HS kids.  It is more of a power offense, which should help in the red zone and when killing clock at the end of the game.

In the end, you have to get the ball to your players in space, and that is true of all offense.

Well, they're in a weather delay now in Dallas.