By TERRY NAU

Sports editor

A few years ago, I gave an audio book tape to Tolman High football coach Dave Caito. The tape was taken from a book called “When Pride Still Mattered: The Life of Vince Lombardi.”
Listening to the tape on a long road trip, I knew it could be better utilized by a young coach because several chapters dealt with how Lombardi conducted a practice, and particularly how he made his offensive unit run the same play over and over again until it repeatedly achieved the “perfect seal” against onrushing defensive players, allowing the ball carrier to gain significant yardage on the power sweep that became the trademark of the revered Green Bay Packers coach and his four NFL championship teams of the 1960s.

On Sunday night, I sat in the press box at Cranston Stadium, watching Caito’s latest Tolman team run an offense that Lombardi might have mistaken for the single-wing alignment of the 1930s. Tolman’s quarterback, Jordan Johnson, would stand four yards behind his center, with two halfbacks flanking him, no more than a few feet away. Johnson would take the snap from center and execute one of several options available to him in the spread formation. He could put the ball into the belly of either running back. Or he could rear up and throw the football to one of his backs or receivers. His other option would be to take off behind his pulling linemen, looking for that “perfect seal” and the hole it might create.
Halfback Jordan White, another speedy athlete, also took a fair amount of snaps from center, giving the defense another thing to think about. White gained 79 yards on 15 carries and Johnson collected 100 yards on nine carries.
On the first play of the second half, Tolman’s blockers cleared a huge hole around left end, allowing Johnson to break free into the secondary, following two or three teammates down the sideline in front of Tolman’s bench. Johnson used his convoy of blockers to shield himself from the two remaining Cranston East defenders, and then burst into the end zone for the only scoring play of the game, a 78-yard run that gave Tolman a 7-0 victory and put the Tigers into the Division II semifinals on Dec. 2 against Cumberland.
After the game, Caito talked about that play and brought up Vince Lombardi’s name, chortling over the precise blocking that sprung Johnson into the secondary.
“Just like Lombardi’s tape,” Caito said while walking off the field.
On Thursday, we renewed that conversation, talking about the spread offense that is taking over high school and college football, and even appearing in some NFL games (witness Miami’s “Wildcat” offense that resulted in four touchdowns against the Patriots earlier this season).
“The spread offense started with Urban Meyer’s teams at Utah,” Caito said, “before he moved on to Florida. And then the coach at West Virginia (Rich Rodriguez) had a lot of success with it. I’m seeing it a lot more in high school games around here. There are probably eight teams in Rhode Island that use the spread offense.”
Why is it becoming popular?
“I think the biggest advantage is that most defenses do not account for the quarterback, except on option plays,” Caito said. “The spread allows us to dictate what we want to do on offense. We can spread the field with our formations, then either throw the ball or run it. We can run a power sweep out of the spread.
“We went to a spread offense last year,” Caito continued, “because we did not have anyone who could throw the football (in a traditional offense). We put (David) Bedard back there. This year, Jordan Johnson has developed into a good passer and that really opens up our spread offense.”
Cranston East’s defense limited Tolman to 260 yards total offense and kept the scoring down by creating four turnovers on defense.
“They tried to man us up,” Caito said. “They believed they had the athletes to hang with our guys (on the corners). If they are playing us man-for-man, then we should be able to get to the outside of their defense. And that’s what happened on our touchdown run.”
Caito then said something Vince Lombardi could appreciate.
“In the end,” he admitted, “football still comes down to blocking and tackling. You can spread the field out as much as you want but players still have to block and tackle.”
Defense still plays a key role in the outcome. In fact, Tolman could never have defeated Cranston East without a near-flawless performance by its defensive unit.
“We played aggressive defense and we hardly gave up anything,” Caito said. “We held their top running back to 39 yards rushing. You could single out players like Jason Lafond, Dan Eerhart, Jordan Johnson, Allens Etienne, Jordan White and Hady Coumbassa. White and Coumbassa are shutdown cornerbacks who give us the option to send the house (rush the passer).”
Etienne also roams the secondary, reading the eyes of opposing quarterbacks and running to the football when it’s in the air. The 6-foot-2 senior intercepted one pass against Cranston East and made several key deflections during the game, as did defensive back Jared Coyle.
Tolman also got great mileage out of versatile linebacker Brandon Brown, who is a 5-foot-10, 185-pound mini-version of New England’s Adalius Thomas, a player who causes problems from at least three positions on defense.
“We put Brandon over the other team’s center the past three games,” Caito said. “It’s more of a disruptive thing. If he can push their center into the backfield, or cause him to make a bad snap, that’s going to help us. We do this mainly against running teams so we can create some havoc in their backfield.”
Caito may change things up for next Wednesday’s Shea game, or even the Cumberland playoff game, depending upon what he and his staff discover on game films of their next two opponents.
“We may not rely on it as much as we did the last three games,” the coach conceded.
The Tigers still have two, and possibly three, games left on their schedule. They meet Shea High in a Thanksgiving Eve non-leaguer at McCoy Stadium, then come back on the following Tuesday with their Division II semifinal playoff game at home against Cumberland. A win in that game would put Caito’s Tigers back in the Super Bowl, which they last visited in 2005.