TINSLEY'S TINKERING TURNS NITRO INTO
STATE'S
Publication: THE
Published: 10/29/1997
Page: P1B
Headline: TINSLEY'S TINKERING TURNS NITRO INTO STATE'S MECCA FOR PASSING
Byline: DANNY WELLS
Senior Writer
A no-huddle, shotgun
offense is a basic sandlot football formation
designed to do nothing more than let the whole world know you're going
to fling the football. Right?
Not so fast, my friend.
Especially if you're talking about Scott
Tinsley's version of the offense that started out in the wild and
woolly professional football leagues and has trickled all the way down
to
Tinsley will defend the
shotgun to his coaching death.
"What I like about it
is that I have yet to find a running play other
than a quick dive that you can't run out of the shotgun,' Tinsley
said in the Nitro fieldhouse on Monday while
discussing his favorite
subject. "We run options, sweeps, counters. We
run them all.'
Tinsley is generally
credited as being the man with the plan behind
the Nitro offense that has dazzled many an opponent the past several
seasons.
Nitro head coach Robert
Burdette acknowledged that point after Nitro
drubbed DuPont last Friday by a stunning 13-point margin.
"If there's a better
offensive coordinator around than Scott Tinsley,
I'd like to find him,' Burdette said after the game.
Tinsley insists that
there's a lot more to his offensive scheme than
just having the quarterback wind up and throw the ball. Would you
believe an I-formation complete with running plays out
of the shotgun?
"We put that in this
year,' said Tinsley. "We line up two backs [one
in front of the other] beside the quarterback. It makes it easier for
the back to take the handoff rather than have him come from a
split-back set to get the ball from behind the quarterback.'
And speaking of the
quarterback, everyone knows that Tinsley's
reputation as an offensive wizard receives a big boost every time J.R.
House touches the ball.
Tinsley clearly is one of
House's biggest fans.
"He's different,' said
Tinsley. "He's the best. I've never seen
anyone do the things he does. Plus, he's just a great kid.'
But Tinsley insists that,
given the opportunity, he would use a
shotgun style spread-'em-out-offense almost anywhere,
anytime - with
or without House. While House was living in
Wildcats' first four games, Nitro threw for 530 yards behind freshman
Jason Ward.
"The passing game is a
great equalizer,' Tinsley admits. "If you have
better players, you're going to win. But with the shotgun, you can win
some games without better players. We couldn't have beaten Ripley and
DuPont this season playing traditional football.'
But that doesn't mean
Tinsley won't use any other type of formation.
"We used the wishbone
against
and stronger linemen and
the time. I thought we could beat them at the line of scrimmage and we
wouldn't need so many points to beat them.'
To Tinsley, as with most of
his colleagues, coaching is a mind game
and he enjoys that part of it. And he fully believes the shotgun gives
a coach an edge psychologically and otherwise.
"When you're back
there in a shotgun, it makes the defense first start
thinking about a pass. That makes it easier to run.'
He also notes that it's
easier for linemen to block for a passer than
for a runner.
"You have to have
bigger and stronger people blocking for a running
game from a normal formation,' he said. "But if a
lineman can move
his feet, he can pass block. It doesn't take as much brute strength to
hold off a tackler.'
And then there's the
advantage a quarterback has of not having to run
back several yards to set up and look for receivers.
"It gives the
quarterback a better chance to make better reads,' said
Tinsley. "He has more time.'
Tinsley also likes the idea
of being with one of the few teams around
that throws a lot of passes out of the shotgun.
"Teams usually don't
have to prepare for that type of offense,' said
Tinsley. "But during Nitro week, they only have a
couple of days to
work on trying to stop it.'
Tinsley has a solid
background as a quarterback coach, having played
that position since his midget league days while growing up in
Albans
"I always wanted to be
a quarterback,' he said. "When I was 5 or 6
years old, my dad would take me to games and when the other kids were
behind the bleachers playing, he would have me sit beside him and
teach me about the game.'
One of the first coaches to
catch Tinsley's eye was Steve Edwards Sr.,
who coached George Washington High to its only state football
championship.
"My favorite was coach
Edwards,' Tinsley said. "He was flashy. I
watched his teams throw all the time when other teams weren't
throwing.'
Tinsley performed well
enough at the quarterback spot at St. Albans
High to earn a scholarship at Appalachian State, where injuries cut
short his playing days but helped him break into coaching after his
sophomore season.
"Mack Brown, who is
now the head coach at
what I wanted to do with my life and I told him I wanted to coach. He
said: 'You might as well start now.' '
Tinsley went from being a
gopher on the Appalachian staff to coaching
the defensive backs, which he said proved to be an invaluable
experience.
"I learned defensive
schemes and that helped me learn how to attack
them,' he said. "When coach
Brown left, Sparky Woods took his place
and he turned the quarterbacks over to me. I really fell in love with
the passing game under coach Woods.'
When Woods left Appalachian
State in 1989, Tinsley was hired by West
Virginia Tech coach Bob Gobel as the offensive coordinator.
Tech won
the West Virginia Conference title that year, averaging more than 30
points a game.
Tinsley followed Gobel to
the Yellow Jackets when Gobel went back to Tech.
Tinsley eventally
left State and joined Greg Cyrus at Nitro in 1995.
He remembers his first
meeting with House.
"Coach Cyrus called me
one day and said he knew about a ninth-grader
who had a lot of potential and asked me to work with him,' Tinsley
recalled. "I met J.R. and his dad [Rodger] at the
gym at State. "After
I watched him for a half-hour, I looked over at Rodger, who I didn't
know at the time, and said: 'He's phenomenal.'
"His form, his
technique and his fundamentals were excellent. He was
doing things in the ninth grade that my players at State weren't able
to do.'
Tinsley
and House. Talk
about a match made in shotgun heaven.
Tinsley admits he is able
to make the passing game more complicated
because of House and talented receivers such as Chris Martin.
"We send five guys on
our [pass] routes 70 percent of the time. It's
nothing for him [House] to find a fifth receiver when he's looking for
receivers.'
Tinsley said House is
throwing better than ever after having shoulder
surgery on his throwing arm while he was competing in
"He has a lot more pop
on the ball,' said Tinsley.