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cdj
06-22-2010, 11:57 AM
You can view the page at http://www.thegamingtailgate.com/forums/content.php?220-NCAA-Football-11-No-Huddle-Offense

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The NCAA Football 11 website has posted a blog from Associate Designer Larry Richart discussing the No-Huddle Offense in the game:

Hey there NCAA fans, we're back again with some more gameplay info for NCAA Football 11. We've had some very positive feedback from the demo as well as at E3 and can't wait for the game to hit the shelves in a few weeks. It's been a crazy world in college football as Nebraska and Colorado have left the Big 12 for the Big 10 and Pac-10 respectively. Now after all the dust has settled it looks like the Big 12 will remain intact for the most part and remain a strong conference with 10 teams. Despite these losses, the current Big 12 Conference will still have some of the most exciting offenses in the college game today. Some of that success can be directly attributed to the use of the No Huddle Offense. Texas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Missouri, Texas Tech, Texas A&M, Baylor, and Iowa State all utilize the No Huddle offense and have put up huge offensive numbers over the past few seasons.

http://ll-100.ea.com/cem/u/f/GPO/easports.com/NCAA_Football_11/noHuddleBlog.jpg

The No Huddle offense has become an instrumental part of the college game as many teams base their entire offensive strategy around controlling the tempo. Instead of trotting back to the huddle after a play is over, teams will simply line up in a formation and either snap it quickly to catch the defense off guard, or switch to a new play based on what the defense is showing them.

One of the benefits of using a No Huddle attack is that a team has the opportunity to run more plays during a game, since they are using less time in between plays. The No Huddle strategy is just one of the ways that you can try and run your offense in NCAA Football 11.

In NCAA Football 11, you will have the opportunity to run a No Huddle offense at any point after a normal play is over where there is not a change of possession, time out, penalty, injury, or any other stoppage of play. At the end of a play, you'll have about 4 seconds to press the "No Huddle" option. This will redirect your players to skip the huddle and get set in their previous formation positions. As they're lining up, a modified play call screen will appear so you can call a new play. From here you will even be able to change your formation. However, you won't be able to sub or use packages at this point. The same is true for the defense as they will be stuck in the personnel that they currently have on the field. With that in mind, it will be important for you to call formations and plays that are best suited for your current personnel package. For example, if you start a drive and the first play you call is from a 5WR personnel package, you will probably want to stick to mostly 4 and 5 WR sets when running No Huddle. If you were to no huddle and switch to a base I-Formation with this personnel package, you would have receivers playing positions they are not accustomed to (TE/FB/HB). This will make things more difficult, especially if the receivers are trying to block inside against bigger defenders.

In these video clips Oklahoma uses the No Huddle at the beginning of the drive and then later on in the Red Zone to score a TD.

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Some teams also like to run their No Huddle attack with a more aggressive tempo to keep the defense on their heels and limit their preplay adjustments. To set a faster Tempo in NCAA Football 11, you can go into your Gameplan options from playcall and select Aggressive under the Tempo section. When using a faster tempo, your players will line up faster in both no huddle and regular huddle-break situations. It's a great way to change up the pace of the game, but you have to be careful. If you keep running a fast tempo and always snap the ball right away, your players will get fatigued more quickly since they never have an opportunity to rest. You might be better off mixing in a huddle every so often just to give your players a little more rest, especially after incomplete passes when the clock is stopped.

Oregon No Huddle Offense in action:

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Another new addition to the No Huddle feature in NCAA Football 11 is a brand new set of animations where the offense looks to the sideline. Many teams that use a No Huddle offense have their skilled players look to the sidelines to determine what play to run. In NCAA Football 11, you will see these animations when teams change their play after lining up. The QB also has specific under center and shotgun animations. To have your players look to the sideline, simply call a formation audible once your players are set and they will look to the sidelines. You will also notice the CPU doing these animations when they change their play at the line. Of course this is team dependant - not all teams do this.

In this video clip you will seen an example of the QB looking at the sideline and then his wrist to get the play before getting back in his stance.

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In this next clip, you can see the WR, QB, and HB look towards the sideline before the snap.

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Spike ball has also been improved to work with the new No Huddle system. In NCAA Football 11 it's more effective to hurry up and spike the ball following a temporary stop in the clock for a first down. The most time you will lose off the game clock in this situation is a second or two, as opposed to previous versions of the game where the clock would start while you were lining up to spike it. In the old system you could lose 5 to 10 seconds of valuable clock time in critical moments!

