It's not nice to tease your fans, coach Kiffin.
Last year, as the Trojans struggled to an uncharacteristic 8-5 season, the first-year coach mentioned that perhaps he would look at the possibility of installing a version of the spread offense that was sweeping the landscape of college football.
Now, it should be understood, this type of offense would not take the place of USC's pro-style sets, but rather, would act as a sort of a change of pace, called on only occasionally when needed.
It made sense to fans of the program; after all, USC was blessed with a bevy of skill players, ranging from a slew of talented receivers to myriad of exciting running backs. Shoot, they even had a tailback, Dillon Baxter, who set records as a quarterback while playing his prep ball in San Diego. So the pieces were there for Kiffin, should he want to go the "mad scientist" route with the offense.
There were other advantages also to installing a modified spread.
With the Trojans revamping their offensive line, the spread would allow his guys in the trenches to be a little less crisp with their blocks because the spread doesn't require them to hold them as long.
In terms of justifying the spread: so far, so good.
But there was one more benefit to installing a spread and this one had nothing to do with the offense.
Last year (and the year before), the Trojans had a bit of difficulty dealing with a certain Pacific Northwest team that quacks while they attack. More to the point, Oregon simply had their way with the cardinal and gold. Guess which kind of offense the Ducks run? That's right, a spread.
But they are not the only team in the new Pac-12 that runs that offense. Several others, including Arizona, runs a spread at least some of the time. Here's the problem.
If you don't practice defense against the spread, how do you defend it when you play a team that employs it?
Coach Kiffin admitted as much when he said, “We run a ‘normal’ offense, and everybody else runs these other offenses." He went on, “More than ever, we have to start moving toward (scout) teams and other offenses."
In the article by Michael Lev of the Orange County Register, Kiffin went even further: “Our defense really suffers by it. They waste a lot of camp time. They fit all these runs and all these things that we do, then everybody else comes in here and spreads you out. We’ve got to move in that direction.”
Makes sense to me, coach. So what's the deal? Where is that spread?
Perhaps Kiffin will tinker with it during the last week of camp, but probably not.
Even if he does, will there be time to effectively run it in real games and, perhaps even more importantly, be able to defend against it when they travel north to Autzen Stadium to play the Ducks?
Chances are that it is unlikely.
For the time being, Trojan fans will have to be secure in their knowledge that their coach knows what's best for the team.
But if he is wrong, fans' thoughts will wander back to 2010 when their coach teased them with musings of running, at least occasionally, an offense that has a plenty of benefits to offer.
And wonder why their coach didn't go with his notion of installing the spread at least some of the time.
Lamar Odom Baron Davis Blake Griffin Chris Bosh Mario Chalmers Dwayne Wade
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