NCAA Football san jose state Spartans

The buzz for USC heading into Saturday was true freshman quarterback Matt Barkley, but after the Trojans' 56-3 thrashing of San Jose State the men in the trenches proved to be the real show. After a shaky first quarter that saw the Trojans trailing 3-0 thanks to three punts and two turnovers, the offensive line took over creating massive lanes on the way to a 342 yard rushing effort (7.6 yards/carry). The line also pass blocked brilliantly, leaving Barkley nearly limitless time to throw.

On the other side of the ball the Trojans' defense logged a stunning 16 tackles for loss in limiting the Spartans to a meek 121 yards of total offense. There's no doubt Barkley is a talent and had his moments in an otherwise conservative passing game plan, but the Trojans' lines really got after it on Saturday in a manner that if it can be repeated next weekend against Ohio State will go a long way towards championship talk this season.

With sophomore Aaron Corp returning from a knee injury to practice by coach Pete Carroll's Tuesday's deadline to compete for the Week 1 starting job, USC's quarterback decision has been pushed back a few days. If Corp had not returned Tuesday, the slot against San Jose State likely would have gone to freshman prodigy Matt Barkley.

Corp's return likely changes the math dramatically. He appeared healthy if a little less aggressive with his runs at Tuesday's practice, looking efficient while Barkley offered up his usual mix of brilliant play mixed with turnovers -- in this case a pair of interceptions.

I'm not calling revolution, but there's a new brand of football in town fresh off the pitch in one California high school. Piedmont High School coaches have developed an offense in the last year which sometimes allows all 11 players on the field to be eligible. Pay attention kids, because this is something that can happen in college football and not in the innovation-hostile NFL.

"Going into the season, we thought that either we're going to get fired or we're going to transform the game because of the innovative aspects and the wealth of ideas," [Piedmont High School coach Kurt] Bryan said. "Luckily, it turned out to be the latter."

Clearly. Like any innovation just one year into development, it needs work. However, the offense is already catching on.

Bryan said coaches from 35 to 40 Division I-A schools, and from every conference, have contacted him and Humphries looking for information on the offense. Apparently, the college coaches are quick studies.

[Piedmont High School Director of Football Operations Steve] Humphries said he saw San Jose State run multiple A-11 plays last season against Stanford. Florida ran an offensive play recalling the A-11 against LSU. And Rutgers and the NFL's San Francisco 49ers ran punt plays containing aspects of Piedmont's offense.

In other words, the evolution/revolution has already been televised. Cool.

Much more on the history of a new offense is available at this Rivals.com article, and the A-11 website. I look forward to a more prominent introduction this fall in college football, maybe even a College GameDay segment on it, hm? Get to work, Herbie.

(Via: my brother, who passed along the Rivals article)