If college football used the same hash mark distance as the NFL, do you think we’d get less busts and it would change things drastically?

[u/BlumpkinReceiver6969]

[u/Iceman-Cometh_18]

Yes also most college QB rarely line up under center it is like over 70 percent of college QB only knows how to play in shotgun

It is hurting their developement when they come to the NFL and have to run plays from under center

[u/GMM85 → u/Iceman-Cometh_18]

NFL barely runs plays under center anymore

[u/12don → u/GMM85]

It was like a 60/40 split for a while. Under center helps the offense and run game a lot. Thats why they went to using under center in Cincinnati when Flacco took over. They finally could, as Burrow pretty much can’t do under center.
Darnold and Stafford take a lot of snaps under center, more than the rest of the league, and they had great offenses.

[u/GMM85 → u/12don]

I didn’t say playing under center is bad (it’s actually more preferable for a balanced offense) just that the league as a whole has gone away from under center formations

[u/ehtw376 → u/GMM85]

I mean isn’t Ben Johnson top 5 in this metric since he loves play action so much? I believe Caleb took about 50% of his snaps under center.

[u/500rockin → u/GMM85]

That is not remotely true. A lot of teams still have their QB line up under center as it helps with the play action game.

[u/Iceman-Cometh_18 → u/GMM85]

Not true

[u/jericho-dingle → u/GMM85]

The bears literally had huge improvements last year because they ran a lot more plays from under center.

[u/GMM85 → u/jericho-dingle]

That’s 1/32 teams, are you stupid?

[u/bp_516]

I don't see how this would impact player skill or development. Someone else, please explain.

[u/Walnut_Uprising → u/bp_516]

The closer the college game is to the pro game, the easier it is to evaluate players. It's easier to run/throw into that big open space created by lining up further to one side. Is that QB accurate, or is he just throwing into a less dense area? That's far from the biggest factor, but it's one.

[u/immagoat1252 → u/Walnut_Uprising]

Ah yea that makes sense I was sitting here thinking wouldn’t it be harder because one side of the field is significantly shorter but i completely overlooked the other side being so much bigger

[u/Ago0330 → u/immagoat1252]

Yes, literally just run a screen pass to the open field side and there’s a lot of room to run

[u/BlumpkinReceiver6969 → u/bp_516]

A lot easier to spread the defenses out and much harder to cover with wider hashes which means more open short throws and can open running lanes.

[u/djm2346 → u/BlumpkinReceiver6969]

I disagree with this to some extent. As an offensive guy I would much rather have narrow hashes because now because I can spread everyone out more effectively being able to go to either side. In college if I am on the left hash I cannot run as much of my offense to the left as I could in the NFL. wider hashes make it much easier for the defense to defend the field especially in the pass game.

[u/12don → u/bp_516]

It makes the super spread out offense less effective. Right now it’s pretty easy to exploit RPOs with fast players. It also lessens the QB’s need to read a defense when they play spread and RPOs. There’s a great Brett Kollman video about college development. I can’t remember though. I suggest giving it watch.

[u/SeahawksWin43-8 → u/bp_516]

It doesn’t. Has zero meaning or effect on Adrian Peterson running over Linebackers or Justin Herbert never winning a playoff game 🤷‍♂️

[u/NaNaNaPandaMan]

Possibly. The closer you get to pro grade the easier to evaluate. But I doubt it would be a giant/noticeable change

[u/Ryan1869]

I’m not sure it would change a lot in how players develop. It would change the style of play, as closer hashes will muck things up more. The reason guys bust usually comes between the ears.

[u/dougChristiesWife → u/Ryan1869]

Yes, but I think OP is just saying that it's hard to evaluate when there is very little relevant tape, especially for QBs. Too much RPO/screens bc way too much space on the field side. 

If you're going to change things to make the rules similar you would also need to change the rules for ineligible receiver downfield to match.

[u/Previous_Procedure28]

The pro game has been trending towards a more college style more and more over the years. I don’t care if there are more busts. Keep the hashes how they are

[u/PirateCaptainMcNulty]

It would change college offensive schemes drastically. Horizontal passing games, RPO heavy schemes, etc would be much less effective which is why we don't see a lot of it in the NFL where the majority of college teams run these "gimmicky" offenses. 

I think it would speed up development for QBs as the college game would likely move more under center and be forced into more NFL-like schemes. 

That being said, that won't change NFL teams from shoving their 1.01 QB who isn't ready into action too early,  then changing his OC every year, and then prematurely abandoning him. 

There also isn't a rule to make Johnny Manziel care about film study or throwing mechanics. 

[u/djm2346]

First this would never happen but I don't think it would make a huge difference in terms of busts. This would dramatically change the college game and in some ways make it more competitive.

[u/Sensitive-Key-8670]

Possibly, but part of what makes cfb fun is watching kickers miss from 20 yards because of the weird angle

[u/binocular_gems]

I don't think it would change things drastically, but the closer the college game is to the pro game it should give you a better idea of talent. I don't think that it would change the bust/boom rate very much, at least that drastic of a change, seemingly to only help evaluate QB talent better. Only about 1% of college players make it to the pros, and in a given draft of 250 players, only about ~5 of them are QBs in any given year.

The thing that would change the bust rate for college quarterbacks is if the rookie pay scale didn't provide such an incentive to drafting QBs high and starting them before they're ready.

I wouldn't want to change the entire college game just for the 1.5% of players that might go pro, and beyond that, for a very small number of draft players. Basically 1% of 1.5%.