Spread the word
By Tom Dienhart - SportingNews

No tight end, one running back, four receivers. What would Bear Bryant and Woody Hayes think of the spread offense? The thought makes West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez laugh.

"I bet they would say, 'What do you mean run the ball out of the shotgun?' " Rodriguez says. "You'd probably have to convince them for three days."

It might take only three minutes because Rodriguez doesn't run a typical "finesse" spread -- West Virginia prefers to run rather than dink and dunk. It's like taking a Ferrari on an off-road course.

So you're thinking, Big East, big offense -- big deal. But the evidence doesn't lie: West Virginia led the Big East in rushing each of the past three years and leads it again this season. Entering the week, the Mountaineers were averaging 236.8 yards per game on the ground -- good for eighth in the nation.

West Virginia has plenty of wins to go with its stats; it has claimed a share of the past two Big East titles, and after beating Pitt on Thursday, the Mountaineers clinched at least a share of the conference title this season. The Mountaineers are 9-1 and poised to play in their first BCS bowl game; their season finale is a matchup with South Florida.

What makes this year's edition of West Virginia unique is that a redshirt freshman, Pat White, is the starting quarterback and a true freshman, Steve Slaton, is the workhorse in this one-back attack. But it all comes back to Rodriguez, who has an instructional tape on sale about running from the spread and has been dubbed "the father of the running spread."

"That and 5 cents won't get you a cup of coffee," he says. Maybe not, but his attack has attracted a lot of interest. About 40 college staffs have visited to learn about Rodriguez's version of the spread since he arrived in Morgantown in 2001. Where do you think Northwestern got the idea for its neat-o offense?

The X-factor in Rodriguez's scheme is calling runs and run reads for the quarterback from the shotgun. The offense rarely huddles and focuses on setting the tempo and tinkering to keep the defense off-balance.

"We're still spread, but sometimes we'll use two backs or some tight ends; we use a lot of different personnel groups with the same philosophy in mind," Rodriguez says.

Somewhere, Bear and Woody have to be smiling -- at least a little.

This article appeared on the website of "<a href='http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaaf/news;_ylt=AlBh40BXOAvAj_CYT3BKCCccvrYF?slug=spreadtheword&prov=tsn&type=lgns' target='_blank'>The Sporting News</a>" on November 25, 2005.

nice respect article. I am very happy for WV to have the season that they had. Especially since last years debacle. Its good to see some respect.

On a side note, yesterday during the miami/virginia game, or the floraid/Fsu game, I heard the announcers saying something about it would be preferable for a VT to get the acc bcs game because FSU and Miami were struggling, and that VT was playing the best fb.

cuseroc Wrote:nice respect article. I am very happy for WV to have the season that they had. Especially since last years debacle. Its good to see some respect.&nbsp;

On a side note,&nbsp; yesterday during the miami/virginia game, or the floraid/Fsu game,&nbsp; I heard the announcers saying something about it would be preferable for a&nbsp; VT to get the acc bcs game because FSU and Miami were struggling, and that VT was playing the best fb.

At this point, I would have to agree. I would put WVU or Louisville against any of the ACC teams including VT and have confidence in a Big East win.

Not without brohm I wouldnt...

To be honest its hard to be negative about a 1 loss team that deserves to be in the top 12...which it is.

MOUNTAINEERFAN64 Wrote:

cuseroc Wrote:nice respect article. I am very happy for WV to have the season that they had. Especially since last years debacle. Its good to see some respect. 

On a side note,  yesterday during the miami/virginia game, or the floraid/Fsu game,  I heard the announcers saying something about it would be preferable for a  VT to get the acc bcs game because FSU and Miami were struggling, and that VT was playing the best fb.

At this point, I would have to agree. I would put WVU or Louisville against any of the ACC teams including VT and have confidence in a Big East win.

Yes, I'd like to see a WVU rematch with VT. VT has lost some of its edge and WVU has a new quarterback. You'll have to remember that WVU had two critical turnovers in the first game or it would have been closer. Let's hope they can stay up for the SFU game.

Louisville is a great team. EVERYTHING had to go right in the last 8 minutes for WVU to pull out the win. SFU is pretty good but not sure how Louisville lost to them. Talk about not getting up for a game.