Friday, Oct. 03, 2008

Morris: Running QBs are the only option

A mature Garcia will help modernize Spurrier's offense

THE MORE WE SEE of Stephen Garcia as South Carolina’s quarterback, the more we see the future of Steve Spurrier’s offense.

If that offense begins to look familiar to you, it should. Dual threat quarterbacks are all the rage in college football these days. Texas won a national championship with Vince Young at quarterback in 2005. Florida did the same in 2006 behind Chris Leak and Tim Tebow.

Turn on the television any Saturday and you see what looks like the single wing attack: The quarterback takes a shotgun snap from center, fakes a handoff here or there and takes off running down field. Or, he fakes a handoff, retreats and fires to a deep receiver on a post route.

Pat White at West Virginia. Colt McCoy at Texas. Chase Daniel at Missouri. Todd Reesing at Kansas. Armanti Edwards at Appalachian State. All are dual threats. All give opposing defensive coordinators headaches.

“Well, it certainly helps when you have a quarterback who can run out of there,” Spurrier says.

What the running quarterback does is even the numbers at the line of scrimmage. A straight drop-back passer, the cornerstone to Spurrier’s fast-striking Fun ‘N Gun offense at Florida, allows opposing defenses a one-man advantage as a play unfolds. There are 11 defenders to match up against 10 players on offense.

Since the drop-back passer is not normally a threat to run, the defense does not have to account for him, other than to watch his eyes and anticipate where he is going to hand off or throw the ball. Once a quarterback becomes a runner, though, the defense now has to account for 11 players on offense.

To better understand the here and now of offense in college football you need a refresher course on how it got to this point.

For most of the 1960s and 1970s, teams featured the wishbone or triple-option offense with the quarterback as a primary runner. But opponents eventually got bigger, stronger and faster, and quarterbacks could no longer withstand the punishment of being a running back.

Along came coaches such as Spurrier, who was willing to operate one-man down on offense because he could create mismatches with his speedy receivers and a quarterback who could fire the ball all over the field. His passing game soon became the norm in college football.

As happens in college football, defenses eventually eliminated those mismatches with speedy linebackers, increased pressure on quarterbacks and disguised blitzes.

The latest counter from offensive coordinators is the spread option, a disciple of which is Florida coach Urban Meyer, who perfected his version at Bowling Green and Utah.

Meyer added more down-field passing to his variant and has found a perfect triggerman in Tebow.

No doubt, Spurrier has taken notice the past few seasons.

“I’ve always tried to find the best way to do it,” Spurrier said nearly two seasons ago. “We’re always looking for new ideas. I’m not set in my ways.”

Spurrier was forced to revamp his offense during the 2006 season when Blake Mitchell went down with an injury. Syvelle Newton’s skills were more suited to running with the ball, so Spurrier allowed his new starter to run quarterback draws and scrambles out of the pocket.

When Mitchell returned, Spurrier retained some designed running plays for Mitchell and encouraged the quarterback to occasionally tuck the ball and run. That line of thinking carried over to the 2007 season, even though Mitchell’s talents were ill-suited to running the ball.

Enter Garcia, who at 6-foot-2 and 221 pounds is capable of taking on linebackers once he runs from the passing pocket. He also is much more agile than USC’s other two quarterbacks, Chris Smelley and Tommy Beecher.

Garcia demonstrated his more-than-adequate running skills in USC’s 26-13 victory against UAB on Saturday, rushing for 86 yards on 18 carries. Unfortunately, Spurrier says, nearly all of those runs occurred because Garcia gave up on a pass play too quickly and took off running.

For now, that makes Garcia one dimensional. As he gains experience and matures as a quarterback, it is easy to envision Garcia as a Tebow-like quarterback, one who can beat an opponent with a long pass or run a quarterback draw for 10 or more yards.

“He’s got some physical abilities, there’s no question about that,” Spurrier says, “and I think he’s got good common sense, so he should be able to play eventually. ... You’ve just got to work at it and you’ve got to train. Certainly, we think he’s got the potential to do that.”

Until then, Spurrier is not likely to put a package of quarterback running plays into his offense. With a quarterback like Garcia, though, we are beginning to see what eventually will be a different looking Spurrier offense. That offense is both the future and now in college football.

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