A Return to the Power Running Game

I had the chance tonight to call into Adam Nettina's radio show. At some point during my conversation with Adam I mentioned that I felt like college football was setting itself up for a return to the power running game.

College football teams across the nation are continuing to move to the spread offense. Michigan, a school that had hired within for nearly 40 years, finally got on board with the hiring of Rich Rodriguez. Several Big 12 schools, including Missouri, Kansas, and Texas have run the spread as this past season the offenses tore the defenses to shreds.

Defenses will catch up to the spread, as teams change the types of players being recruited on defense. Defensive coordinators are always looking for more speed, but you're not going to find a lot of players who can have the speed necessary to defend the spread without downsizing in the defensive end or outside linebacker position.

Ultimately, a downsizing in the defense will lead us right back to where we came from - the power running game. As Husker fans, we're all familiar with the idea of pounding the ball at another team's defense until they've been worn down in the second half. There is no reason as to why this cannot work again as college football continues to evolve/devolve.

This is no way means that Nebraska will return to running the option or a wishbone offense. It does mean that the door may be open for teams who can execute multiple offenses to excel at a very high level. We saw evidence of the future of Nebraska's offense against Colorado this past season. It included facets of the spread as well as the "old-fashioned" I formation. Expect to see a lot of both this coming season.

It may lead to lower scoring games than we've become accustomed to seeing the past couple of years, but who would call this year's Super Bowl a boring game?