[cctop]

I am a little surprised no one has commented lately on the way we give away our plays by our formation.

I've been meaning to post on this topic.

This year I attended the USC game in the Coliseum, where I sat next to a fascinating 85-year-old USC fan.  He had been recruited by Chuck Taylor to play football for Stanford, but his mother wouldn't let him go so instead he went to Claremont.

When Stanford was on offense he called out who we were subbing into the game, and based on that he predicted whether the play was going to be a run or a pass with maybe 80% success rate.

I don't know enough about football to say whether that's significant.  Maybe the 20% where we didn't do the obvious thing are where the big plays happen.  Maybe lots of teams rely on a small set of simple plays executed well (looking at you, Oregon, with the read option). In any event I don't think misdirection has ever been a big part Shaw's offense, especially in our successful years where our O-line was dominant.

[cctop]

I am a little surprised no one has commented lately on the way we give away our plays by our formation.

I've been meaning to post on this topic.

This year I attended the USC game in the Coliseum, where I sat next to a fascinating 85-year-old USC fan.  He had been recruited by Chuck Taylor to play football for Stanford, but his mother wouldn't let him go so instead he went to Claremont.

When Stanford was on offense he called out who we were subbing into the game, and based on that he predicted whether the play was going to be a run or a pass with maybe 80% success rate.

I don't know enough about football to say whether that's significant.  Maybe the 20% where we didn't do the obvious thing are where the big plays happen.  Maybe lots of teams rely on a small set of simple plays executed well (looking at you, Oregon, with the read option). In any event I don't think misdirection has ever been a big part Shaw's offense, especially in our successful years where our O-line was dominant.