THE CFB BUYERS' GUIDE: OFFENSES

Each week, EDSBS teams with the research and evaluation experts at Consumers Union to compare different aspects of college football and determine which products are most worthy of your hard-earned dollar. We've already tested first-year coaches, Heisman contenders, and BCS-buster prospects; we keep asking our editor when we can road-test sideline reporters, but we think he's figured us out on that one. So instead, this week we bring you a comparison of offensive attacks: Which ones will give you yard after yard of efficient performance, and which ones will break after only a few uses?

TOP RATED

NEVADA | ■ ■ ■ ■ ½
Highs: Unstoppable ground game, minimal noise, versatile on a wide variety of terrain.
Lows: Only so-so through the air, may be too big to fit in your garage.
Don't look know, but the most fascinating offensive show in the country is coming not from Los Angeles or Austin but from Reno, Nevada, where the Wolf Pack is armed with a pistol and mowing down everything that stands in its way. No other product on the market comes with this many features: Multiple thousand-yard rushers in any given season means that if one of them breaks you can just sub in another without missing a beat. The Pack has lived in the shadow of an Idaho-built competitor for a while now, but we think it's ready to stand on its own and begin competing in a higher echelon. Only caveat: Quarterback Colin Kaepernick stands in at an imposing 6'6", so good luck cramming this offense in your garage if you've already got a lot of junk stored in there.

OREGON | ■ ■ ■ ■ □
Highs: Best-in-class speed, yet is environmentally friendly.
Lows: May not hold up to repeated use in warmer climates, occasionally punches people.
Intrigued by advertising claims of a "point-a-minute" offense, we purchased a 2010 Oregon model and gave it a workout in the unforgiving desert climate of Arizona. We weren't quite able to recreate those results -- it ended up being more like a point every 85.7 seconds -- but there's still no doubt that this flashy design has what it takes to bring your yard under control an amazingly short amount of time. We're still not 100 percent sure how well it'll hold up in places like, say, Palo Alto or Tucson, and recent Oregon models have not been known for their user-friendliness, but it still looks like the Ducks are one of the better long-term investments in this category.

ABOVE AVERAGE

STANFORD | ■ ■ ■ ½ □
Highs: Impressive toughness, clears difficult brush in a hurry.
Lows: Has only faced one actual defense, running back's name is "Stepfan."
We're not accustomed to finding brash design and rugged attitude in a Stanford product, which makes the take-no-prisoners philosophy of the 2010 model that much more surprising. Here's what an unrepentant asshole coach Jim Harbaugh is: His team was up 41-7 on Wake Forest a couple weeks ago, and when the Deacons tried to kick a measly field goal right before halftime in a desperate attempt to save some face and get back a little momentum, Harbaugh called a time-out to ice their kicker. That's the kind of dickishness even the '96 Steve Spurrier would have to bow down to, and it's one of the big reasons why Stanford has become a formidable contender in this category. Just for good measure, it's got a two-way setting that permits it to score on consecutive plays. As with Oregon, we're not entirely convinced that it'll stay completely problem-free for an entire fall season in the more unforgiving climates of the West Coast, but we're rolling with it until proven otherwise, or until Harbaugh screams "HADOUKEN!!" and cockpunches a ref on live TV for missing a hold.