Over the last few months, I’ve been racking my brain against this, even asking some of the staff their thoughts and getting similar confusion: What exactly is Jimmy Garoppolo screaming for his cadence?
For those of you unfamiliar with the term, cadence is what the quarterback says before the snap. It can be a number of things but there’s usually a consistent rhythmic and familiar set of words that initiate the snap (or throw defenses offsides once they get used to it). For instance, Aaron Rodgers’ is “Green 19...Green 19 set-hut” (or 319, or Green 18, or...we’re not arguing that one) and then at the end he’ll bark it loud and over-emphasize it when he’s trying to throw defenses offsides to great success. Rodgers’ cadence is by far the most consistent and you never hear a change in his voice or timing when he makes the call.
When Jim Harbaugh was coaching (and Geep Chryst as offensive coordinator during the Jim Tomsula era), Alex Smith and Colin Kaepernick were yelling “Red 80!” Smith had a bit more rhythm to it, whereas Kaepernick seemed to just be screaming at the top of his vocal cords to check a box—either way, you could figure it out. Joe Montana’s was “34-set”, (or “44-set” or...no not here either) though occasionally, I swear he says “49-set.”
Peyton Manning followed the same philosophy with his “Omaha!” blasts, but it was a bit different in execution as he was using it to get the offense in sync.
So what the hell is Jimmy Garoppolo screaming?
I’ve been trying to figure this out and I still can’t find a consistent answer. I want to say he’s saying, “White-80” as a friend pointed out, but it sounds more like, “one-eighty”.
I mean, either way it works. It’s got rhythm and he’s consistently saying it the right way, but he’s also consistently making me go nuts trying to understand exactly what he’s articulating to the line.
Is it important? Not really. Kyle Shanahan’s offense doesn’t have a consistent cadence and things get changed up rather frequently as far as the calls before the snap, but that one call seems to be the voice of Garoppolo. It made it into Madden 19, so it’s consistent enough.
Here’s highlights of him beating the Titans where you can hear the cadence quite a few times. Anyone else have any idea what he’s saying? Care to enlighten me?