Naturally, I am poop-in-my-pants excited about all the rhetoric coming out the program right now concerning the new attitudes, players, and coaches employed (that would be literal if we were dirt burglars, see: Bomar, Rhett) by this season's version of our football team. The one little detail that is really making me lose my bananas is Greg Davis's new toy.
I am talking about the new double QB super-turbo-destruction backfield. When I wrote the following article on March 1st, I kind of intended it to be like when you create a perfect replica of Vince Young in NCAA on your Playstation, then recruit 22 copies of him to your team and have him play all the positions on your offense and defense, winning every game by 212 points because you score on every single play, regardless of who has possession. That is the mindset I was in when I wrote that I thought it would be neato if we played more than one QB.
Mr. Davis, if you read my blog (and I think you do because you, like, totally stole my make-believe offense consisting of two plays), I'm sorry if I've ever complained about your play calling. I don't know who put you up to it, but I think the new double QB thing is awesome.
Originally posted on March 1st:
So I contacted the ESB and apparently they are all booked up making
bat-people. Oh well, their loss. With that idea no longer viable, I believe there are essentially two ways to best utilize the Longhorns' depth at quarterback.
Sharing is fun
Sticking with only Colt until he graduates is a waste of talent, clear and simple. During the Holiday Bowl, Greg Davis wisely opted to divide play-calling duties two-to-one between Colt and Chiles. This is a strong strategy that is sure to give many a Big 12 defensive coordinator nightmares should it continue to be employed. Attempting to teach their defenses to stop two very different and talented quarterbacks is no easy feat, even for a talented coordinator (ask
Florida if it works).
Let's get freaky
Certainly the least likely, but by far the most exciting option is to employ a few exotic playbooks, the likes of which could transform Greg Davis' wikipedia resume into one similar to Bill Belichick's. Unlikely because creating and teaching a few new playbooks is hard and time consuming, time which could be spent perfecting strategies already familiar to the offense. It's a gamble that could have disastrous results in terms of the execution of other playbooks in Greg Davis' arsenal, but without great risk there is no great reward. Maybe he could scrap the bubble screen, just saying (begging).
Ideating
So what would these new plays look like? If it were me, I would employ all three quarterbacks at the same time as much as possible. Last season, Chiles saw the majority of the non-Colt snaps, but based on my observations at the Spring game this was more a result of Sherrod Harris getting hurt, and not so much Chiles being the better quarterback. Actually, I found the two to be very similar from a pure athleticism standpoint, but Harris had a slight edge when it came to passing the ball. The benefit of using all three of the quarterbacks is that it puts more offensive play-makers on the field at once, and thus forces the defense to make more choices. For my first playbook, I'd use two wideouts and a slot receiver. I would use Colt out of the shotgun as my "primary" quarterback, meaning he'd do the cadence, the audibles, and actually take the snap. Rather than simply line Harris and Chiles up as receivers, I'd line them up on either side of Colt as if they were flanking running backs. Nothing special in the way the backfield is set up, other than there being three players back who can all throw on top of being able to make plays on the ground. From this set up there are plenty of ways an offensive coordinator worth his six-figure salary could devise to really make life hard for the opposing defense. Teams that use this type of configuration with running backs rather than quarterbacks generally run the ball to the outside of the line using any of the three players lined up in the backfield. For a defense, this strategy is only a little more difficult to defend than any other standard running play. Throw in two running backs who can also throw the ball down-field, and you get a much harder to defend play. The two examples below show the different directions in which the play could be ran, as well as the passing opportunities available to each passer. What the examples below do not show are the choices the corners and the linebackers are having to make. They must choose whether to pursue the quarterbacks or the receivers. In the cases below, I opted to show the defenders mainly pursuing the quarterbacks, as most defense would interpret this play as a running play. This leaves most of the receivers in single coverage and in a position to make a play. If the defense got wise and pursued the receivers, the quarterbacks are still physically equipped to run the ball upfield and get a decent gain. With that, I present to you a page of my first new playbook. Another added sweetness factor is that the quarterbacks run a pattern that looks like a longhorn.
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