In San Diego State head coach Rocky Long’s top-to-bottom assessment of SDSU’s football program, one thing that has been discussed is adjusting the offense.

Don’t be surprised to see SDSU come out in a spread formation during the 2019 season.

But let’s not get too carried away here. It doesn’t mean the Aztecs are going to abandon the run, throw caution to the wind and put the ball in the air every play.

“I don’t want anybody to get the wrong impression,” Long said recently. “It does not mean we’ll throw first, run second. It does not mean that we’re going to throw the ball 60 times a game.


“All it means is we’re changing formations. It’s more of a spread out formation, so the running game won’t be as complex. But it also, if people want to play straight man coverage, it also gives you some advantages in the passing game.”

In the short term, it could take advantage of the dual-threat capabilities of senior quarterback Ryan Agnew, who moves into a starting role after the graduation of Christian Chapman. In the long term, it favors quarterbacks coming out of high school these days.

“I think Agnew was that kind of quarterback in high school,” Long said. “That’s the system they ran in high school. … If you look at the kids you’re recruiting, most of them are coming out of spread formations.”

More than anything, it’s a way to keep defenses more honest. Give them something else to think about, so they can’t stack the box against the run.


But, Long reiterated: “It’s not going to change our philosophy. It’s still going to be a run-first offense. All it’s doing is changing alignments and giving us a better chance to prepare and execute on game day.”

SDSU has had one of the nation’s most dominant running games over the past several seasons.

The Aztecs rushed for more than 3,000 yards from 2015-17, with running backs D.J. Pumphrey and Rashaad Penny leading the nation in rushing during the 2016 and 2017 seasons, respectively.

SDSU’s offense averaged 33 points a game during that period, which included a school-record three straight double-digit-win seasons.


The Aztecs rushed for 2,102 yards — the lowest total during Long’s eight seasons as head coach — during a disappointing 2018 season in which SDSU (7-6) lost five of its last six games.

The rushing struggles may be explained by two things: SDSU starting running back Juwan Washington was sidelined half the season by injury and the offensive line was shuffled because of injuries and off-the-field issues.

But it revealed, too, that SDSU can’t stubbornly stick to lining up in rushing formation and daring opponents to stop it.

Keeping opponents from stacking the line of scrimmage with defenders — as they have been prone to do in recent years — to stop the run makes plenty of sense.


Mountain West rival Fresno State and Frisco Bowl opponent Ohio were two teams the Aztecs played in 2018 that used spread formations to such advantage.

“They line up with three wide receivers all the time, sometimes they line up with four wide receivers, but their goal is to run the ball,” Long said. “They’re still in the huddle, they’re still running the clock, they’re still trying to establish the running game, but it becomes a simpler game because no matter how many guys you put out there (wide), defenses are going to put guys out there with them.

“So we’re investigating the idea of still being a running team first, but out of different formations. Not two-back formations.”

A spread formation would diminish the role of the fullback in SDSU’s offense and increase the importance of the tight end.


“It eliminates the fullback, except in short yardage situations,” Long said. “There are teams that we played that are lined up in the spread most of the time in short-yardage situations and they get in the I formation. We’re still going to be able to do that.”

Although SDSU lost talented tight end Kahale Warring, who declared three weeks ago for the 2019 NFL Draft, starting senior tight end Parker Houston returns. So do several highly regarded underclassmen, led by sophomore Daniel Bellinger.

“We have several good, young tight ends in the program,” Long said. “They can be out there like slot guys, can be out there like tight ends, can be in the backfield like a fullback, so it gives you a lot of flexibility. So we’re discussing doing that in the spring and develop that for the fall.”

In its 27-0 victory over SDSU in the Frisco Bowl, Ohio rushed 40 times (for 215 yards) and passed 22 times (for 206 yards). Ohio running back A.J. Ouellette carried 29 times for 164 yards. Quarterback Nathan Rourke had nine carries for 44 yards and two touchdowns while completing 10 of 22 passes for 206 yards. The Bobcats held the ball for nearly 32 minutes.


“Their whole game was about running the ball and keeping it away from you,” Long said. “If you end up with a quarterback who is really accurate with the football, it makes it that much more difficult to stop. Ohio’s running back was average, but he was a big, strong guy. You didn’t see him break any 50- or 60-yard runs. What you saw was him get 4 yards, 5 yards, 6 yards, and they were in a huddle. So you’re still running the clock.

“They lined up and you think, ‘Oh, they’re in the spread.’ But they weren’t running a spread offense. What they did was put a wide receiver out there and take one more guy out of the box, so it’s not as complicated inside the box.”

The Aztecs hope to benefit in another way by using a spread formation, getting a better idea of how opponents will defense them.

“Since we line up in a lot of two-back formations, we go into several games where we have no idea how the defense is going to line up because some of the defenses we’re playing against have not seen a two-back formation before,” Long said. “So we take an educated guess or we go back three or four years to see how they defensed a two-back offense in the past and we try to make an educated guess ... so there are times that they line up differently than we practiced against.


“Now, if you have a great tailback, it’s worth it. He’s going to make you right more than wrong. If you don’t have a great tailback, you have to practice during the week of what you’re going to see on Saturday. So the more we line up like those other teams, the better idea we have on how the other team is going to line up.”


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kirk.kenney@sduniontribune.com / on Twitter: @sdutkirKDKenney