Where this Came From and Why
The real rationale behind the section regarding changing the offense really needs an explanation because it’s not directly about play calling or execution by the team, though it could be a huge part of the Hokies’ past difficulties in maintaining consistently good results.
Offense is still highly dependent on the offensive line and it’s minimum 2-deep configuration in order to operate consistently, but the big men might not like hearing the reality, much, though. The reality? Offense depends on the team’s quarterback quality and capabilities. If the quarterback isn’t good, the offense is unlikely to be good enough to win football games, period.
Time for Virginia Tech to Ditch Any Sort of Read/Option
There are three obvious reasons for why a quarterback and backups are playing poorly. The first is pretty simple in that good quality capable quarterbacks want to play for winning teams that have those bruiser offensive lines, hotshot receivers, and thundering running backs. If a program doesn’t have enough of those pieces, it is unlikely to attract the attention of a dominant QB.
The second reason is injury. The starting quarterback has to, not only, stay on his feet for the entire season; but be healthy enough that the dings and dents of the game don’t degrade his capabilities.
The third reason is the one that seems to lead to the other two, and the topic of this particular piece. No matter how good a team’s quarterback is at some point in the recruiting and early conditioning process, if the offense that he’s being given to run exposes him to heavy contact on a routine basis, he is likely to suffer the effects of both problems one and two, above.
Of course, with unbalanced schedules and radically different skill levels for the opponents faced in a season means that the quality and capability of the offensive line is going to be up and down relative to those opponents. The problem is that those normal ups and downs in the line’s success are magnified greatly by the offense that the team is running.
We have spent several of the past nine summers looking at offensive theory, offensive plays, field coverages, offensive plays, and game planning. Sometimes folks were interested and sometimes the reactions were mostly what I expected. The detail-oriented football fans read along and sometimes commented, but most everyone else sort of ignored the theory, details, and other grinder stuff. Their interest in football is from a different level of fandom, so those of us who relish the chase down the rabbit hole understand.
The problem is that the reality of what that particular rabbit hole arrives at is something that it’s probably time for college football to pat itself down, pull the statistics, and take a really close look at the kind of offense that is being used by almost all of college football, and certainly a huge part of high school football as well.
Folks, it’s time for the Read/Option style offense to be relegated to the dustbin of Virginia Tech’s long-term bad bets that go with leather football helmets, no face masks, and the rugby ball instead of “The Duke”.
A General Observation in the Terribleness of the R/O
Where did any coaching staff with a functioning gray cell come up with running a high school hike the ball to the superstar athlete and see what magic happens offense and move it into the college football level? Was it lack of imagination or the poorly trained high school quarterback talent that kept showing up for practices? It’s difficult to say, but starting in the late 2000’s and accelerating into the teens, the Read/Option supplanted the Ace, Wing-T and Power-I formations (either under center and shotgun) and replaced it with what could best be described as the quarterback meat grinder.
We are talking Virginia Tech salvage, here, but college football really needs to pitch the Read/Option, altogether.
We Need Only Look at Tech for the last 16 Years
If you want to see what sort of disaster the Read/Option has been on the quarterback position, you really can’t go too far off the tracks by looking at the fate of the Virginia Tech Hokies from 2010 until 2024.
Tech sort of stumbled into the mess. The team has always benefitted from mobile quarterbacks. Maurice DeShazo could move well, and rescue plays. Even Druckenmiller could keep a play alive or a series moving with his legs. Of course, we had Michael Vick, and my personal favorite, Tyrod Taylor, but Tech always suffered from immobility at the quarterback position. Their offensive lines were always on the small side, and pocket passers took a beating… Sean “Sack Target” Glennon call your old locker. The drift from a pro-style offense to a pure Read/Option took a few years, but the latter part of Logan Thomas’s tenue sort of dictated it, and the arrival of Fuente’s crew made it official.
