[Panther Thunder]

PT,

In regards to your question I was thinking about it and wanted to make one other point.

I look at the personnel on this year's Belfry team and I can't help but think how absolutely lethal they would be running a variation of the read option. Could you imagine Sani being able to survey the field out of the gun and his already impressive ability to keep the ball tucked in the backs stomach to the very last second? Carr would be the perfect back with Hatfield being your change of pace back. Use Justin Johnson in the slot... ring him around on jet sweeps where he can use his quickness. Then you have Taylor and Dari at WR. Absolutely tailor made for the read option!

With that said, Haywood's system is predicated on consistency, interchangeable parts, and repetition. Yes, this Belfry team would be damn good out of the spread.. the problem is when you coach at a small school you are at the mercy of the talent pool that feeds it. Some years it is up, some years it is down, some years you get power backs, some years you get athletes. All too often I think coaches at the HS level at smaller schools either try to shove a square peg into a round hole or the flip side is they cut and burn and have to rebuild every other year forcing young players to hinder their development.

The beauty of Haywood's offense and philosophy is when you look at these Belfry teams: 2006 and 2010.

2006: This was a young team with the probably the second shallowest running back depth of the past decade. I loved the way Chapman and Epling played, but those guys were not your typical Belfry backs you are accustomed to. All in all this was not a very talented Belfry team. Nonetheless, this team found their stride and reached the State Semi-Finals. It also set up the 2007 Belfry team which came back the next year and was absolutely loaded (and should have won a Title but I digress)

2010: This is all about youth. Belfry was bad in 2009 as they fielded one of their youngest teams ever, 2010 was supposed to be a "bridge year".. then 2011 and 2012 were supposed to be the years Belfry returned to the top. What happened though was through repetition and those moving parts is Belfry started to gel ahead of schedule and got on fire in the playoffs and reached the Finals.

IMHO, neither of those teams have the success they do..or set up the success of the teams that follow them, without Haywood's system. Now what is about to be interesting is to see how this season and the next three seasons play out as the talent pool level rises.

I agree with all of that haha.

That is why I brought the question up. I had the same thoughts you did about how good that skill could be in that system. But like you, I understand why they do what they do.