Prelude to a play

Sporting News, The, Sept 7, 1998 by Terry Frei

The Braves still have to be considered favorites to emerge from the N.L. playoffs, but they aren't taking anything for granted after last year's upset to the eventual World Series champion Marlins.

"Last year, Florida went out and traded for 10 guys and beat us. This year , Houston went out and got Moises Alou and Randy Johnson to try to beat us," pitcher John Smoltz says. "If I'm sitting in their clubhouse, I'd be thinking, `We can beat the Braves.'"

RELATED ARTICLE: Different twists

The huddle-to-snap process isn't monumentally different from team to team, and that's why the Ohio State case study is more than an isolated example. Just take what the Buckeyes do, substitute other names and teams, and it probably will come close.

The few differences can be subtle matters of emphasis or, occasionally, unique offensive styles. So here's a look at how two other programs view those seconds between the break of the huddle and the beginning of the play.

LOUISIANA TECH Under coach Gary Crowton, the pass-happy Bulldogs use so many formations, you can watch a game and swear you never saw the same alignment twice. They can have four wideouts and no tight ends; five wideouts and no running backs or tight ends; three tight ends, one wideout and one running back; or two tight ends, two wide receivers and one running back.

And that place a major mental burden on quarterback Tim Rattay, who led me the nation in total offense last season.

"We're an early snap-count team," Crowton says. "So as we're breaking the huddle, we want someone calling out the protection right away. Based on that, the quarterback has to be quickly figuring out whether there can be an unblocked guy and decide if we have a route going that can handle it or give (the receiver) another one."

The Bulldogs' audible at that point would involve Rattay calling out the word "choice" and a number, signifying one of the alternatives involves in that particular offensive package. All of this puts a dizzying amount of responsibility on the receivers as well. "The upperclassmen love it," Crowton says. "The underclassmen's heads are spinning."

Because the Bulldogs so often have few bodies in position to help out the linemen on blitzes, the challenge isn't so much to block the blitz, but to beat it with a quick pass.

"Most teams are more protection-oriented than we are," Crowton says. "Most teams check to get seven or eight guys involved in protection against the blitz. I'd rather just get in the shotgun and by try to get it off."

UCLA offensive coordinator Alan Borgens says, "The first thing we emphasize is that we want to be out of the huddle with at least 16 seconds left on the play clock. We need a little bit of play in there to audibilize or check."

Like Ohio State, the Bruins have a proven senior quarterback this season in Cade McNown, who will be given more freedom to change the play at the line of scrimmage than in the past.

"As he's coming up to the line," Borgens says, "we want him to read the defense like a book, from left to right, and have him scanning as he calls the cadence. We want that front identification--overshifted, weak or strong, balanced. We want him to know the contours of the safeties--whether they're two-deep or one up and one back. That contour can give you a clue, but not the answer. The thing is that as he's calling the cadence, the defense can start out looking one way and finish another. At that point, it's kind of become the defensive coach vs. the quarterback and not the defensive coach vs. the offensive coach."