College football is heading toward its most prolific offensive showing ever, which is no surprise to Mike Gottfried.
"It seems no matter where I go, people are throwing the football," said the ESPN analyst, who will see another shootout when BYU plays San Diego State Thursday night. "Not only are they trying to win by throwing the football, but they also want to please their fans."The old "three yards and a cloud of dust" philosophy died years ago, but passing has been carried to a new level. Defenses are finding it hard to keep up with speedy receivers scooting all over the field from formations like the run-and-shoot, fast-break and fun 'n' gun.
"I'm sure there's a real purist or some old football fan who enjoys a 7-3 game, but that's pure nostalgia," said Auburn's Terry Bowden, part of the new breed of offensive-minded coaches. "There's nothing more fun than watching a game where one team outscores the other."
Certainly, no one was bored when Minnesota rallied to beat Purdue 59-56 on Oct. 9, setting a record for most points by the losing team. That record stood alone exactly three weeks, until BYU fell to Utah State 58-56 in a game where losing quarterback John Walsh threw for 619 yards.
"The increased passing game, with one back or no backs, is spreading people out," said Minnesota coach Jim Wacker, whose offense has been dubbed Air Wacker. "Just about everybody is running some of that now.
"It turns every game into high-stakes poker, is what it does. Either the offense is going to score or the defense is going to score. Something is going to happen, and it's probably going to be wild and hairy."
Overall, NCAA Division I-A games are averaging a total of 49 points for both teams, said Rick Campbell, NCAA director of statistics. If that continues, it would break the mark of 48.8 set in 1990.
Other records on pace to fall include total yards per game (734.6) and passing yards per game (401.8), both set in 1989. This year, teams are averaging 742.7 total yards and 412 passing yard a game.
So what's going on here?
Perhaps it was a rule change that brought the hashmarks closer 2 yards closer to the center of the field, giving offenses more room to work on the near sideline and kickers, who have been hindered in recent years by rules which narrowed the goal posts and eliminated tees, better angles in front of the goalposts.
"There doesn't seem to be any increase in the number of pass attempts," Campbell said. "It looks like that (changing the hashmarks) may have something to do with it. I can't think of anything else that would affect it like this."
But Bowden, who calls all of Auburn's plays, doesn't buy that argument.
"From an outside passing standpoint, it's made a little bit of difference," he said. "But I'm not calling plays a whole lot different than I did before just because the hashmarks have been moved in."
Gottfried, former coach at Pitt, agreed with Bowden.
"I've talked to a lot of defensive coaches, and they don't feel it's that big of a deal," Gottfried said from his home in Mobile, Ala. "I think the major thing is the ever increasing fact that the pro offenses are having an influence on college football."
Teams are not afraid to line up with four receivers - and send them all deep.
"The passing game has gotten very vertical the last few years as opposed to horizontal," Bowden explained. "Teams are not throwing to the flats as much. They're running four or five people vertically up the field beyond the linebackers and making the deep safeties cover all of them."
Bowden, the 37-year-old son of Florida State coach Bobby Bowden, doesn't have enough talent to run that kind of offense. In fact, the Tigers are more productive on the ground (212.3 yards per game) than they are through the air (206.1).
"Generally speaking, we're in the age of scoring quick," Bowden said. "Everybody wants to win the lottery, hit it big, get rich quick, take the easy way out. That seems to be the trend today."