Chalk Talk: How College Offenses Impacted the Super Bowl

In an era of the spread offense, concepts, plays and ideas have seeped through all levels of football. Last week’s Super Bowl between the New England Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles showed college football’s effect on football at the highest level. National media focused on this, mostly on the Eagles’ use of RPOs, or run-pass options, which they certainly use, but their offense in particular has many more college influences buried in what they do, many of which you can see in the Big 12 during any given game.

Here are three plays that were used in the Super Bowl and how they were shaped and perfected in college.

The slot fade has deep spread roots back to the 1990s. Before Drew Brees was shredding NFL defenses, he was doing the same to Big Ten defenses in college. Brees played under an often forgotten coach named Joe Tiller, who was one of the first to reshape the standard one-back philosophy and change it to a unique pass-first offense. Before he got to Purdue, Tiller coached the Wyoming Cowboys in the Western Athletic Conference and led one of the country’s most prolific offenses without much recognition, but his teams passed often and frequently flooded four or even five receivers to one side of the field (this was unheard of at the time).

One of Tiller’s staples was the slot fade, which highlighted Brees’ ability to pin the ball on his receiver’s back shoulder away from the defender. The slot fade complements that perfectly, as it has the inside receiver drifting away from the coverage on his path to the ball.

You probably recognize the play from the recent national championship, where Georgia successfully used it a handful of times against Alabama.

The play has recently become extremely popular at the college football level and it’s a heavy staple in the NFL as well. The Eagles use it frequently and pulled it out multiple times against the Patriots. Notice how the route combination is almost the exact same as it was for Georgia.

Another Eagle passing staple, mesh, was also conceived at the college level. Lavelle Edwards and Norm Chow of BYU made it famous amongst coaching circles, and Hal Mumme, considered the father of the air raid, picked it up and ran with it at places like Iowa Wesleyan and Valdosta State. Mike Leach, who coached with Mumme for multiple seasons, took it to Texas Tech and made it even more famous on the national stage. In the air raid system, it’s grouped in the 90 series (drop-back concepts) and is simply called “92.”

In the play, two receivers run across the field and are taught to be so close they could high five each other. They settle in the open holes against zone and create a natural rub and keep running against man.

The Eagles used this concept throughout the season and frequently did so with one or two tight ends. Here’s a clip of them hitting the complementary wheel route against man coverage:

The final major college influence came during a crucial fourth down in the second half that had Nick Foles receive a pass for a touchdown. This was one f the first (if not the first) times it has been used in the NFL, but the play has been thriving in college for a couple of years now.

The first time (as far as I know of) came in 2012, when Clemson used it for a 2-point conversion. In the play, the quarterback motions and acts like he’s communicating with the line and wheels to the flat while a reverse action sucks in the defense.

This play took over the Big 12 in 2015 and it seemed like everyone was running it. TCU used it in a 2-point conversion against Texas Tech, and other teams, including OSU (unsuccessfully), tried it in goal-line situations.

Innovation in football frequently has a reverse-trickle effect, starting in high school or college and eventually moving its way to the professional game. This year’s Super Bowl was the perfect example of that, and although it included just the Patriots and Eagles, there were so many other coaches, teams and players who influenced the game’s result years before the two teams kicked off.