By Michael Petrie,
Calgary Herald
The wide-open, spread offences used by football teams across the continent today owe a small tip of the hat to John Hufnagel.
Working with head coach Wally Buono and assistant Jeff Tedford with the Calgary Stampeders in 1990, Hufnagel designed a five- and six-receiver offensive attack that proved almost unstoppable in the Canadian Football League.
The approach caught on across the CFL and worked its way south of the border.
Now, it’s common at every level of football.
Here’s how it came to be . . .
“Huff and I were B.S.-ing one day and we got talking about how we can’t protect the quarterback,” said Buono, now head coach/GM of the B.C. Lions.
“We just didn’t have enough good players and good o-linemen. So we sat down and talked seriously about how to do it.
“We talked about spreading everyone out. He said, ‘I know Danny (quarterback Barrett) can handle the free rusher,’ so we took the onus off the
O-line and put it on the quarterback.
“John and Jeff sat down and developed the five- and six-receiver package. Not that the five-receiver thing had never been done — Edmonton had an injury to their fullback in the 1990 West final and played with five receivers — but it became a staple in our offence.
“We got Doug (quarterback Flutie) and went with six receivers. We used to get Allen Pitts covered by a linebacker and we’d kill them. Defences weren’t caught up.
“I don’t want to be so presumptuous to say it (changed football). When you look at the game, whether it’s here, north, south of border, college or pro, what do you see? You see that influence.”