Another advantage of using the No Huddle is how it works with the game clock. In previous versions, it's actually been quicker to call a play from the huddle/playcall. That's definitely not the case anymore. Using No Huddle disables the accelerated gameplay clock which is an 8 to 10 second runoff during the huddle/play call in normal gameplay situations. I think you'll find this to be a very nice improvement when trying to put together a drive in late game situations and you're low on timeouts.

The No Huddle offense can be utilized in a variety of offenses but most commonly is seen with teams using the Spread Offense. Here is a list of teams that use the No Huddle Offense as well as if they are Aggressive Tempo teams or not in NCAA Football 11:

Team|Offensive Style|No-Huddle Type
Arizona State|Air Raid|Aggressive
Auburn|Spread|Aggressive
Baylor|Spread|Regular
Bowling Green|Spread|Regular
Buffalo|Spread|Regular
Central Michigan|Spread|Aggressive
Cincinnati|Spread|Aggressive
Clemson|Spread|Regular
Connecticut|Pro Style|Regular
Duke|Multiple|Regular
East Carolina|Air Raid|Aggressive
Florida Atlantic|Pro Style|Aggressive
Florida International|Spread|Regular
Houston|Air Raid|Aggressive
Iowa State|Spread|Regular
Kent State|Spread|Regular
Louisiana Tech|Air Raid|Aggressive
Marshall|Spread|Regular
Michigan|Spread|Regular
Middle Tenn State|Air Raid|Aggressive
Mississippi State|Spread|Regular
Missouri|Spread|Aggressive
New Mexico|Spread|Aggressive
North Texas|Spread|Regular
Northwestern|Spread|Aggressive
Notre Dame|Spread|Aggressive
Oklahoma|Multiple|Aggressive
Oklahoma St|Air Raid|Aggressive
Oregon|Spread|Aggressive
Rice|Spread|Aggressive
Rutgers|Pro Style|Regular
Southern Miss|Spread|Aggressive
Temple|Multiple|Regular
Texas|Spread|Regular
Texas A&M|Pro Style|Aggressive
Texas Tech|Air Raid|Aggressive
Toledo|Spread|Aggressive
Troy|Air Raid|Aggressive
Tulsa|Spread|Aggressive
UAB|Spread|Regular
UL Lafayette|Spread|Regular
UL Monroe|Spread|Regular
Vanderbilt|Spread|Regular
Washington St|One Back|Regular
West Virginia|Spread|Regular
Wyoming|Spread|Aggressive

Well, that's about it for the No Huddle - just another new way to play in NCAA Football 11. Thanks for reading this and I hope you're as excited as we are for the release of NCAA Football 11 in just a few short weeks! Have a good one.

CLW
06-22-2010, 12:17 PM
Wow I didn't realize that many teams were running the No Huddle.

beartide06
06-22-2010, 12:42 PM
Well I am pretty excited about the additions to no huddle. It is going to run a lot more smoothly then past iterations and will change the game up significantly.

I think for my other OD I am going to use Baylor and try to build them up. Good news!

steelerfan
06-22-2010, 12:44 PM
It's good to see a list of the No-Huddle Types. I hope this will be easy to find/readily available in the team select screen.

champ195797
06-22-2010, 01:22 PM
in the Oregon video at 01:37 watch what the defense does after the audibale and also watch WR#10 (X) runs down field alone I'm not downing EA cause i love there games but please tell me this video is not from the retail version that the fixed

AustinWolv
06-22-2010, 01:46 PM
CPU brought a CB blitz on that play. Offense was in verticals with more than just #10 open as a result.

gschwendt
06-22-2010, 01:56 PM
in the Oregon video at 01:37 watch what the defense does after the audibale and also watch WR#10 (X) runs down field alone I'm not downing EA cause i love there games but please tell me this video is not from the retail version that the fixed


CPU brought a CB blitz on that play. Offense was in verticals with more than just #10 open as a result.
Yeah, looks like the defense was in a zone blitz. The outside CBs blitzed, the slot CBs and MLB were in hook zones. The primary problem with that play was that the FS didn't cover deep like he was presumably supposed to. Hopefully that's already been addressed in the changes that were referenced from the demo.

