The big news reported out of practice on Tuesday March 27th was that USC practiced a few plays with both quarterbacks John David Booty and Mark Sanchez operating out of the shotgun instead of under center for a change. Will USC put this formation into use during the regular season? Time will tell as the team practices with it in scrimmage situations. There were times last season when it seemed like an extra two yards of space from the defenders against Oregon State or UCLA for example might have helped. However this is of course just speculation...it might not have mattered.
The advantages of the shotgun seem obvious to fans and spectators. The shotgun is often identified with high flying offenses and big passing plays. Teams often resort entirely to it in two minute drill situations when passing becomes a clear need. The shotgun is also used when QB's become less agile or have poor footwork. Dan Marino made an excellent career in the NFL operating almost entirely out of the shotgun in the latter stages of his playing days. Peyton Manning and the Colts use it fairly often but not exclusively. Peyton also has one of the best play action fakes from under center in the game. Conversely Joe Montana never used it and Bill Walsh one of the most innovative offensive minds of all time was against it as well. Norm Chow used it some at BYU but is not a huge proponent of it either.
So it brings up the question of what are the pro's and con's of the Shotgun? I have some old coaching manuals written by Homer Smith a former offensive coordinator. Homer spent many years at UCLA, Alabama, and other schools and is now retired. He still teaches and speaks at some coaching clinics, etc. He reportedly did some consulting with Rich Rodriguez at West Virginia a couple of seasons ago. Anyway in one of his manuals entitled "Formationing" he has a section that deals with pro's and con's of the alignment.
Advantages of the Shotgun
- The QB can get deeper in a given amount of time
- Some lateral play faking (but not drop back style play action) can be achieved
- Some QB's can see better (i.e. wider field of vision)
- The depth of the QB often forces the defense to expose its pressure plans more clearly
- The RB might be able to pick up a blitz better (i.e. no dropping QB to bump into)
- It does not need a snap count and helps mitigate crowd noise factors
- The QB has to take his eyes off the pass defense and has to watch the ball into his hands. This effect also somewhat reduces the QB ability to see the coverage and read changes (Cover 2 to 1, etc.) until after the snap
- The Shotgun alignment eliminates conventional FB runs and FB lead draw plays (the back has to be off to the side of the QB)
- It becomes a crutch for the QB and an easy way to avoid improving footwork and play faking
- It retards the notion of a power run game and shifts more towards deception based delays, options, or draw type run plays
- Unless the QB is a threat to run it eliminates most traditional option type plays, play action, and signals that the play is clearly a pass
- The footwork of the QB changes and timing for pass plays.
The "mesh" point for hand-offs to the RB change as well.
Some teams that have had real success with QB's operating largely out of a Shotgun in college the past couple of years are Texas with Vince Young, Utah with Alex Smith, Florida with Chris Leak & Tim Tebow, and West Virginia with Pat White. In each of these cases the QB's especially in the case of Young, Tebow, and White are all threats to run the ball. The Urban Meyer offensive schemes at Utah and Florida frequently used the QB on lead draw type plays and also employed option pitches to RB's and WR's coming in motion. Texas used a zone read option play where either the QB kept the ball or handed off to a RB based upon reading penetration by the defenders. The plays all work but are backed up by the threat of a running QB in almost every case.
Florida's offense coordinator Dan Mullen put out a coaching video on running and passing from the spread option with the QB at shotgun. He cautions that it took about 1,000 snaps in practice before the center to QB exchange was worked out to the coaching staffs satisfaction. Even then in game situations there were quite a few bobbles and turnovers the first year. By 2004 however with practice they had worked it out to where Alex Smith did not have to remove his eyes from the defense and the ball hit is hands almost 100% of the time. The year Utah went undefeated there was only one bad center to QB exchange resulting in a turnover.
In Ohio State's game against Michigan this year Troy Smith had two bad center to QB exchanges out of the shotgun and one of those resulted in a turnover and quick seven points for Michigan. Even Florida bobbled one exchange this year in the national championship game against Ohio State. Fortunately for the Gators it just resulted in a throw away pass and not a turnover.
Shotgun snap fumble from Florida vs. Ohio State National Championship Game
We'll just have to watch and follow the practice reports to see to what extent USC incorporates the Shotgun in their base offense. My personal guess is that since USC is committed to a two back (e.g. I Formation) run scheme and uses the I Formation about 35-40% of the time the Shotgun will not be highly utilized. The Shotgun eliminates the traditional version of the play fake which is a big part of the USC offense as well. If the staff puts it in play I suspect that it will be mainly in obvious passing situation where there is no point in disguising intent or when there is trouble with pressure off the ends or against tall defenders. Since the current Trojan QB's are not a big threat to run it probably won't be used in conjunction with the running game at all. At best perhaps it will be a situational tool that is used a couple times per game. None the less I look forward to the new wrinkle in the offense. At a minimum it will help the QB's see the pressure better and put them a step or two further away from blitzing players. Additionally it is something else for defensive coordinators to have to game plan against as well. It will be one of the more exciting things to watch out for this fall along with several key position battles.