To huddle, or not to huddle: What was the question?
Published: 11/20/2008 4:37 PM
Last Modified: 11/20/2008 4:37 PM
An intelligent questioner asked Jermaine Gresham this week if OU quarterback Sam Bradford seemed more confident in the huddle.
Sounds like a fine query. Most years, on most teams.
But Gresham needed about three-thousands of a second to remind the questioner of one basic fact.
"We don't have a huddle."
Anyway, if the Sooners did huddle, Bradford would look more confident. As it is, he looks more confident without one.
But that wasn't always the case.
"When they first told us about it, when we first started to practice it, I really wasn't sure about it," Bradford said. "I was uncomfortable in it and I felt like everything was just – everyone was kind of in a panic. No one knew what was going on; we were just going 90 miles an hour.
"But I think once we all got used to it and have played in it for several months now together, I really enjoy it, and I think everyone else does, too."
Bradford said last week there are parts of huddling he misses quite a bit.
"Getting to talk to everyone before the play, maybe a big play, maybe a third down, where I would maybe say a couple things to the wide receivers about their routes, or talk to the line a little bit," he said. "You miss that."
Gresham agreed.
"Yeah, because you like to feel what he knows," Gresham said. "He sees the whole field. I see probably one dimension of it. So he can go out there and tell me what they're doing, tell me what to watch out for, and that helps out."
Leadership shows up in a huddle. When things aren't going well, it's the leaders – frequently quarterbacks – who look everyone in the eye and assures them that this next play is the one. If legs get tired and lungs start gasping and minds start wandering, it's the huddle, between plays, where those things are often fixed.
But not everyone misses the huddle.
"I like the no-huddle because you can kind of see everything before," said center Jon Cooper. "He's calling the play and we've got time to kind of look, and when you're in the huddle, I can't see what (the defense is) doing. So I like hearing the play and looking at everybody beforehand."
Odd that perspective comes from a center, who in Pop Warner ball is first given the honor and responsibility of shouting to his teammates after every play, "huddle up!"
"As an offensive line, I think we have better communication with the no-huddle," Cooper said. "Sam can't really talk to the receivers when they're way out there, so I can see his point. But I don't need to talk to a receiver, so we're all right there."
Bradford offered a peek into a between-play sequence, say, after a handoff.
"Normally, either as (the running back) is getting tackled or before he's getting tackled, I'm usually trying to get to where I think the ball's going to be . . . and (start) looking toward the sideline and trying to get the signals from the coaches.
"I have to communicate the play to the offensive line and sometimes the tailback. But the wide receivers should be at kind of the same pace that I am (in that) as soon as they see the play's over, they're looking to the sideline, getting the formation, getting the signal.
"As I'm talking to the offensive line, I usually try to look and kind of get a general feel for where (the defensive players) are. But then once we're all set, if I'm under center or in the shotgun, usually before I start the cadence, I definitely look and get a picture of where they are and what they're doing."
Josh Heupel had a supposition last winter that, if teams with below average talent run the no-huddle to level the playing field, then teams with talented players, like OU, might really take off in it. Bradford says that's exactly what has happened. That's why he's breaking all Heupel's records and soon enough many of the Sooners' vaunted team marks will fall, too.
"It's obviously been very successful for us," Bradford said. "I think we go at such a tempo and such a fast pace that it catches the defense off-guard at times. It probably forces them to make a couple more mistakes than they would if we were in a huddle. We get a couple plays where they're not lined up or they're not in their right gaps. I think it just kind of gives us a couple free plays a game.
"I've really enjoyed playing in the no-huddle this year."
– John E. Hoover
Written by
Guerin Emig
Sports Writer
