Friday, May 15, 2009
Taylor's lack of experience easy to document
UVa's spread offense not a great departure
Doug Doughty
Doug Doughty's College Notebook Plus is exclusive to roanoke.com and is posted by 5 p.m. Fridays.
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Virginia Tech’s decision last week to take football commitments from two junior quarterbacks had me wondering if there is any chance that the Hokies’ Tyrod Taylor will turn pro after the 2009 season.
“None,” I was told emphatically by somebody who would know.
I’m not saying that Taylor will be NFL-ready after the 2009 season, but he will be a junior. Remember, ex-Hokie great Michael Vick was in college for only three years and actually played two seasons (he was redshirted in 1997).
Vick was the No. 1 pick in the 2001 NFL Draft, so, clearly he was viewed as a can’t-miss talent. Whether he was mature enough to go into the real world is another matter, particularly given his subsequent legal problems.
People make ill-advised decisions to turn pro all the time. Virginia wide receiver Kevin Ogletree immediately comes to mind. Ogletree elected to pass up his fourth season after registering a team-high 58 receptions, then went undrafted last month.
I’m told that Taylor receives the kind of guidance from his parents that would prevent him from making a hasty decision. Moreover, as talented as he is, he isn’t ready for the next level.
“He’s the least-repped quarterback out there,” Tech offensive coordinator Bryan Stinespring told me last week.
When I called him today, Stinespring said he wasn’t prepared to say that Taylor is the least-repped quarterback “in the country.” Every team in the country has quarterbacks – even scholarship quarterbacks – who get almost no repetititions.
“And Tyrod’s gotten a lot more lately,” he said.
What Stinespring meant was that few quarterbacks of Taylor’s stature could have had fewer “reps,” although Stinespring doesn’t pretend to have researched the subject exhaustively.
BY “REPS,” STINESPRING was referring to snaps taken in games and snaps taken in practice. He might not have been counting Taylor’s appearance in Tech’s recent spring game, where he took snaps but was not approved for contact.
Nagged by injuries throughout his first two seasons, Taylor has played in 23 of 28 games, starting 15 times. He has thrown 317 passes and had 249 rushing attempts.
So, that’s 566 plays in which Taylor has been directly involved.
Wake Forest quarterback Riley Skinner had almost that many plays last year, when he attempted 363 passes and had 104 runs. For his college career,l Skinner has had 1,166 combined passes and runs – more than double Taylor’s total.
Of course, Skinner is a rising fifth-year senior who has been a starter for virtually three years. A more apt comparison would be with Virginia’s Jameel Sewell, a fifth-year senior who has missed all of two seasons, one as a redshirt and the other while on academic suspension.
Sewell, who probably won’t begin the season as Virginia’s starter, has taken part in 832 plays (611 passes, 221 runs). Keep in mind, when Sewell played, he was taking all of the snaps.
Even Marc Verica, an emergency starter after Peter Lalich was dismissed from the team, had 386 plays in total offense last year. Compare that to 320 for Taylor.
THAT’S NOT TO IMPLY that anybody would take Sewell or Verica over Taylor. Experience is one thing. Talent is another. Besides, if the season started tomorrow, Vic Hall probably would start ahead of Sewell and Verica.
Clearly, the bigger issue for Tech is depth, one reason they did not hesitate take two junior quarterbacks, Ricardo Young from Washington, D.C., and Mark Leal from Delray Beach, Fla.
(Incidentally, all of the stories on Tech’s Del Ray Beach connection did not include a fourth Atlantic High School product, David Clowney. Add him to a list that includes Leal, Brandon Flowers and Jayron Hosley).
But, back to the quarterbacks.
“Name me another Division I-A team going into the season with two scholarship quarterbacks,” Stinespring challenged me.
He was referring to Taylor and redshirt freshman Ju Ju Clayton, who won the back-up’s job during the postseason. But, that was only after Marcus Davis returned to wide receiver.
If anything happens to Taylor, either Davis and tight end Greg Boone probably would get some practice reps, and Boone almost certainly will take snaps in games as part of Tech’s Wild Turkey formation.
Davis is still listed at quarterback on Tech’s athletic website but that’s probably a clerical matter. The only other quarterbacks on the roster are Jeff Beyer, a fifth-year senior from Woodson High School in Fairfax, and Nelson County’s Bryan Saunders, a fellow walk-on who is listed as a combination punter and quarterback.
IN THE WAR ROOM column that he writes for CavsCorner.com, Jamie Oakes speculated Friday that Virginia is prepared to take two quarterbacks in its 2010 signingclass.
The Cavaliers have a pair of fifth-year senior quarterbacks in Sewell and Hall, but they also have three scholarship quarterbacks who will be eligible to return in 2010, four if you count recruit Quintin Hunter, signed as an “athlete” out of Orange County.
Verica will be a senior in 2010, Rico Smalls will be a sophomore and Ross Metheny will be a redshirt freshman, in all likelihood.
The possibility that Virginia will take two quarterbacks stems from the arrival of new offensive coordinator Gregg Brandon, a spread advocate, which reminds me of something head coach Al Groh said Wednesday during a speech at the Roanoke Country Club.
