Are African American College QBs Being Properly Prepared to be NFL QBs? Or....

[Yavin4]

are colleges just using their speed in spread offenses?

I was watching John Gruden's interview with former Auburn QB, Cam Newton, and Gruden asked him to name a complex verbal play that they ran at Auburn. Newton was silent. They never ran plays that were extremely verbal at Auburn. Their plays were very basic. If receivers were covered, Newton just ran with the ball.

Newton's Auburn system is the antithesis of what happens in the NFL. In the NFL, when the OB calls the play, they have to relay the play, the option routes for the receivers, the blocking schemes, and sometimes even more. In addition, the QB may to audible out of the play and call something else entirely. Gruden likened it to learning an entirely new language.

Their exchange got me to thinking. Are African American QBs being properly prepared to be NFL QBs? Are they learning the skills that it takes to be a successful NFL QB? Are they running complex offenses? Are they required to learn complex plays? Are they learning to read coverages and change plays on the fly? Or, do they mostly line up in a spread offense, look for open receivers, and if no one is open, just take off down the field.

Why aren't African American QBs, like Newton, being properly prepared to be NFL QBs? Is this an example of subtle racism?

[TZ]

1. Newton was only at Auburn for ONE YEAR

I don't care what anyone says that's not nearly long enough to learn any kind of complex offense.
There are many successfull black QB's in the NFl that stayed in programs long enough to learn that kind of stuff.
Its not racism because the same thing can be seen with white QB's...At least at Maryland that was the case, the longer they were in school the better prepared they were to learn the complex offenses of the NFL.
Also, I'm not sure Cam Newton is all that smart either.Gifted physically yes, but other wise..shrug.

[Auggie]

2. Alex Smith and Tim Tebow played under spread systems

Can't be a race issue

[Yavin4]

3. Granted. Now Name An African American College QB...

that plays in a non-spread offense, pro style system.

[JonLP24]

4. Hard to think of teams that run a pro style

Stanford, USC(do they still run it with Kiffin? I'd think so), possibly Georgia, Arizona State, and??? BYU runs a west coast so I think you can count them.

I was going to say Notre Dame but they hired that Cincinnati coach that ran the spread while at Cincy.

[Auggie]

5. Thanks...

I couldn't answer Yavin4's question because college ball isn't my thing. But I'm going to surmise the spread is popular at the college level because it's easier to coach.

More on the spread offense from ESPN yesterday:

"...48 teams (40 percent of the FBS) ran a version of the spread as their primary offense in 2009. That is a drastic increase from a decade prior. There are many versions of the spread in today's college game (Missouri, Florida and Nevada all run a different version of the spread), but these offenses share many similarities.

Good link: http://m.espn.go.com/nfl/story?storyId=6355471&hcId=6102038&topId=null&y=1aksn

[JonLP24]

6. I agree it's probably simpler

but I think the #1 reason the spread is popular is because the hash marks are wide. Compare a college field to a NFL field and you'll see the difference. In college you could have the ball on the left side of the field and the entire right side can be used to run receiver routes and screens. In the NFL, the hash marks are closer together in the middle so all plays start from the middle of the field. I think that is the big reason the spread isn't common in the NFL.

On edit-Also players are much faster on defense in the NFL so a lot of the gimmick stuff you see from spreads won't translate over.

[fishwax]

7. good point -- also I think the talent disparity/potential for mismatch is a factor

The difference between an NFL defense's best starting DB and their weakest starting DB is not likely as great as the difference in a college team, where you can have guys with pro potential playing alongside guys who are only a few games out of high school. And NFL teams have the talent at other positions to be flexible (linebackers who can cover an extra receiver instead of having to counter with a 5th or 6th DB, thus increasing the potential for mismatches both in the passing game and on the ground).

[Awsi Dooger]

8. The spread is a lazy offense preferred by lazy coaches

Instead of sophisticated reads or physically displacing huge linemen, you terrorize with numbers and angles and speed and false influence. The only reason it succeeds at high level is many coaches finally figured out the rushes had to be high, in the 40+ range per game, as opposed to nitwits like Mike Leach who tried to pretend every play could be a finesse pass. But they are flash rushes, for the most part, not power.

