“Finally, a team does spread offense right.”

Following another dominant showing by the UCO Broncho football team, I finally got a chance to break down what makes this offense go. What I found was a pleasant surprise to say the least. I somewhat expected to find an old school, outdated spread offense that thrived off of just having better players, but what I saw made me look at this offense in a very new light.

At their core, they’re a spread team. Certainly not my favorite by any means, but it depends on what you do withing the structure of spread itself. They routinely live in 11-personnel, meaning 1 running back, 1 tight end, and three wide receivers. This is a massive plus because that means their running game has some actual teeth instead of just keeping opposing teams honest, and it does that in spades. They have a ton of cool ways to run downhill old school rushing schemes like Power, Counter,  and Duo that I love, and the offensive line has played phenomenally in the scheme. Jaylen Cottrell and William Mason are great at getting downhill as well, leading to their stellar rushing averages.

Through the air though, that’s where they pop. Terrill Davis is the straw that stirs the drink for this team, and his 8.8 catches per game reinforce that. Just this week he rebroke his own single-game catches record with 15 (he had 14 in a game earlier this year). He plays in the slot almost exclusively and he does it all at an elite level. He plays a traditional slot as a safety blanket, always finding a soft spot working over the middle and making catches. He plays the role of a great route runner, breaking in and out of cuts as a smooth operator and putting defensive backs through hell. And most importantly, when defenses start aggressively trying to smother him, boom there he goes up the seam for a deep touchdown as a bona fide deep threat. The Choctaw product is the best receiver in America at the D-II level right now, and they certainly use him as such.

Finally, how can you not love what quarterback Jett Huff is doing. At its core, no matter how good you draw up and call plays as a coach, in the spread offense you’re truly only as good as the guy throwing the football. Number two in Bronze and Blue has been worth his weight in gold this season. Huff is a maestro. He was born to run this offense. In the quick game he’s on time and on target always. In the run game, he’s extremely decisive with RPOs and keep reads and he doesn’t hesitate. He’s a real threat to run the ball, but that also helps him in the passing game when they choose to move the pocket. In the mid to deep passing game, he’s a killer as well. He pushes the ball down the field and gives his guys chances to make plays. In the spread offense, you don’t run to open the passing game, it’s the opposite. If you only pass short, defenses can guard the run and short pass at the same time fairly easily, but if you’re good at throwing it deep, defenses are in a bind having to guard the whole field. Jett Huff is good at throwing it deep, and therefore the whole field is open to him. They may have great players at all positions, but this Central offense will go as far as Huff takes them and he’s taking them to heights they’ve never reached before.

As much as I don’t like spread, this team is such a fun watch. Finally, a team does spread offense right. It’s about time someone figures it out.