Thread: IAOFM - The Elways and the Spread, Part 1

If I may say so, Doc has put together a stellar history of the spread
offense, in which the Elways played a significant role. It's a
three-part series which will continue tomorrow and conclude on Friday. I
hope you'll enjoy it - Doc worked awfully hard on it, as did TJ on the
play diagrams...
- Doug

The Elways and the Spread, Part 1
Doc Bear Dec 1, 2010 12:00 PM

Note: This is the first of a three-part series on the history of the spread offense. Part 2 will appear tomorrow (Thursday), and the series will conclude on Friday with Part 3. Special thanks to TJ for providing the play diagrams that appear throughout this series.

You’ll find very few Broncos fans who would argue that John Elway wasn’t the greatest Broncos quarterback of all time. Many fans in and out of Denver have called him the greatest quarterback of all time. That’s high praise for anyone, especially a player who was once dedicated to becoming a running back. The story of how that changed, and its link to the current Broncos QB Kyle Orton, is a tale worth telling. Settle in, and I’ll set the stage for you. The full production will begin in the second section, but without the background, you won’t catch the full effect. Let’s begin in the State of Washington. In fact, let’s begin with Washington State University.

Many years ago, Coach Jack Elway was on the coaching staff of Washington State University along with a young man by the name of Joe. They became close friends, despite an 11-year age difference. When each left, Jack Elway moved south to the LA area to coach at Cal-State Northridge, and later San Diego State - along with him he took his young son, who was about to go into high school.

Joe headed north and coached the defensive line for the Calvary Stampede of the Canadian Football League before becoming its assistant GM. He would later spend a 12-year stint as head coach of an American university, where he would teach the spread formation offense. How did they each learn the spread? That, friends, is the key question, because it links together Jack and John Elway to Kyle Orton’s performance in Josh McDaniels’ version of the spread. It took a long history of great coaching minds and the willingness to change of a certain high school coach to alter the course of modern football. But, let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

There are dozens of theories, beliefs and opinions on the development of the spread formation. A couple of years back, someone published an article claiming that Urban Meyer was the architect of the approach, and that he had taught it to Bill Belichick and Josh McDaniels. It was a statement that was breathtaking in its errors and utter lack of research, but it was mostly based on a simple confusion on names. Back in 1952, a brilliant football strategist named Meyer published a book called Spread Formation Football. He was decades ahead of his time, but it was former TCU coach L.R. ‘Dutch’ Meyer, not Urban, who wrote the book on the spread.

There was also a rumor that Bill Belichick - with acolyte Josh McDaniels in tow - visited Urban Meyer over the spring of 2007, and that the team’s success later that year was dependent on them absorbing Meyer’s wisdom. Again - this is absurd. Belichick and McDaniels did make a ‘Southern Swing’ that year, visiting Urban Meyer and Nick Saban, among several others. McDaniels had worked for Saban in the past at Michigan State, while Saban had been the Cleveland Browns’ defensive coordinator under Belichick from 1991 to 1994.

There is no substance to suggest that this trip changed their basic approach to the offense, although it is true - and always will be - that coaches sit, drink beer and talk and diagram football with each other (No one else speaks their dialect), and that each year, the offense changes in degree. But, putting that on a meeting with Urban Meyer is less than realistic. They used a couple of his concepts in 2007, perhaps three or four plays out of the encyclopedic playbook, according to both McDaniels and Belichick, but that was all. The offense and defense of each team will change in degree every season, to throw new wrinkles at the opposition. There’s nothing new there.

Continued at IAOFM

Really good article.

THere is a certain poster around here that needs to read this... one that claims the knowledge of the history of McD's offense and everything about it. We should email this article to him, and let him read the series.

Originally Posted by article

I will, however, give Urban Meyer credit for one of the best football quotes I’ve ever heard - “I have yet to be in a game where luck was involved. Well-prepared players make plays. I have yet to be in a game where the most prepared team didn't win.” Talent plays a heck of a role too, but he’s dead on regarding preparation. Innovative coaches can maximize the playing level of the people that they have. They can’t turn a mule into a thoroughbred, but sometimes, through solid preparation, they can outplay one.

A good quote from teh article....

Originally Posted by Ravage!!!

THere is a certain poster around here that needs to read this... one that claims the knowledge of the history of McD's offense and everything about it. We should email this article to him, and let him read the series.

Funny, i was saying the same thing Bos...........co.

John Elway altered the course of world history and the future of mankind.



Every B R O N C O S fan knows that...........

Originally Posted by Northman

Really good article.

Thanks, Nortman. It means a lot to Doc.

Originally Posted by Ravage!!!

THere is a certain poster around here that needs to read this... one that claims the knowledge of the history of McD's offense and everything about it. We should email this article to him, and let him read the series.

I've read it. It's a good piece and there is nothing in it that really goes against anything I've ever said, but then again it doesn't really go (so far) in depth into Josh's offense, but more of the history of the old spread offenses from many decades ago.

I can only assume you're talking about his statement that Urban did not create the spread offense philosophy. That is completely true. The Football Times article (one I've posted here many times) incorrectly attributed Meyer as the architect of that offense, but even Meyer himself, in the same article said that his offense is basically a new spin on the old Wing T offense.