By Dennis Dodd
CBS SportsLine Senior Writer
Sept. 1, 1998
Never has it been easier to move the ball on the cheap in college football. Here it is still August and the team on everyone's lips hasn't invested in bothersome details like a defense or running game. Don't take our word for it.
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"I worked for a guy named Frank Kush one time," said McBride, who has built some of the most fearsome defenses in the country. "He said, 'Give me some quarterbacks and some receivers and I'll beat you.' He was right."
Forgive McBride for uttering what amounts to heresy in option-drenched Nebraska. His head might still have been spinning from trying to defend a record-smashing Louisiana Tech offense on Saturday. Nebraska got its four-touchdown victory over the Bulldogs but was gouged for 590 passing yards by quarterback Tim Rattay and an NCAA-record 405 receiving yards by Troy Edwards.
McBride was an assistant under the defensive-minded Kush at Arizona State from 1967-69. The Sun Devils did lead the country in rushing defense in 1968 but could always move the ball, averaging 430 yards per game in those three seasons.
It's a different world now. Pitch and catch, a game as old as your first sandlot contest, can get you to a bowl. Get yourself a decent passer, a serviceable offensive line and a pair of hands attached to a swift pair of legs and you're golden.
DEFENSE, IN GENERAL, IS AN
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Nebraska can't stop Louisiana Tech quarterback Tim Rattay, who goes on to throw for 590 yards against the once-vaunted Cornhuskers defense. (AP)
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That has lowered the bar for teams like Tech that basically do one thing well. Tech's running game was nil Saturday. Its defense allowed touchdowns on Nebraska's first five possessions. But there were the Bulldogs climbing to within 14 points in the third quarter basically by throwing on every down.
"They know what they're doing," said Texas A&M's R.C. Slocum, who plays Tech in two weeks. "Get a great receiver, a great quarterback and start throwing it around. No one expected Louisiana Tech to go beat Nebraska at Nebraska. There's a certain amount of free-wheeling you can do when you say, 'We're going to go out here and have fun. No one expects us to win anyway.'
"You can try a bunch of things and sometimes those things work."
IT WORKED ENOUGH LAST YEAR FOR TECH to post the best record among independents in the country (9-2) and finish third nationally in total and passing offense. In fact, the weekend's games showed that the state of college football has conspired to allow teams to take this shortcut to success. Tech threw for the most yards ever against a Nebraska defense. USC quarterback Carson Palmer was literally a relief pitcher in the Trojans' victory over Purdue. Even run-based Colorado State used the long pass to mount its comeback at Michigan State.
Ever since the rules were changed allowing offensive linemen to extend their hands in 1981, it's given rise to a freak of football nature. Don't ask if the offense can work. It already has.
"When you throw the ball 60-70 times like that and you can protect yourself, it gives you a chance," said Missouri coach Larry Smith, who is a member of the NCAA football rules committee. "A team like Louisiana Tech is not going to line up and run down Nebraska's throat. Their best chance was to match them score for score. They came close to doing it."
Smith is not one of those in favor of recent rules changes that have cumulatively allowed offenses to dominate the game. As a defensive-minded coach, it pained him to have to outscore teams last year with a defense that surrendered 30.2 points per game. But that's the game today. Missouri rode the wave going to its first bowl game in 14 years.
WE'RE NOT EXACTLY TALKING ABOUT WINNING the national championship here. Louisiana Tech does one thing well. It has no running game and a porous defense. But the sophisticated passing game might be enough to get Tech into its first bowl since 1990.
"When I was at Auburn (with brother Terry), I always studied their offense. They really have the capability to move it against anybody," Tulane's Tommy Bowden said. "Imitating their speed on the scout team is a problem.
"That receiver could have come out and been drafted first or second round last year. When you have a marquee player that's usually what the TV and bowls want."
There are different levels of return on investment. The one-sided philosophy used to be called gimmicky. Then Steve Spurrier installed it at Florida where he developed the Fun 'N' Gun and won a national championship. But unlike Tech, he has a defense to fall back on. Brigham Young set the tone in the WAC for years for developing NFL-quality quarterbacks in a ball-control passing offense. Jack Pardee's run-and-shoot at Houston in the late 1980s boosted Andre Ware to a Heisman Trophy.
"IT'S GIMMICKY TO A POINT," NEBRASKA COACH Frank Solich said of Louisiana Tech. "But what they do is get the ball in the hands of their best players. It is difficult to stop."
So difficult that Solich paused Monday to take a deep breath. In reviewing the film, it became evident that the worst was over for his defense. He had looked down the barrel of a .357 and survived a couple of dangerous projectiles.
"They're going to be a major problem for everybody they face in terms of the passing game," Solich said. "I know this: We will not face a better pair than what we had in those two."
Quick hits
"You kept saying to yourself, 'Why don't they double-cover Edwards?" said Gregorian, who covers national colleges for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "The Kansas thing was not as exciting but it was more mind-boggling."
Sands ran for 396 yards against Missouri in 1991. ...
Dennis Dodd is a senior writer in CBS SportsLine's Kansas City bureau.