Don’t understand CFB commentators who proclaim the AU-offense is .

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What am I missing in this analysis?

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Nothing. Send this to ESPN.

Auburn's offense is fascinating to me. In the SEC championship game, they ran like 4 basic plays, 1 of them was a pass. But there were so many different wrinkles within those 4 formations that I couldn't figure it out. Just loading the box wasn't enough. You can expect a run every single play and still not be able to stop it.

Will it last? I don't know. But for now, it's fun to watch, for me at least.

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I can’t recall one NC won with an offensive style anything close to the spread

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UF 2008

That team is still one of my favorites ever. They were unstoppable down the stretch.

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UF 2008

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= one player on offense, just like CN. Those type are far and few between.

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It's a high school offense

It will never be successful in the SEC

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That is a pretty accurate statement. I think it, just like any other offense can succeed at the college or pro level if you have the right skills players and a great OL.

For four years we played against almost the exact same offense in high school, only difference was that the Brookfield went under center a bit more than Auburn does (but most of it was from the gun).

It's not revolutionary, it is quirky. That takes a bit of time to figure out. Give DC's a summer or two to look at it and it will come back down to earth.

Thing is, their offense did not remind me of ours at all. When people talk about "the spread" so generically, they are referring to the teams that throw the ball all over and run just enough to prevent the defense from selling out to rushing the quarterback (though we didn't even do that). Auburn will spread you out and use the entire field, but they can do it all without throwing hardly at all. They can still be physical, ground and pound, all those buzzwords that the dyed-in-the-wool SEC football fans think are necessary to be good.

Edit: not saying they aren't necessary, just pointing out that those things aren't inherently absent when an offense runs "the spread".

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one player on offense

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BS

Percy Harvin
Riley Cooper
Aaron Hernandez
Jeff Demps
Chris Rainey

That team used the spread offense and won a NC. dwi

I love all these armchair quarterbacks who know how to stop Gus's offense yet not one DC of the 14 they played did.

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Coaches know how to stop it. Having the personnel with discipline to stop it is a different thing though. FSU did, and even Bama did this year even though they lost. Where Auburn is successful is when they get a big chunk of yards on 1st down and go into the HUNH without substituting. They line up in the same formation, and can run a handful of plays out of that formation. It puts a lot of stress on the defense. If they don't get many yards on 1st down, like they didn't against FSU in the 2nd half, it's not nearly as dangerous of an offense.

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YES, very good assessment, though I disagree anyone really "stops" it. Auburn scored enough to win against Alabama and came very close to scoring enough to win against FSU.

It can be slowed, it isn't a "trick." It's just difficult to stop because it wears down your defense and requires your defense to do things that seem counterintuitive (requires a great deal of discipline). You need defensive playmakers who can stick to assignments and not get frustrated. You also need a well conditioned defense.

Hence, Auburn can be slowed against defenses with those characteristics (like FSU). But it isn't a gimmick to shut down, which only plays into the frustration of defenses when it is still effective.

The HUNH is a type of offense, but really we're talking about Gus running the HUNH. He understands what it does, who on his team can do what within it, and what it does to defenses. That gives Auburn a lot of options. He's also pretty creative, which means Auburn will have options even when a defense is effective in slowing his base stuff.

I'm sure good defensive minds will have some success in stopping Gus at times, but painting it as a system ignores that Gus is a really good offensive mind whether he's running a "root" part of the HUNH or not.