Obsessed With Offense

By Darrin Sheffer It was week three, we had just come off our worst loss of the season (44-7) to a team who was just plain out faster than us.  We still had not found our identity as an offense, having scored one touchdown in the first two games.  Then to add on to the challenges we were about to face a team who ran something quite different than the two spread attacks we had seen so far: the Flexbone Triple Option or Inside Veer.   https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flexbone_Formation.svg Many coaches hate facing the Inside Veer Offense, and for good reasons.  This is an offense that can take mediocre to average athletes and give them advantages over opposing defenses that other offenses may not be able to do.  We were experimenting with the Pistol Triple Option Offense (find link to website below) and were loving how the wider splits of the A Backs were giving us some athletes in space.   http://pistoltripleoptionfootball...

By Darrin Sheffer Full disclosure: I AM NOT A DOCTOR.   I also do not claim to be an expert on brain injury or neuroscience in general. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Brain_01.jpg CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) is all over the media today.  Here is a link to a recent study done on former NFL players:  http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2645104    and here is the link to Boston University's CTE Center:  http://www.bu.edu/cte/ I highly recommend that you do your own research on CTE, utilize the resources I listed above and learn as much as you possibly can on this issue because I believe it is the biggest issue that the sport is facing now and most likely will continue to face in the foreseeable future.  My viewpoint on CTE has evolved and I assume it will continue to evolve as more and more information comes out, but I will give you a hint as to my current thoughts: I believe that this ...

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 pic...