“This is not like the tooth fairy coming,” Groh said. “All the spread offense is anymore is a formation. In reality, we were in the spread nearly 65 percent of the time the last three years anyway.”
“None,” I was told emphatically by somebody who would know.
I’m not saying that Taylor will be NFL-ready after the 2009 season, but he will be a junior. Remember, ex-Hokie great Michael Vick was in college for only three years and actually played two seasons (he was redshirted in 1997).
Vick was the No. 1 pick in the 2001 NFL Draft, so, clearly he was viewed as a can’t-miss talent. Whether he was mature enough to go into the real world is another matter, particularly given his subsequent legal problems.
People make ill-advised decisions to turn pro all the time. Virginia wide receiver Kevin Ogletree immediately comes to mind. Ogletree elected to pass up his fourth season after registering a team-high 58 receptions, then went undrafted last month.
I’m told that Taylor receives the kind of guidance from his parents that would prevent him from making a hasty decision. Moreover, as talented as he is, he isn’t ready for the next level.
“He’s the least-repped quarterback out there,” Tech offensive coordinator Bryan Stinespring told me last week.
When I called him today, Stinespring said he wasn’t prepared to say that Taylor is the least-repped quarterback “in the country.” Every team in the country has quarterbacks – even scholarship quarterbacks – who get almost no repetititions.
“And Tyrod’s gotten a lot more lately,” he said.
What Stinespring meant was that few quarterbacks of Taylor’s stature could have had fewer “reps,” although Stinespring doesn’t pretend to have researched the subject exhaustively.
BY “REPS,” STINESPRING was referring to snaps taken in games and snaps taken in practice. He might not have been counting Taylor’s appearance in Tech’s recent spring game, where he took snaps but was not approved for contact.
Nagged by injuries throughout his first two seasons, Taylor has played in 23 of 28 games, starting 15 times. He has thrown 317 passes and had 249 rushing attempts.
So, that’s 566 plays in which Taylor has been directly involved.
Wake Forest quarterback Riley Skinner had almost that many plays last year, when he attempted 363 passes and had 104 runs. For his college career,l Skinner has had 1,166 combined passes and runs – more than double Taylor’s total.
Of course, Skinner is a rising fifth-year senior who has been a starter for virtually three years. A more apt comparison would be with Virginia’s Jameel Sewell, a fifth-year senior who has missed all of two seasons, one as a redshirt and the other while on academic suspension.
Sewell, who probably won’t begin the season as Virginia’s starter, has taken part in 832 plays (611 passes, 221 runs). Keep in mind, when Sewell played, he was taking all of the snaps.
Even Marc Verica, an emergency starter after Peter Lalich was dismissed from the team, had 386 plays in total offense last year. Compare that to 320 for Taylor.
THAT’S NOT TO IMPLY that anybody would take Sewell or Verica over Taylor. Experience is one thing. Talent is another. Besides, if the season started tomorrow, Vic Hall probably would start ahead of Sewell and Verica.
Clearly, the bigger issue for Tech is depth, one reason they did not hesitate take two junior quarterbacks, Ricardo Young from Washington, D.C., and Mark Leal from Delray Beach, Fla.
(Incidentally, all of the stories on Tech’s Del Ray Beach connection did not include a fourth Atlantic High School product, David Clowney. Add him to a list that includes Leal, Brandon Flowers and Jayron Hosley).
But, back to the quarterbacks.
“Name me another Division I-A team going into the season with two scholarship quarterbacks,” Stinespring challenged me.
He was referring to Taylor and redshirt freshman Ju Ju Clayton, who won the back-up’s job during the postseason. But, that was only after Marcus Davis returned to wide receiver.
If anything happens to Taylor, either Davis and tight end Greg Boone probably would get some practice reps, and Boone almost certainly will take snaps in games as part of Tech’s Wild Turkey formation.
Davis is still listed at quarterback on Tech’s athletic website but that’s probably a clerical matter. The only other quarterbacks on the roster are Jeff Beyer, a fifth-year senior from Woodson High School in Fairfax, and Nelson County’s Bryan Saunders, a fellow walk-on who is listed as a combination punter and quarterback.
IN THE WAR ROOM column that he writes for CavsCorner.com, Jamie Oakes speculated Friday that Virginia is prepared to take two quarterbacks in its 2010 signingclass.
The Cavaliers have a pair of fifth-year senior quarterbacks in Sewell and Hall, but they also have three scholarship quarterbacks who will be eligible to return in 2010, four if you count recruit Quintin Hunter, signed as an “athlete” out of Orange County.
Verica will be a senior in 2010, Rico Smalls will be a sophomore and Ross Metheny will be a redshirt freshman, in all likelihood.
The possibility that Virginia will take two quarterbacks stems from the arrival of new offensive coordinator Gregg Brandon, a spread advocate, which reminds me of something head coach Al Groh said Wednesday during a speech at the Roanoke Country Club.
“This is not like the tooth fairy coming,” Groh said. “All the spread offense is anymore is a formation. In reality, we were in the spread nearly 65 percent of the time the last three years anyway.”
