Mailbag question: Quarterbacks and scheming

Posted at 4:00pm — 12/6/2009

Mailbag question: Quarterbacks and scheming

GBMW — Thanks for your input.

The spread offense that Rich Rodriguez prefers seems to be most effective with a quarterback who is physically imposing. Since it is primarily directed to the run, the quarterback should ideally be 6’5” and 240lbs, extremely quick and deceptive, able to take hit after hit, and possess decent passing skills. Rodriguez was able to find this person in Pat White when he was at West Virginia, but thus far has not been able to fill this need at Michigan.

Obviously, Tate Forcier is not this type of quarterback considering his diminutive size, and especially noting that he was injured early in the season after only a few hits. My question is twofold, is it realistic to expect to be able to find a quarterback who has this unique physical presence; for instance it seems that in the last two years only Jeremiah Massoli of University of Oregon and Tyrelle Pryor fit this prototype.

How can you be sure such a player is attainable when this type of player seems to be as rare as a blue moon and comes around only once per year or every other year. The second question relates to the coaches being more adaptable to the skills of the players. Certainly, early on the coaches must have known they did not have a prototypical running spread quarterback. Why wasn’t the offense tweaked to reflect the skills of the players on the field rather than conform to a specific scheme? I was hoping to see this offense predicated on quick timing passes and quick reads that send a receiver to an area vacated by a linebacker or defensive back. I know that is a different spread than the one RR runs, but couldn’t there be a bit more flexibility?

Thanks,
Mike S

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Thanks for the outstanding group of questions and comments. The analysis above brings into question how offenses are created and eventually succeed. Understanding everything discussed above would be a good objective for all chalkboard addicts.

Regardless of position, Coach Rod and staff look for great athletes with speed and pay little regard to size. The #1 attribute both Coach Magee and Coach Smith talked about in seminars was the quarterback being a true dual threat.

This requires opponents to seriously defend both the run and pass ability of such gifted quarterbacks. Making a defensive staff spend planning energy and scheming time on mostly one player usually opens up other offensive avenues for success. As for quarterbacks with size, Michigan has two coming in with the 2010 class. Both D. Gardner and C. Jones are close to, or over, 200 lbs. Gardner could easily be 220 in a year or so.

For better or worse, Coach Rod and staff made the decision to not tweak the offense, but to run the schemes the coaches have as their long-term strategy. We do give the offensive coaches credit for going to more of a passing game plan this year when it become all too obvious that running the ball was not going to get the job done.

This scheme we are watching is what Coach Rod and staff believe in and this is what they have so far decided to hang their future on.

A most telling comment was your assessment that quarterbacks of this nature (sizeable athletes with great skills running and passing) are indeed rare, hence the media circus and publicity over T Pryor’s recruitment and signing. Yes, indeed, these guys are rare and Michigan may have landed one this year. Gardner is looking great and Jones is an excellent athlete who needs to be channeled to an appropriate spot to use his athletic ability. Quarterbacks of this nature usually require some time to put the entire package of success together at the college level, see Exhibit A – T. Pryor. Gifted running backs can take the rock and make great contributions as freshmen.

Written by GBMW Staff

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