AustinWolv
06-22-2010, 02:10 PM
FS didn't cover deep like he was presumably supposed to. Hopefully that's already been addressed in the changes that were referenced from the demo
Assuming he was assigned to.........you would assume it was a Cover2 as the CBs blitzed, but the way he crept up and had a short zone, not sure what was going on there........
Would have to see if it was a habitual thing or if that was a case of poor awareness rating or a lucky playcall.

morsdraconis
06-22-2010, 02:33 PM
Assuming he was assigned to.........you would assume it was a Cover2 as the CBs blitzed, but the way he crept up and had a short zone, not sure what was going on there........
Would have to see if it was a habitual thing or if that was a case of poor awareness rating or a lucky playcall.

Looks like a REALLY broken audible by the CPU. Definitely playing Cover 2 Zone but then they did a blitz where the CB on the right side blitzed and the FS switched to some weird middle zone thing. I don't know what the hell play that was but it's definitely the CPU making individual changes to the player's coverage assignments.

I've seen the CPU do that in '10 as well where they'd play man coverage on the outside and switch one of the LBs to a hook zone or QB spy because I had been tearing them up inside with slants and stuff and they are trying to bait you into throwing an INT. Definitely looks like that was what that was as well. Probably in response to them running to the outside a bunch to the right or something.

AustinWolv
06-22-2010, 03:07 PM
Yep, good observation.

Just my opinion, but I don't think EA got enough credit from the community for hot-routing defensive players in '10. Brought the heat sometimes.

beartide06
06-22-2010, 03:48 PM
Ok last year when I was playing on NCAA 10 I found a glitch that happened frequently if you audibled to four verticals the CB's would blitz EVERY time... that is what this appears to be, unless it was just coincidence. :confused:

Moostache
06-22-2010, 07:24 PM
Ok...that looks better than the constant hurry up of the demo...not 100% convinced, but I do applaud EA for showing videos...now get some before and after videos just like that which detail the changes from the list of fixes from demo to retail and I shall issue a most sincere mea culpa!

cdj
06-22-2010, 07:42 PM
If you guys have played (or will) with the no-huddle in the demo, what did you think - especially as it related to fatigue?

We had some pretty long and intense chats at the Community Event with the devs on no-hudde/hurry-up and fatigue to 1) try and stay true to the concept of it and 2) to make sure it wouldn't become the default style (read: cheese) for every online player.

AustinWolv
06-22-2010, 07:49 PM
I noticed guys getting tired in the demo which was a good thing, but need to play with it more and on aggressive to see more.

JeffHCross
06-22-2010, 08:38 PM
I saw a lot of players getting exhausted in the demo from the No-Huddle. It seemed a little over done, though I believe that was mainly against Oklahoma, and they were probably going Aggressive.

JBHuskers
06-22-2010, 08:41 PM
I saw a lot of players getting exhausted in the demo from the No-Huddle. It seemed a little over done, though I believe that was mainly against Oklahoma, and they were probably going Aggressive.

Yeah it was a tough balance. At community day, it seemed like they weren't getting fatigued enough. That was one of the things they worked hard to balance out.

cdj
06-22-2010, 08:46 PM
I saw a lot of players getting exhausted in the demo from the No-Huddle. It seemed a little over done, though I believe that was mainly against Oklahoma, and they were probably going Aggressive.

One thing about it is how quickly you hike the ball at the line. If you sit at the line for a bit, they won't get nearly as fatigued. If you hike it as soon as you get to the line, fatigue will kick in. Basically, this should give the D a chance to make some adjustments if need be; a nice balance. There was some talk of changing it up late in the 4th, but they were very interested in our thoughts on making sure those who run no-huddle all game do not do so as a form of abuse, but rather as a legit play style.

Deuce
06-22-2010, 08:51 PM
It really is hard to know for sure since its only 2 minute qtrs but from what I saw I thought it was well done.

rhombic21
06-22-2010, 09:46 PM
It would help if they would add some kind of visual cues to tell you how tired your players are. Could be as simple as an energy bar, or could be as subtle as animations that show players grabbing their knees and sucking wind. Not just for your own players, but also for the other team. If I'm wearing the defense down, there should be some way to see that and pick up on it, rather than just noting when substitutes enter the game. And on defense, it would be nice if I could see how much energy my players have so that I would know if I need to call timeout, and if I could tell when the offense was getting tired itself so I would know when they are going to have to slow things down a little bit.

