Spreading the Wealth: Corona Centennial Coach Matt Logan helps out an old friend with installing spread offense

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One of the interesting back stories to Corona Centennial’s seemingly unstoppable offense is that Coach Matt Logan traveled to Binghamton, N.Y., for the last two years to help the Patriots institute their no-huddle spread offense.

Mike Ramil, whom Logan grew up playing football together at Norco in the ’80s, is the second-year head coach at Binghamton. Ramil and Logan attended each other’s wedding as the “Best Man.” Ramil also played nose guard on the 1989 Alabama team.

In a 28-20 victory over Henninger in the Class AA state football quarterfinal last week, the Patriots scored at a rapid pace. One drive: 12 plays, 80 yards in 3 minutes, 50 seconds of game time. They’ve averaged 511.6 yards of total offense a game.

Logan flew to Binghamton on two separate occasions, one in January 2007 to help install the offense, one in January 2008 to review last year’s film. There was one order of business Logan took care of on his first visit before going over the schemes.

“When he came here, he spent the first two hours cleaning up my office,” Ramil said, laughing. “Matt is anal and he’s been like that when we were little kids.”

“Yeah,” Logan said, laughing. “He’s a slob. You can’t work that way.”

Aside from the disorganized office, Ramil’s spread offense has worked so well that Binghamton became the second Section 4 Class AA representative to move past the quarterfinal round since New York instituted a five-class playoff system in 1996. Binghamton (11-0) plays Orchard Park in the semifinal this Saturday for a chance to reach 12 victories, a program high.

Binghamton senior running back Jamar Smith has run for a Section-4 record rushing total of 2,548 yards and 33 touchdowns. Smith said he’s fielding interest from Penn State, Syracuse, Iowa, Army and Northeastern but that all programs are awaiting his SAT scores.

“The biggest thing Matt kept talking about is that you have to dedicate to the spread completely,” Ramil said. “You have to fully believe you can spread anywhere on the field at any time.”

--Mark Medina