Rye, The “hurry up” offense doesn’t mean you necessarily have to snap the ball “in a hurry.” but that you hurry to the LOS and be ready to snap the ball. This prevents defenses from substituting in situational players. We do it all the time as do some other teams.
The defensive personnel are on the field without enough time to sub. Good, well coached defenses switch alignments, etc., but the OC and QB know the personnel they have to work against.
Yep. I totally get this. Line up fast, freeze the personnel and work a match up advantage. I’ve not charted how many personnel substitutions actually happen on a play by play basis in college football. My sense looking at snaps played charts is that there is a lot less substitution for the middling BCS team than many think, but I could be wrong. I think most of the rotation happens on the DL.
It also works both ways. The offense is also equally locked into their personnel. Have the 4 WR set in and it’s 3rd and 2, then is the call to throw it, run the QB and risk injury? Do it wrong and you’ve got a quick 3 and out, which a LOT of these up tempo teams end up with. It only takes a couple of 3 and outs for a high tempo team to get off track and get blown out, particularly if they’re putting their tired defense back out there.
Also if that WR runs a 30 yard route and the has to sprint back to line up fast, then they’re gassed as well. Teams will end up pausing on the line, and everyone kind of gets a little breather. I get that the quick line up is about the personnel groups, but people tend to think that the defensive guys are the only ones impacted.
I like getting to the line quickly as a strategy for the weaker team. In theory the weaker team plays their 1s a larger percentage of the game, and the deeper team does more rotation. It’s why Saban’s Alabama guys fake injuries, stall, he complains, etc.. It allows for them to sub and go from player 1A to player 1B who is fresh and there’s very little drop off there. The weaker team has to play their 1s every play anyways because when the 2s go in, they’re in even more trouble. May as well play the line up trick to stop the deeper/better team from subbing. The 1s on offense had better be well conditioned though.
