1948 Rose Bowl offense

Submitted by Blue Blue Blue on

So I just watched my late father's favorite team, the 1948 Michigan Rose Bowl team that thumped USC 49-0 on Wolverine Historian.

 

What a fabulous offense!   the late shift, the ball movement, the speed and deception.......and plenty of passing.   Not that I dont love RR's offense, but who could stop this s*&t  today?

 

Check it out.  Fun, fun, fun.

kvnryn

June 24th, 2010 at 3:25 PM ^

I just watched this the other day as well. After reading Brian's article at TSB about the single wing/spread evolution and SmartFootball's ensuing post, it made me remember watching those highlights on that Hail to the Victors DVD or whatever and I needed to see it again. Great stuff. If you haven't read the articles yet...

Brian's

SmartFootball's

Clearly though, teams/coaches did learn how to stop the offense though, or else it would still be widely used today. Instead, elements of it have been resurrected and combined with successful bits of other offenses and we have what we have today.

 

P.S. My grandfather still has the ticket stub for that game.

PIJER

June 24th, 2010 at 4:10 PM ^

That this is what our offense is based off of. There was a lot of faking to the HB, bubble type passes. And a couple of Denard special QB runs were sprinkled in there as well. After seeing this, I'm almost tempted to say that our offense has gone back to it's roots under RR.

Space Coyote

June 24th, 2010 at 5:02 PM ^

Look at Georgia Tech for an example of an "Old, washed up offense that couldn't work anymore" that works.  Also the "Wildcat" in many ways.  Any offense works when run correctly.  You see a lot of teams now somewhat coming full circle back to these types of offenses (I coached one that went to the single wing after running out of the I for years).

 

Now I'm not saying it is the best offense and probably doesn't teams as big an advantage as other offenses, but it could still work.  However, the strength and quickness now on defense, combined with how much film work that is done, leads to defenses better understanding tendencies.  Also, the complexity of defenses makes the responsibilities, which the importance of are magnified in this type of offense, even more complex. 

 

There is no question that they are fun to watch.  When the team I used to coach switched to the single wing I remember watching hours upon hours of teams that used to run it, and some of the stuff is just great (such as when the QB completely turns his back to the defense and fakes the hand off, stands there for a few seconds, and then essentially runs a draw, great stuff).

03 Blue 07

June 24th, 2010 at 7:14 PM ^

Not as long as everyone is set for 1 second pre-snap. Those shifts are still completely legal, just as long as two people aren't moving at the time the actual ball is snapped. You can have one man in motion at the time the ball is snapped; everyone else just has to have been "set" for one second.

HelloHeisman91

June 24th, 2010 at 8:26 PM ^

I dated the granddaughter of a member of this team.  Jack Weisenberger is his name and he is alive and well in Mt. Pleasant.  That man has some unreal stories.