COMMENTARY
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Funny, isn’t it, recalling 2012 and Geno Smith acting offended any time someone dared to label him a “running quarterback.”
Now West Virginia has three of them.
Smith showed decent wheels in his college days—and subsequently posted a 4.59 40-yard time that put him among the combine’s fastest QBs. Yet he deflected talk of his mobility, as though it might tarnish his preferred reputation as an NFL pocket passer.
Now Smith’s former college coach isn’t sure whether pocket passers have a future.
The era where quarterback coaches “sacrificed some mobility or foot-speed or athleticism to get a bigger guy, a smarter guy, more of a pocket guy,” has ended, Dana Holgorsen said.
“A lot of people, I’ve recognized here lately, won’t sacrifice the athleticism and the footwork and foot-speed aspects because they want to be more multiple with the quarterback run game.”
And not just the designed runs. Seeing a quarterback improvise to elude the rush introduces a scatter ball, playground aspect that doesn’t bother Holgorsen one iota. “It means I don’t have to sit there and call the perfect play all the time.”
As tough a time as the 6-foot (ahem) Skyler Howard had convincing Division I programs to give him a shot, he has in actuality come along at the perfect time. Holgorsen wouldn’t have entertained the thought of recruiting him to Texas Tech a decade ago. Now that opinions have changed and play-callers are no longer content to play 10-on-11, Holgorsen essentially settled on Howard as his starting quarterback in April.
Now let’s see how much ground Holgorsen expects Howard to cover in this season’s offense.
The read-option is likely to become a staple, not something merely trotted out for show. West Virginia began repping it with Howard and William Crest last season, preparing for life after slow-footed starter Clint Trickett.
Considering Howard ran the ball a combined 208 times as a high school senior and junior college freshman, his mobility looms crucial to WVU matching the 33.5 points per game it averaged in 2014. Still, he’s as shifty with the media as he is with blitzers when it comes to the offensive tweaks Holgorsen installed.
Asked how frequently the option and quarterback draw might be emphasized this fall, Howard said: “I’ll have to get back to you on that one.”
The question in the headline presumes we might not recognize “the Holgorsen offense,” but then, that offense was becoming harder to peg anyway. Holgorsen hasn’t stuck to the “Air Raid” moniker of late. He’s not trying to mimic Mumme and Leach. Those six running plays during the no-huddle, game-winning drive at Maryland proved it.
Given an offseason to tailor the offense toward Howard, what is the next adaptation? Does Holgorsen prefer Howard only run when necessary? Does he want him to channel Pat White?
West Virginia already unveiled one “running quarterback” this week, to rave reviews.
Posing as an option QB for the scout team might be the pinnacle of publicity for David Sills during this redshirt season. With the Mountaineers’ defense prepping for that Georgia Southern triple-option Saturday night, Sills became a galloping extra.
“I didn’t know how fast he was until I got next to him and I had to go walk him down,” said safety KJ Dillon.
Now it’s Howard’s turn to run it under the lights for real. How fast–and more importantly, how often—will indicate where Holgorsen’s offense is headed next.