It has taken a while, but it looks like the spread offense is finally starting to infiltrate the "final frontier" of college football - The SEC. There have always been doubts about whether someone could run the spread in the SEC and have success. Hal Mumme's teams had good numbers, but they were empty numbers. His team did not have much success overall. Florida seems to have really started the trend though. They are the first team to have success with the spread as a base offense in the SEC. Of course, they also have the most talented team in the conference as well. Arkansas hired Bobby Petrino, and while he doesn't use the spread as a base offense, he does use a lot of spread concepts in his offense. Auburn tried running the Tony Franklin/Hal Mumme/Mike Leach spread this year, and it was a disaster. Of course, they didn't have a quick thinking QB, and they also never totally committed to that style of offense. Now that Auburn has hired Gus Malzahn, it looks like they will continue on with the spread, though a different style of spread than what they ran under Franklin. With Dan Mullen at Mississippi State, there will be at least three teams in the SEC this year that run the spread as a base offense.
Miami looks like they would have never hired him anyway. I keep hearing that Nix wanted to spread it out more and Shannon said he wanted to have two backs and run the ball. Malzahn would have never worked at Miami
I wonder how long Randy Shannon will last at Miami. Just looking at the talent Miami has, it definitely appears that the spread offense would be the way to go. With guys like Aldarius Johnson, LaRon Byrd, and Leonard Hankerson at wide receiver, Lee Chambers at tailback, and a dual threat quarterback in Jacory Harris, they are set up to run a spread option style of offense. Randy seems to be one of those staunch traditional coaches that absolutely refuse to give in to the pressure and embrace the spread offense.
I totally agree and I just don't understand why he himself won't open up the offense. They have the playmakers to do it.
