New Offenses and the Decline of the SEC

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When they're on, they allow lesser teams to compete above their level, and when they're not they allow very good teams to fall on their face

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I agree with that. Auburn's offense is either very good or it's awful.
But QB play this year hasn't been very good and a lot of teams were starting freshmen or starting backups because their starters went down.

It is notable how many teams in the Top10 right now are either ones with better defenses than offenses like Michigan, Wisconsin, Colorado or ones that are at least pretty balanced.

Regarding the SEC, QB play may be just as much of an issue though, which is ironic since some of the "systems" are purported to make plugging in an effective QB easier.

Auburn, Florida and LSU all seem to have defenses that could see them competing for a playoff spot if they had better QB play all season.

I think you can probably point to a lack of quality starting quarterbacks as the flagship schools combined with the Saban effect making everything that isn't an undefeated or 1-loss season a failure.

During the SEC's heyday of the 2000s, look at the QBs that were in the league: Chris Leak, Tebow, David Greene, Stafford, Jamarcus Russell (go ahead, laugh), Erik Ainge, Connor Shaw, Jay Cutler, Eli Manning, and the list goes on and on.

Now, the SEC has what, 2 or 3 guys who would maybe be all-conference in the other P5 leagues? Swag and Hurts, but I think even his success has more to do with his mobility rather than his passing skills.

Two of the power players in the league are starting Purdue transfers, while Georgia just moved on from a Virginia transfer. Dobbs has been a decent player, but far too inconsistent to guide Tennessee to more than a .500 SEC mark.

Then you throw in Saban, who has turned the SEC West into a series of 1-game seasons for his opponents, knowing that if they fall to Bama, they're basically 2 games behind in the division and Bama has only lost more than 1 SEC game once since 2008. Not to mention the national championships that go along with it.

Even Spurrier

When he came into the league nobody could defend the post corner routes he threw constantly. SEC defense were stationary at the LOS and stopped the run.

Spurrier had very few 3 step drops. His were 7 step, long developing patterns. Now, with the speed rushers in the SEC and pass rushing defensive lines, his non-mobile QB's would be eaten alive. What did Wuerffel run the 40 in? Doug Johnson, Shane Matthews?
Those guys would be broke in half by mid season.

It's why he changed to misdirection at South Carolina vs drop back, deep, long developing routes.

I don't think this new brand of offense is a neccessity. I want Bama to go back to a ball control power run game utilizing Hurts and hopefully Tua s abilities. I think the key is as Saban has done is recruit two different types of DL players. We have our LSU game DL and our Clemson DL.

meh...........it happens. lets see what the next 2-3 look like

Bama is 12-0 and going strong with the new style of offense. What makes the new style of offense work is a good QB.

Take a look at the teams throughout the league. Many teams have inferior QB play. If they have good QB play then they have poor talent at skilled positions, poor OL play, or bad defense.

If Auburn had a better QB they win more games and compete much better vs Bama.