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Originally Posted by Beemnseven
The whole "West Coast" offense thing is thoroughly confusing, even for football fans who pay attention. I, myself didn't fully understand exactly which offense it was -- Bill Walsh's in San Fransisco? Or Don Coryell's in San Diego? Anyway, it was an old article by Dr. Z in SI that TAFKAS linked to that finally explained it.
Everyone thinks of it today as short passing, slants, halfback and fullback lined up close together in the backfield, blah, blah, blah ... we all associate it with what Joe Montana and Steve Young ran with the 49ers, and the long line of coaches who studied under Walsh that followed it -- Mike Holmgren, Mike Shanahan, Jon Gruden, and Andy Reid.
In fact, the real "West Coast" offense was originally the very same offensive scheme that Joe Gibbs, Norv Turner, Ernie Zampese, Mike Martz all run today who followed Don Coryell while he coached the Chargers before Bill Walsh ever coached at San Fran. According to the article, when Bill Walsh first heard the term, "West Coast", he didn't care for it, because he picked it up under Paul Brown in Cincinnati.
So CooleyFan, yet again, is actually correct in referring Norv Turner's attack as "West Coast" offense, at least in its original and literal sense.
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