I dunno... That team had the horses and I'm sure everybody prepared for it. That doesn't negate the advantage of not allowing a defense to substitute. It wasn't the main thing that defenses had trouble with, but I'd wager it added some efficiency to the unit overall. Sometimes you can wear them down on a drive, but mainly it was about not letting them change to personnel they'd rather switch into once they see the development of the possession.
yessir that is the point of the system- it's not to try to out athlete the defense, it's about catching them with mismatched components and then exploiting it as quick as possible.
boise state did it... their entire process was to at least threaten every square inch of the field instead of "just" the lanes. Bama does it another way by stacking trips on one side and forcing mano-a-mano on their separation receiver, but that isn't exclusive to just bama a lot of teams use that and they trigger it most often when they catch the D with the wrong components... the spread option appears to be a very different offense, but it's really not- it's pretty fundamental- but it relies on gapping the lanes and forcing a defensive player, linemen in particular, to work in space as opposed to being expected to control an O lineman homself working in a "hallway".
since we're speaking about CJH's Offense, what it is i 'think' he wants to run when he loads up the components is something like the 'greatest show on turf'- with
layered parallel or crossing routes over timing - the player ahead effectively becoming a blocker as he jams up the other secondary/CB--- close enough to be a pick play to be called a pick play but not exactly--. forcing the D to play mano-a-mano or man-zone being the key and then picking on the weak link/bad match up.
we've seen very lopsided final scores in games over the years where we were certain the teams were evenly matched prior, and write off the other (losing) team afterward, but even a little analysis demonstrates the OC of the winning team either discovered a bad match up OR
created a bad matchup through scheme. the HUNH, on face value, is about stressing the physical conditioning... but that isn't it at all imHo, it's more about drawing out the components, stressing them, allowing them to be exchanged and as soon as they are caught with an exploit- exploiting the piss out of it.
there are literally hundreds of examples of this...
@MikeDeTiger may recall and SECCG between UT and LSU where UT didn't have an answer to the relief QB who pulled a Cuttingham of Eagles fame and either passed deep or scrambled- and won that game... or another between the same schools where Kelly Washington was the UT receiver who had something like 274yds receiving against what was considered a very good LSU D... all they 'really' did was scheme where Washington was covered by a LB and then lit him up... when they'd drop a CB or Safety on Washington they opened up the run or a pass to another receiver. a bad matchup was discovered and 60 minutes wasn't enough time to figure it out.
so... that's a lot of writing^... the point being the HUNH as employed by CJH is intent to stress the D into subbing, and then catching the right D on the field before lighting them up... and that WILL happen, I don't care who you are.. which is why his O scores as much as they do. Right now the O he staffs is thin, as soon as it isn't, either at UT or OU (toi toi), there will have to be some sort of Defensive Revolution to stop it. Right now the trick is flopping.
gimmick? perhaps... the west coast o was called that once.. so was the option spread or just plain spread.. play action was called that once and so was the RTP...