Obviously a special player like Newton or Young or Pryor makes the spread or zone read extra difficult to defend. But that only serves to allow programs who have no business running the spread to decide it was the scheme and not the personnel. Hence, you get finesse frailty everywhere, not unlike two college basketball teams chucking 25+ three pointers apiece.

A college game featuring two spread offenses is basically unwatchable, IMO. But it's a natural residue of young coordinators who grew up in the video game era and not the Vince Lombardi era. Hitting people, what's that? It would be short circuited if not for rules changes that fall perfectly in line. And just imagine when the video game types are older, and setting the rules. Touching a receiver at any point of a play may be illegal and cause for banishment.

I watched all of Gruden's specials. Mallet was by far the most prepared and impressive on the chalkboard. Newton intends to overwhelm based on physical ability, and he may just have enough to do it. Certainly the most unique athlete in decades, far, far above a Tebow or Young.

Florida has moved away from the spread. And I wish a coach like Harbaugh had stayed at the college level and injected a lesson in gorgeous basic football for a decade or more.

Attend a few high school games and you'll quickly realize the spread is softening football at that level. Any sideways play is a touchdown. The quarterbacks get a false impression nothing can go wrong. We've had that problem with the Canes. Jacory Harris was the most unhurried QB I've ever seen in high school, no sense of urgency at all. That Miami Northwestern High class expected they could show up on campus and similarly be 5 TDs better than every opponent.

[Yavin4]

12. You Are Correct

However, what about those few programs that don't run the spread. Why are there not African American QBs there? Why don't African American QBs go to those schools? I'm sure that there are some pro-style offenses out there? Even if it's a non-traditional power school.

[dakota_democrat]

9. I don't think that's a fair question, because

it's not a college coach's job to prepare players for the NFL. It's their job to win college football games.

With the limited time you have to prepare the players for their games, I get the feeling most coaches see an advantage in keeping it simple.

[JonLP24]

10. I agree

In a sense I'm sure coaches would like to see their players succeed at the next level but on the other hand, they are more concerned about winning.

I mean Troy Aikman went to Oklahoma and they were running the wishbone. If the coach at the time wanted to prepare Aikman for the next level he would of went to something of a pro style.

[Yavin4]

11. Aikman Eventually Transferred to UCLA

Had he stayed at Oklahoma, he probably would have never made it in the pros.

[JonLP24]

13. I know that

and you're probably right about that.

[Auggie]

14. Bingo. The alumni want victories. The athletic department wants Bowl money.

[trotsky]

16. Best answer. n/t

[hughee99]

15. Is it really a "race" issue?

Plenty of white QB's aren't properly prepared for the NFL either, ESPECIALLY at the big-time, top of their conference schools.

Complex offenses, audibles, and reading defenses are key components in any successful NFL QB's arsenal, but when the teams are put together by who can recruit the best, you end up with very physically talented players gravitating to a relatively small number of teams. If you have a WR who can always get open because he over-matches just about any DB he'll play against, you never have to learn to go through your progressions. If you have an O-line that dominates their opponents, you almost always have time to throw, and if you're recruiting your entire offense based on their physical skills, you can't put in a complicate offense no matter how "football smart" your QB is.

QB's from schools that struggle in their conference, from schools in smaller conferences where the talent is more evenly matched, or those that spent a good bit of college with a clipboard in hand, IMHO, tend to be better prepared coming out of school than your average USC/Ohio State/Florida/Alabama/Auburn/LSU/Texas QB's, because they had to be in order to be successful.

This isn't to say that these QB's can't be successful at the NLF level, but it's much harder to develop these skills when you always have 5 seconds to throw, receivers who are almost always open, running backs who keep the D honest, and teammates who may not be able to handle a complicated offense anyway (especially given the restrictions on "football time", which the NFL doesn't really have to deal with).