The no-huddle offense has become more popular at both the collegiate and professional levels over the past few years. Fans enjoy it because it makes the game more exciting and leads to incredible scores like 56-42 in college games. However, some of the nation’s top coaches like Nick Saban and Bret Bielema have wondered whether the hurry-up offense is fair and safe for the players.
“I just think there’s got to be some sense of fairness in terms of asking, ‘Is this what we want football to be?’” Saban said last year, among many other things.
West Virginia is one school that has enjoyed success using an up-tempo offense over the past few seasons. On Monday at Big 12 Media Days, Mountaineers head coach Dana Holgorsen said Saban and Bielema had better learn to live with it.
“Yeah, I’d tell (them) to get over it because it’s not going to change,” Holgorsen said, via The Tulsa World. “It’s going into the NFL, for crying out loud. There’s people being hired in the NFL that have the background in college football to be able to create a little bit more parity. Don’t see it changing any time soon, so you’d better learn to adapt to it.”
Holgorsen is right. I’m no expert on how the no-huddle offense impacts player safety, but it is certainly becoming more popular. Even prominent NFL teams like the New England Patriots thrive using the hurry-up, so obviously college programs will want to follow suit in order to prepare their players to compete at the next level.
Saban chooses not to run that type of offense, and he obviously doesn’t need it. Two national championships in the past three years say he has done almost everything right, both on offense and defense. Like everyone else, Saban will just have to learn to accept it and continue to adapt. There aren’t going to be any NCAA rules that outlaw the hurry-up offense at any point in the near future.
