My Take: College Football or NFL?

By 

Darrin Sheffer

It's Saturday night, I've been soaking up the passion of CFB all day, but the best is yet to come.  The camera opens up to Death Valley in Clemson, SC: The Defending Champs get on their buses to ride around the stadium, rocking the whole way.  My skin starts to tingle with anticipation.  Then the team comes to Howard's Rock, the fight song plays and the players run down the hill to take the field with orange and white balloons being released in the air, thousands of fans losing their minds!  I'm hundreds of miles away in Northern Virginia losing my mind, and Clemson isn't even my favorite team!  Hands down the best pre-game entrance of all time.  

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Clemson%27s_Memorial_Stadium.jpg

Sorry NFL, you just don't evoke any emotions remotely similar to what College Football does.  What emotion does watching NFL football evoke in me? Frustration.  To illustrate I'm going to pick on my NFL team: the Washington Redskins.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/watts_photos/20142475239

What about the Redskins (and the rest of the NFL) makes me so frustrated?  As a coach and scheme nerd I do NOT believe that the Skins are using their personnel in a way that gives them a competitive edge.  As football coaches it is our job to evaluate players strengths and weaknesses and determine the best way to use those strengths to win games.  

NFL Offenses

https://www.flickr.com/photos/craigindenver/8238960887

On offense, I see the Skins coaches stubbornly line up in 21, 22 personnel and try to run the ball.  Guess what, it doesn't work!  They just plain out cannot run the ball using their current scheme.  Their most effective offense seems to be when they line up in empty and let Kirk Cousins pick apart defenses.  Run game = Trash, Passing game = Money.  Why in the heck are the coaches stubbornly sticking to a scheme that Does Not Work!??

Not to mention that basically all NFL teams run the exact same offense.  I know some coaches will try to point out that the teams do different things, but if you really look at the playbooks and watch the games, they run the same concepts.  The only difference between each team is the "Jimmys and Joes" and different colors.  

Don't believe me?  Watch NFL games this Sunday and try to prove me wrong.  You will see Three Run Plays: Inside Zone, Outside Zone (Stretch) and Power, that's it.  Then you get the same play action plays off of those runs.  The drop back passing concepts may be slightly different from team to team (depending on QB) but in reality they look the same too.  

College Offenses

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Air_Force_vs._Michigan_football_2012_4_(Air_Force_on_offense).jpg

Some NFL fans will try to point out that schemes don't win games, it's all about match-ups.  Does my WR have an advantage over their DB?  NFL analysts and coaches seem to have an unhealthy obsession with finding match-ups.  Sorry guys, but I don't think that Paul Johnson and Georgia Tech could hear you when their "old school" Flexbone Offense was putting up 500+ rushing yards using 2-3 Star players against Tennessee's 4-5 star defensive players.  Please, please keep telling me that schemes don't win games while I watch Army, Navy and Air Force win against teams that they shouldn't be beating.  

NFL guys, please keep complaining about how Spread Offenses don't prepare players for the Pros.  While you keep complaining about how football is changing, I'm going to continue to ignore you on Sundays because I'm coming of football hangovers from much more exciting Saturdays.  Air Raid, Triple Option, West Coast, 100 different variations of the Spread, you aren't seeing the same thing over and over again.  

In my opinion, I would rather watch Army vs. Buffalo over New England vs. Miami.  

Then you have to look at the defenses.  

NFL Defenses

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In the NFL you will see TWO defenses: either the 4-3 or the 3-4.  Coaches say they do different things, but it's still all about finding favorable match-ups.  You could argue that NFL defenses are they way they are in response to the NFL Offenses, in which case no wonder there is NO diversity.  

College Defenses

4-3, 3-4, 4-2-5, 3-3-5, 3-3 Stack, 3-5-3 you name it it's probably being run somewhere in college football.  I'm in no way an expert on defense, but if I were calling defense at the HS level, I would go with the 4-2-5 because of it's versatility (that will be a whole other blog post later).  

Coaches

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:LeachMike092212-18.JPG

This last part is a no contest.  Urban Meyer, Tom Herman, Jim Harbaugh, Mike Gundy, Paul Johnson, Ken Niumatalolo, and my personal favorite coach right now Mike Leach.  NFL coaches have nowhere near the personality that College coaches do.  Enough Said.  

Final Thoughts

Based on my opinions stated so far you might think I hate the NFL, that isn't what I'm trying to say.  I will still watch NFL football because it's football.  The biggest reason I watch NFL is to cheer on my favorite former college players (Colt McCoy).  As a coach and a fan though, the NFL will never compare to College Football.  

Do you have any thoughts on this topic?  If so please comment below.

Be sure to follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DarrinSheffer

As Always, Stay Obsessed.