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Bam. Speed. Points. Don't turn around. Speed. More points.
Quickly, here is the gist of it. Pop some adderall if you must.
Rich Rodriguez developed the spread offense at Glenville State. He moved up at Tulane, then made his way to Clemson, where in 1999 and 2000, the current Arizona Wildcats head coach had his first podium of sorts to show off his zone-read offense.
It all happened very fast. That is the theme of the week. FAST.
There was a dude from New Hampshire named Chip Kelly who needed some good ideas, so he visited Rodriguez. Jump ahead to 2012, and the two will face off with incredibly similar philosophies but different tweaks developed throughout the years.
Rodriguez told Anthony Gimino that the two coaches keep in touch, their schemes evolving separately but the end goal remains the same. Spread it out, recruit with speed and win.
The idea itself is very short. Very fast. Though simple. BUT FAST.
The infusion of speed has come at a faster pace that you'd expect with RichRod at Arizona, though nothing either coach does really comes all that slow, as I have already said in this column. Kyle Kensing's season preview for Oregon circled the Oregon and USC game on the calendar to see who's the leader of the Pac-12, but after Arizona upset Oklahoma State two weeks ago and USC fell to Stanford this past week, might this be the game of the year?
After all, it's going to be fun. Those slowpokes from the Stanford and USC game last Saturday? Blah. Are they stuck in the stone age? FAST.
The Ducks might have the speed burners in De'Anthony Thomas and Kenjon Barner, but the Wildcats have the quarterback more perfectly suited for the zone-read in Matt Scott. Arizona has been tested, and Oregon has not.
Do the Wildcats have a shot to drop the top of the top?
Oregon has dealt with some procedural issues of late. Against Tennessee Tech, the Ducks had 12 penalties for 105 yards. Said Kelly to The Register-Guard:
"Winston Churchill said, ‘The problems of victory are a lot more agreeable than the problems of defeat, but they're no less difficult,' " UO coach Chip Kelly said, paraphrasing the former British prime minister. "You feel better because you won 63-14, but we turned the ball over and we're not supposed to do that; when we get penalties, we're not supposed to do that.
"Fortunately it didn't come back to rear its ugly head and hurt us today, but there's certainly things we've got to clear up."
That dealt a heavy blow to the Cowboys when they lost against Arizona, though playing in Autzen Stadium would theoretically give the Ducks an advantage to get caught up in the crowd noise, right? That expensive sound system might pay off this week.
Anyway, RichRod and Chip Kelly. Who do you like in this one?