Michigan linebacker/safety Stevie Brown understands why teams use the spread

One of the topics most brought up at Big Ten media days - besides Joe Paterno and his Twittledo, Twittledee and the Ohio State dominance - has been the spread offense. ESPN ran this massive package on it earlier this month and it's no surprise to Stevie Brown, who has seen both a traditional offense and a spread in his time at Michigan, why teams like to run some sort or spread offense.

"Football is a game based on speed and everything like that," Brown said. "With the spread offense, that's the sign of the spread, you get people out in space and get to use your speed and things like that.

"It doesn't shock me at all that people use it."

When Brown arrived at Michigan, he faced a two-running back, tight end type of offense with Lloyd Carr. Then, Rich Rodriguez arrived and everything changed. So he's seen both, played against both and prepared for both.

And even when he played under Carr, he still saw a bunch of spread.

"It's just different for practice reasons, seeing the spread every day versus a traditional offense," Brown said. "But whenever you go out to the Big Ten to play, the Minnesotas and Northwesterns and Michigan States, what they run is different from what we've seen (with the spread)."

So because of the coaching switch, he's now practiced daily against both offensive philosophies and in the big scheme of things, it'll probably help.

Michael Rothstein covers University of Michigan basketball for annarbor.com. He can be reached at (734) 623-2558 or at michaelrothstein@annarbor.com