The Trail Needs Explaining Because It’s Littered with Injured Quarterbacks
In 2010, the Hokies fielded what could be called a Single Setback Ace Formation, Tee/Shotgun mix. This was essentially a pro-style offense with Tyrod Taylor at the helm. With the exception of a few plays in three or so games where Logan Thomas played some snaps, every game was started by Tyrod Taylor. The team won the ACC championship but struggled mightily against Andrew Luck’s Stanford.
The next season, Tyrod’s place was taken over by Logan Thomas, who was notably larger and stronger than Taylor, but also had a smaller repertoire for passing. Thomas had a respectable season in 2011, but there was something changing in the offensive look and feel. Thomas was running more, often going over double digits and either leading or piling up yards as the #2 back. He was taking hits and the season drained a whole lot out of him. The novelty of the QB being a secondary and often primary back provided some good opportunities, but opponents caught on.
The 2012 season continued the trend, only what we began seeing was more deliberate runs of Thomas, often leading the team in attempts, but his yardage rates were terrible. What’s worse is that he was often playing beaten up and less effective in the passing game than he needed to be, and the end result was the first 6-6 season in a while for the Hokies. It also pulled the pin on the next 12 years, 3 head coaches, and a purposeful change from a sort of Read/Option to a full Read/Option offense.
Tech hasn’t been the same since. After Thomas was knocked out at the Sun Bowl, literally, not figuratively. The Hokies couldn’t keep a quarterback healthy and on the field for more than the bulk of one season, 2016. The next two seasons saw the end of the Beamer Era, and the end of any quarterback quality in the program. The formal shift from the half-in and half-out Read/Option dawned with Justin Fuente’s Cheeto, and a full implementation of that offense.
There didn’t seem to be any season after 2016 where Tech managed to actually start and finish a quarterback in good health by January. Using the quarterback as a battering ram just continued to be a bad bet that the last decade of coaches couldn’t seem to get by.
From late Beamer to Fuente, we saw Brenden Motley take over for Michael Brewer’s injuries. Fu saw Jerod Evans quit after splitting for a shot at the NFL (rumored because he was getting the stuffing kicked out of him). Josh Jackson starts off and ends up ill-suited for the heavy contact, too slow, and ends up injured. Ryan Willis takes over but ends up playing with nagging injuries. Hendon Hooker looks like a good choice until the reality of his smallish frame size gets him seriously hurt (He’d later get put into a more Air Raid oriented system in Tennessee and nearly win the Heisman). The trip continues through the agony of the 2020 season and the complete mess of the 2021 fiasco.
Without a Change the Wrecks will Continue
The current situation is again highlighted by an injured starting quarterback and even an injured backup. Leaving Tech to play UVA with a very small third string QB and the mismatch and lack of experience showed in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl game.
The reality is that the Read/Option is eating up Virginia Tech quarterbacks at a frightening rate. It might not make as big a difference to a Clemson, or Alabama, but most teams that lose their starting quarterbacks as they are just hitting their strides have wrecked seasons, and often massive fall offs in the next one.
If Virginia Tech wants to build a quarterback room, besides 1 starter, 1 transfer backup with limited eligibility, and a few 2-stars running the practice squad, it’s really time to consider going to an offense that offers a mobile quarterback some protection, speed in execution, and getting the ball out of his hands before he gets clobbered.
It also means that the only time that any QB should be running is a QB sneak, a surprise sprint draw, or a scramble where he can get down in time. A return to 2010’s I formation offense with solid game plans and better play calling would be good, or even a more exciting and faster paced Air Raid. Either way… somebody somewhere get in the ear of the OC and the Head Coach, and ditch the addiction to the Read/Option. This team needs its starting quarterback in 2025. If Drones gets hurt, the odds of getting into a bowl pretty much evaporates short of a miracle.
Let the running backs do running back things. Let Kyron Drones be a quarterback, not a halfback who throws a few passes here and there.
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