Luginbill: Leach will have to run the ball more

[smootness]

Because Bama, LSU, and Auburn don't have good run defenses?

That "SEC defenses will eat them up" is kind of a ridiculous statement that I've seen ever since State hired Leach. Bama and LSU tend to stop everyone. If anything, good passing teams have been the ones to challenge and even beat them.

That and the entire SEC doesn't have elite defenses like Bama and LSU. State will move the ball just fine against Arkansas, OM, Vandy, Missouri, A&M, and probably even UK and Auburn.

This. He thinks their front 7's are too good to throw it all day...so he thinks the solution is to RUN it against them?!

Leach's offense is designed to slice up an over-aggressive defense. It's perhaps the best offense ever constructed to do that. If a Bama is well-disciplined, it will be very hard to move it on them through the air. Of course, it will be basically impossible to move it on them on the ground.

Leach throws the ball, but he doesn't launch it down the field constantly. He uses the passing game in many ways to replace the running game by simply getting the RB or slot WR in space and advance it more quickly.

Hasn't Ole Miss proven, though, that perhaps the best way for a less talented team to beat Bama is to just chuck the ball downfield indiscriminately?

This whole 'Leach can't do that in the SEC' talk reminds me of the people who kept saying you couldn't win in basketball by just shooting 3's all game. The only problem is, it's the opposite of true. The future of football will be continuing to throw it more and more, just like the future of basketball has been continuing to shoot more and more 3's. It's just a better way of advancing the ball down the field.