Getting off the field

The presence of Chad Morris' Hurry Up, No Huddle offense brings an assortment of encouraging things, and there's little doubt in my mind the encouraging outweighs the discouraging.

Yet there is some potential baggage there in the form of the stress it puts on a defense, and we covered that with this story that examined defensive trends at places where the HUNH has been used elsewhere.

Spoke with Troy coach Larry Blakeney about this recently, and he had some interesting things to say about it. He views the up-tempo thing as an equalizer for a Sun Belt Conference team that regularly faces the BCS heavies -- and regularly gives them trouble.

He said defensive coordinators probably aren't big fans of the no-huddle thing, because it puts their defenses on the field more and increases the chances of hurting their statistics.

Blakeney made an interesting point that didn't make the story, and one that has to be considered when evaluating defensive football overall.

"The rules are continuing to enhance offensive football with all the (defensive) holding rules. They're talking about cutting down on low blocks now. And they're doing more and more to protect the quarterback. I think the rules have leaned toward offensive football."

It's a fair point, the statistics seem to support that theory.

Oregon and Auburn, last year's BCS title-game participants, averaged 47 and 41 points per game, respectively.

Last year, 42 FBS teams averaged 30 or more points per game. The year before, it was 32.

More than half the teams in the supposedly defense-heavy SEC (seven) averaged more than 30 a game.

The ACC had four teams put up at least 30 a game last year, and six in 2009. In 2006, 2007 and 2008, the ACC had a total of three teams average 30 points or more (Clemson in 2006, Clemson in 2007, and Florida State in 2008).

It's not the best of times to be a defensive coordinator, but Blakeney points out that the objective is still the same regardless of what the offenses are doing.

"The key on defense, to me, is getting off the field," he said. "Just finding a way to get off the field."

LW