In the weird world of college football, spread offense is here to stay

If the Big 12 Conference gets shut out of the playoff again this season it won’t be because its coaches were quiet.

Baylor did not play last Saturday, and Oklahoma Coach Bob Stoops is irked that a Bears assistant coach was on the opposing sideline when his Sooners played Tulsa — a violation of NCAA rules.

(Baylor Coach Art Briles apologized profusely, something he’s doing a lot of lately in regard to the behavior of his coaching staff and players.)

Then came the news that two Texas Christian players had been arrested on suspicion of robbery. TCU Coach Gary Patterson expressed concern during the weekly Big 12 football coaches conference call, then asked that everyone keep it in perspective “because it’s not even close to what happened south of here [at Baylor].”

The Big 12’s outburst of the week, though, was Texas Tech Coach Kliff Kingsbury tossing kerosene on a philosophical flame after his team defeated Arkansas, 35-24.

Kingsbury is a disciple of the spread offense. Arkansas Coach Bret Bielema is a dinosaur who thinks football is won in increments of inches and blood drops.

So it was with great satisfaction that Kingsbury took to the postgame podium to renounce a football philosophy bully.

“That’s a program that prides itself on being physical,” Kingsbury said of Arkansas, before resurrecting a Bielema speech last summer at the Texas High School Coaches’ convention.

It was there, Kingsbury recalled, that Bielema said, “If you don’t play with a fullback, we’ll kick your [backside]. If you throw it 70 times, we’ll kick your [backside].”

Said Kingsbury: “He just got his [backside] kicked twice in a row, and probably next week by [Texas] A&M. So that did feel good.”

Bielema’s response: “I’m hoping he got to vent and hopefully he feels a lot better.” He added that if people start digging into speeches made at coaching conventions for motivation, “it’s going to be a very, very weird world.”

With any luck Kingsbury’s comments will be the last salvo hurled in a feud that has been silly, baseless and self-righteous.

The spread offense is here to stay, no matter how desperately a few coaches try to close their eyes and blink it away.

Three years ago, Bielema and Alabama Coach Nick Saban led a revolt against up-tempo offenses by suggesting a rule change that would require a 10-second delay between plays to allow for substitutions.

It was a direct assault against high-octane programs such as Oregon, Auburn and Texas A&M. And it backfired.

“It’s like sometimes they feel like you’re threatening their religion a little bit,” Washington State Coach Mike Leach said Wednesday of the old-school hard-liners.

Leach, who was coach at Texas Tech when Kingsbury was the quarterback, didn’t want to comment on Kingsbury vs. Bielema, saying both were friends. However, as far as he’s concerned, the war is over and the spread offense won.

Leach noted that elements of the offense have matriculated to the NFL, which has historically not borrowed from the college game. He did not declare smash-mouth football dead, but spoke of it in the way of a bad habit.

“Old ways will resurface from time to time,” he said.

A few college programs remain power based. Stanford Coach David Shaw remains stubbornly staunch and has been heavily criticized for his conservative philosophy. But after less-than-inspiring performances against Northwestern and Central Florida, Shaw loosened his grip last weekend and orchestrated a masterful upset at USC.

Michigan State is winning with power football and Jim Harbaugh, now at Michigan, will always try to win that way.

However, conventionalism, is definitely on the run. Arkansas was so adamant in its power philosophy that it put five offensive linemen on the cover of this season’s media guide. But now the Razorbacks have lost consecutive games, at home, to unranked teams from Toledo and Texas Tech, with high-powered Texas A&M on deck.

The most surprising convert appears to be Saban, who three years ago claimed that the extra plays run during games increased the risk of injury among players. He compared the danger of modern offenses to smoking cigarettes.

With more Southeastern Conference schools switching to the spread, Saban calculated that he had to respond. So last year, he hired former USC coach Lane Kiffin to kick the Crimson Tide offense to another gear. Alabama set scoring records and even introduced no-huddle sets.

Saban could now be called one of them.

Alabama averaged nine more offensive plays per game in 2014 than it did in 2013. Last week, Alabama ran 100 plays to Mississippi’s 65.

Through three games, Alabama has run 249 plays — one more than Oregon (!), and more than spread programs such as Texas A&M (234), Arizona (231), California (227), Clemson (225), Texas Tech (218) and Auburn (188).

Saban’s fears about the spread are being turned on him. The offense, as he always preached, puts too much pressure on the defense.

Alabama, which typically is among the national leaders in defense, ranks No. 37 this week in total defense and No. 63 in scoring, allowing 23.3 points per game.

As Bielema suggested, it’s becoming a “very, very weird world.”

Follow Chris Dufresne on Twitter @DufresneLATimes