On the demo it did seem overdone, but that's probably because I was using it very aggressively. One thing I noticed though is that it seemed like the CPU was bringing in players out of position even when there were plenty of players on the bench at the position who were available. Particularly at WR, the game kept bringing in 3 and 4 CBs rather than subbing in one of the 8 or 9 WRs who were on the roster.

jaymo76
06-22-2010, 10:18 PM
I'm curious to see how Aggressive no-huddle will impact the injury system. If I am running my players ragged I should expect to be prone to higher injuries.

AustinWolv
06-22-2010, 11:11 PM
In the playcall screen, the players were showing up yellow or whatever when they were getting tired.

Rudy
06-23-2010, 04:43 AM
I really didn't like how the cpu was lining up it's defense when OU or Oregon were running the no huddle. They offense was in a 4 WR set and the defense looked like it was playing a base 4-3 set with nobody covering the slot receivers. The safeties were sort of lined up there but it seemed as though the cpu defense was trying to line up poorly and give out free yards.

Kwizzy
06-23-2010, 08:09 AM
I thought it was fairly well done in the demo however I will need to play a few full games before I could give you a definitive answer. CDJ, I didn't realize that if you waited to snap the ball longer at the LOS your players wouldn't get tired as fast. That's a nice addition that I'll have to try out because I did notice that my players were getting really tired way too fast. Even when playing with Mizzou (an aggresive no huddle team) it seemed a little too fast to me, but I was snapping the ball pretty fast.

champ195797
06-23-2010, 01:51 PM
i think that the offense shouldnt fatigue as fast as the deffense because this is something they do all the so they should be better conditioned for it

Twistanutz22
06-23-2010, 05:05 PM
It would help if they would add some kind of visual cues to tell you how tired your players are. Could be as simple as an energy bar, or could be as subtle as animations that show players grabbing their knees and sucking wind.

I agree. I think it would be cool to see guys on defense tapping the tops of their helmets, and looking to their sideline as if to ask for a sub if they get tired. This happens a lot IRL, and would be a very cool, subtle touch IMO.

Jayrah
06-23-2010, 08:51 PM
i think that the offense shouldnt fatigue as fast as the deffense because this is something they do all the so they should be better conditioned for it

Not sure I totally agree with this in an equal play situation. Defenses condition as much, if not more than offenses. The difference in a game comes in 2 different phases. (1) defense is chasing, and having to fight blocks, while the offense knows where it's going. (2) as a game goes on, the offense that is able to control 3rd down will start to wear the defense out. 3rd down is the 'all in' play, so the defense really expends a lot of energy to get off the field. Also that means that the other defense is resting and will therefore have a better chance to get the other offense off the field.

I really don't think that the conditioning aspect comes into play until the 9th or 10th play of a given drive, or in stages of the second half where plays have piled to a plus 2 to 1 ratio against a defense. And WR's are still running all over the field, so they will get tired just as fast as any corner they are facing. With a zone defense, they might tire faster even.

JeffHCross
06-23-2010, 09:40 PM
One thing about it is how quickly you hike the ball at the line.I was talking about the CPU running it ;)

i think that the offense shouldnt fatigue as fast as the deffense because this is something they do all the so they should be better conditioned for itIf anything, I could see this being in the game through better Stamina ratings for offensive players on teams that normally run no-huddle. But football players, in general, have equal conditioning. The question is more about whether or not the defense is accustomed to getting a breather (a lot of defensive lines rotate out constantly now).

ebin
06-24-2010, 12:01 AM
Not sure I totally agree with this in an equal play situation. Defenses condition as much, if not more than offenses.


If anything, I could see this being in the game through better Stamina ratings for offensive players on teams that normally run no-huddle. But football players, in general, have equal conditioning. The question is more about whether or not the defense is accustomed to getting a breather (a lot of defensive lines rotate out constantly now).

This may be hard to represent in the game, but fatigue from defending the no huddle isn't just about physical conditioning either. It's also mentally exhausting. When the defense isn't used to running plays in quick succession, it can actually be disorienting.

JeffHCross
06-24-2010, 12:23 AM
Very true.