University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Mobile QBs Require Defensive Discipline
September 16, 2008 | Football, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
Sept. 16, 2008
By Adam Lucas
As college football offenses continue their 21st century evolution, North Carolina defenses have consistently been vexed by one very thorny problem: what to do when the quarterback runs with the football.
In today's era of the spread option, that's a more frequent concern than ever before. And it will be especially important in Saturday's Coastal Division clash with Virginia Tech. The Hokies' starting quarterback, Tyrod Taylor, has passed the ball just 19 times this season--but he has 29 rushing attempts. To compare, Carolina's T.J. Yates has 48 pass attempts and only seven rushes.
Stopping a running quarterback was a consistent problem for last year's Tar Heel defense. A series of versatile QBs had success in 2007, including James Madison's Rodney Landers (14 rushes for 71 yards), South Florida's Matt Grothe (12 carries for 35 yards), and Georgia Tech's Josh Nesbitt (4 carries for 53 yards). Already this season, McNeese State's Derrick Fourroux ran for 43 yards and a touchdown in the Tar Heel season opener.
It's not just a Chapel Hill problem--in his former role as Minnesota defensive coordinator, current UNC coordinator Everett Withers faced Illinois' shifty Isiah Williams last season; Williams ran for 133 yards against the Gopher defense.
Most of those teams featured the quarterback in the backfield with one running back. Virginia Tech sometimes enhances their offense by pairing Taylor with two running backs, giving them the option of running up the middle or to the perimeter.
"The buzzword from players and coaches this week is the concept of being disciplined and taking care of your responsibilities," Butch Davis said on Monday. "We will probably say `discipline' 150 times this week."
That emphasis is already having an impact. When cornerback Kendric Burney was asked how to thwart a team with a dangerous runner under center, he immediately parroted his head coach.
"You better be one disciplined football team to slow him down," Burney said.
Taylor discarded his redshirt after not playing in the Hokies' season opener. He passed just five times in a win over Furman and then threw 14 passes, completing 9, in Saturday's win over Georgia Tech. The Hokies' passing game has not yet been particularly vertical--Taylor's longest pass this season is 11 yards and he's averaging just 5.7 yards per completion--but his legs present as much danger in the pocket as his arm.
Of course, multiple carries also creates multiple chances for a defense to play physically against a quarterback. Playing that position used to mean living in a bubble protected from hard hits, but some teams are willing to trade the risk to their quarterback for the potential reward of big offensive numbers.
That's not a swap Davis and the Tar Heels are likely to be willing to make anytime soon, but he was virtually there for the trend's birth.
"They look like the Virginia Tech teams I faced when I was at Miami, because we faced Michael Vick," Davis said. "Taylor gives them an explosive guy who is capable of making big plays. He has a live arm and can pull the ball down and scramble."
That first meeting between the Hurricanes and Vick was an ugly one, as the Hokies posted a 43-10 win in Blacksburg behind Vick's 11 completions and 14 rushes. The next season, aided by a nagging ankle injury to the Hokie star, Miami defended him much more effectively, limiting Vick to two completions, an interception, and just 5 yards rushing.
The lesson learned from those encounters? The same principle Davis has been preaching since he arrived in Chapel Hill: speed trumps speed.
"You better be fast," Davis said. "You need those jets in your shoes. And the most important thing is discipline. The minute you try to do something that isn't your responsibility, you can look foolish."
Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly. He is also the author or co-author of four books on Carolina basketball.
