Reading through some of the media reports on A&M's Maroon & White game from Saturday, I am reminded of mow much the media loves new terminology. All of the writers mention Von Miller's stellar performance in the scrimmage, and rightfully so; Miller had 2 sacks and multiple QB pressures on the day. Every writer also talks about Miller's new position, the "jack" position. Most describe it as a hybrid between defensive end and linebacker; he plays contain on the edge against the run like a defensive end, but rushes the QB like a linebacker. While this term has given many editors an easy out for column titles ('Jack' Of All Trades, anyone?), the simple fact is that Miller is just playing OLB. Any Aggies who remember the days when the Wrecking Crew ran the 3-4 under Sherrill and Slocum will recognize this, especially when we line up in an odd front.

This 'new football terminology' quirk the media has isn't new. Before Sherman arrived in Aggieland, Dennis Franchione was amazing the media with his creation of the 'A-back'. The A-back was a running back who could run the ball, catch passes out of the backfield, and occasionally block in the running game. The A-back would line up all over the formation, at TB, at FB, and at WR. While it is fairly common to have a RB move around the formation, block in the running game, and even split out wide, some treated Franchione like he had discovered fire. The fact that Franchione wasted a whole season trying to pigeonhole Jason Carter into a position that didn't work for him was cast aside. The next season, Franchione announced another new position, this time for FB Joe Weber, which he called the 'W-back'. The 'W-back" was a hybrid position of a FB and a TE, who would block for RBs, get the tough yards between the tackle, and line up at TE to help block on the edge. Astute football observers would recognize this position as the wingback, but that didn't matter to the media; as far as they were concerned, Franchione had created another position.

This phenomenon is not limited to the college sports media, either. Watchers of the NFL have heard the term 'H-back' quite often; it is usually used to describe an athletic TE who can block on the edge, catch passes, and ocassionally line up as a blocker in the backfield. The current usage of players in this position, especially on the edge in two tight end sets, revels it to be another way to use the wingback. But, because they don't run the ball as much as they used to in the NFL, and certainly not from wing-T sets, the position is termed an 'H-back'.

The reality is, as long as you have 11 players on the field on offense, and only six are eligible to carry the ball, there are only going to be so many ways to flex and deploy them to move the ball down the field. Regardless of the terminology, there really is nothng new in football, so while new terminology gives the media something to write about, it is just the same thing you've seen before packaged in prettier wrapping this time around.