the idea that pace automatically equates to good offense is stupid. ohio state was not a fast paced team last year. florida state was not a fast paced team in 2013. alabama has never been fast. stanford has never been fast. wisconsin has never been fast. all these teams have good offenses. you can have a very good offense in college w/o playing fast. playing fast for the sake of playing fast doesn't really accomplish anything.
and, btw, most people in this thread don't understand why you would go fast, and in fact have it backwards. if you have a bad defense, you actually want more plays, because it introduces more randomness and chance into the game. this is why no huddle & spread offenses started at smaller schools with less talent, because it was a way of trying to even out the game. this is also, i assume, why golden ran some no huddle when stephen morris was the quarterback. our defense was bad, and you don't want a slow game when you have a bad defense.
last year, our defense was better. some stats even say it was good (like a lot of you, i'm less sold on that notion, though far more positive than most detractors here). part of the reason why we played so slowly was because of a freshman qb, but it was also because the defense was solid.
in the grand scheme of things, pace of play isn't really that important. if the offense executes well on every play, it doesn't really matter if you go fast or slow.
