Climate Change In College Football Part Two
Science is settled, climate change is real in college football Part two
The theory we left you with last week (in part one of this series) proposed that the current climate change situation in college football really began years ago in 1992. When Arkansas and South Carolina first stepped onto football fields as new members of the SEC, the conference expanded, split into divisions, and brought about the first true championship game in college football. Since that year leading up until 2023 and beyond, multiple college conferences have dissolved, expanded, contracted, or merged while a newer system for determining the college football national champion was installed then changed twice. Looking back over the past thirty years, it is evident that the climate of college football has indeed radically changed. And it is completely manufactured.
Speaking of 1992, the climate of football was beginning to change on the field too. A young, brash, confident, and sometimes cocky coach had entered the SEC to revolutionize the way the game was played. Until then, from the invention of the game one hundred years earlier up to the early nineties, college football was dominated in play with two theories. One, you must run the football offensively and even better if it is “three yards and a cloud of dust.” Two, the defense won the championships. The theory held true even in 1992 when one of the best defenses in the history of college football lead by a pounding run game brought home Alabama another national championship. But that style of play would not dominate much longer, and Steve Spurrier at The University of Florida would have something to say about the future of how football was played.
The first time Steve Spurrier broke my heart was in 1990. Auburn visited a fiery Florida team in Gainesville at The Swamp on a late fall Saturday night. Several teams that day ranked ahead of Auburn had been beaten, and had the Tigers won, they could have potentially been ranked number one in the polls the next day. But a new type of offense called “The Fun ‘N Gun” would destroy any hopes of that with Florida winning 48-7. The game would do more than that though. It would establish Steve Spurrier and Florida as one of the top teams in The SEC for the decade moving forward, and it would be the beginning of the end for legendary Auburn coach Pat Dye. Out with the old legend, and in with the new one.
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-11-04-sp-5319-story.html
This game is also one of the demarcation points for change in college football history. A few offenses previously at schools like Houston and BYU had tried a more “pass happy” offensively wide-open attack to win games. Both schools had success but nobody until Spurrier had profoundly changed the game on the field since the invention of a new running attack called “The Wishbone” in the sixties. Young coaches nationwide noticed the success by modeling new offense theories even down to the high school level. Some of the coaches like previous Auburn Head Coach Gus Malzahn even adopted the golf visor look as gameday attire like Coach Spurrier. A new age had been born in college football. High octane offenses would slowly but surely begin to dominate the game. Terms like “hurry up,” “no huddle,” “spread” and “five wide” once regulated to irrelevant teams out west would matriculate into the mainstream vernacular. The culmination of this change was on full display last year 2022 on The Third Saturday in October when Alabama travelled to face off against its annual rival The University of Tennessee. Final Score in that game, UT 52, UA 49. In 1992 Alabama won at Tennessee 17-10.
There would be more innovators that along the way would build on Steve Spurrier’s success in dominating teams offensively. Coaches like The Pirate Mike Leach, Hal Mumme, Rich Rodriquez, Urban Meyer, and other ancestors would set the foundation for successful offensive minds currently in college football like Lane Kiffin, Josh Heupel, Steve Sarkisian and Hugh Freeze. Caught in the middle now are old school defensive coaches like Nick Saban who either, like Saban, adapt or get run out of town on a rail embarrassingly beaten 52-10. Looking over the current climate on the field in college football would make Bear Bryant roll over in his grave. Defensives are limited by the rules on physicality even now with rules such as “targeting.” The offensive pace of play makes defenses strain to the max and eventually break to the tune of over forty points regularly given up, and hundreds more yards per game than thirty years ago posted in the box score. Is it enough to make people wonder if defense is dead in college football in 2023?
Well, perhaps climate change in college football is not that extreme. Considering the circumstance though, like Nick Saban giving up 32 to LSU last year and Gene Stallings giving up 11 to LSU in 1992, it does make you wonder what happens next? Coordinators these days still look for “three and outs,” still look to pressure the QB, still look for turnovers and they better be coaching their defenders to make turnovers into scores with a “pick six” or “scoop and score.” Nevertheless, very few teams outside of Georgia, the defending two-time national champion, have been able to project any defense into championship runs lately. That said, in the two previous championship games, UGA scored 33 against Alabama in 2022 while going for 65 versus TCU in 2023 for an average of 49 in each game. That is a lot of points.
It is tough to say what happens next on the field regarding collegiate football. Quarterbacks have become more athletic over time keeping defenders on edge by moving the chains with both their arm and their legs. Teams rotate fresh bodies continually with pace at the running back position with a never ending stable of dynamic ball rushers. Wide receivers come in all shapes in sizes from scat to towering, and so do tight ends. A position once used in college football as an extra offensive lineman for run blocking, multiple tight end sets are frequently inserted into games regularly for passing. Not to be outdone with the climate change, several modern college offensive concepts are working their way up to the NFL for use instead of historically trickling down. Once again both on and off the field, accelerated climate change in college football is and has been real for thirty years now. Fact. End of discussion. Scientific law. King’s X.
https://www.radiofreeauburn.com/merch/p/not-today-saban-the-shirt
Stay tuned of Part Three next week