Question from @cdbarker: Is it possible to successfully use two quarterbacks of similar but divergent styles effectively, ie Tate and Denard?

The traditional wisdom — and it is a notion I generally have agreed with — is that having two quarterbacks is a euphemism for not having any. There are a few interesting counter examples, though none are truly compelling, like Mark Richt rotating D.J. Shockley and David Greene, or Spurrier rotating Doug Johnson and Noah Brindise every other play against Florida State. But, generally, it is a bad recipe. There are lots of reasons, but none may be more important than simply repetitions in practice. If you have two quarterbacks the receivers have to get used to both; the gameplan has to be taught in detail to both, film must be gone over with both, etc; and then there’s that old saw about “rhythm” and how it is disturbing with different guys in the huddle. I don’t find those latter ones all that persuasive, but there is at least a little truth to them.

But I think the winds are changing, and a two-quarterback system is quite possible. At its best you are likely to have the system Florida used to win the 2006 title: a starting quarterback in charge of most of the offense (Chris Leak), and a second guy with special abilities for whom a package is installed (then-freshman Tim Tebow). This example has now been made universal throughout football under the nauseatingly overused rubric, “the wildcat.” (Had “wildcat” been around in 2006 think of all of the puns Dan Shanoff could have used to describe how Meyer used his young talent.) The reason that works though is because you choose a starting quarterback for one set of skills (passing, reading the defense, making checks, accuracy, some athleticism, etc) but another guy opens up a new dimension because of their running ability, and the spread with a mobile guy gives the offense certain numerical advantages it doesn’t get with an immobile quarterback.

A beautiful marriage, when it works.

Aside from this though there are other forces pushing towards a two-quarterback system being right. One is the no-huddle offense, be it in its super fast forms or the kind where the play is signalled in from the sideline. Having eliminated the huddle, it is no big deal for a different triggerman to run onto the field; most of the players get the playcall from the sideline anyway. Indeed, this might be a bit overblown, but I think the no-huddle reduces the “field general” role for the quarterback to something more akin to a point guard or ball distributor. In ye olden days, guys like Bart Starr or Johnny Unitas not only played quarterback as we think of it now, but called all their own plays, made all the checks at the line, and made all the adjustments themselves. Contrast that with today. Gary Pinkel, the head coach of Missouri, remarked in a clinic that his squad hadn’t called a single audible in the last three years because of their no-huddle spread — all the calls came in from the sideline. With this “plug-n-play” approach substituting a new changeup quarterback isn’t such a huge deal.

Finally, the “rhythm” and practice time aspects. This is where the question is a good one, and the key language is in “similar but divergent styles.” There is little point (sorry Ol’ Ball Coach) in rotating guys who have basically the same skill set. Even if they are close in talent your team gains more benefits if the team picks a guy and develops him. If the Michigan hubbub has taught us anything, it is that there is only a limited amount of time to directly coach up players. But if they bring different skill sets, then it is worth it; the starting or “main” quarterback can still work on all the passing drills necessary while the other one works on their “package.” The fact that this change-up package includes some passes doesn’t change that.

The rhythm or leadership stuff I buy less, but that is a judgment every team is going to have to deal with. I don’t buy that a quarterback has to play every single snap to be a leader. In basketball, even Michael Jordan and Lebron James head to the bench sometimes. And seriously, how much more can your rhythm be thrown off than running a simple hand-off play? I think much of that talk from quarterbacks — often NFL guys — is mostly hubris. But, again, each coach will have to determine where the leadership comes from and whether his guys can handle it. Every decent player wants to be out there every play; you just have to find a way to make it work. I think the two-quarterback stuff is very viable, and will continue to be as offenses get more and more multiple, and roles and packages get more and more specialized and diverse.

Chris contributes here at EDSBS every Wednesday during the football season. Ask him questions by dropping a tweet at twitter.com/edsbs. He just figured out what’s causing that squeaking noise in your refrigerator and fixed it, and you didn’t even bother to thank him. Dick.

RR: Hey! Weren’t you in Booty Call?

JF: Among other things, yeah, man.

RR: I remember that. You put a rubber glove on your stuff instead of a condom. That was GREAT.

JF: Thank you. What do you do?

RR: Well, I coach football. At the University of Michigan. But we had a pretty bad year last year.

RR looks hurt. He trails off.

JF: Hey, now. Let’s turn that frown upside down. You can talk about it.

RR: Naw, it’s…it’s difficult for me. It was so painful.

JF: It can’t be that bad, man.

RR: (pauses) We lost to Toledo.

JF: Oh, now, I didn’t know it was like that. You’re gonna have to sing that one out.

RR: I’m sorry?

JF: It’s the only way you’ll feel better about it. I’ll drop the beat for you, and you can just sing it. You heard my hit song, “Blame it on the Alcohol?”

RR: Have I? You bet. Gary Moeller loves that jam.

JF: Well, I just lay the track down like this…

RR: Really, I don’t know if I could…

Sultry drum machine kicks in. Rich Rod pulls an autotuned mike from his pocket.

RR: Blame it on the backs
Small and full-a lack

Blame it on the line
Fat and lackin’ spine

Blame it on the per-per-per-per-per-personnel
Blame it on the per-per, per-per-per, per-per-per-per-per-per–

You say you usually don’t
Or that you usually won’t
But you’re just frontin, cause last year lost to a team straight from the MAC…

I ain’t saying we ain’t goin’ to
With One freshman qb and maybe two
But it could happen ’cause we’re still slow-ow-ow-ow-ow-ow-ow-ow

I know what you’re thinkin’
Michigan be stinkin’
Every single weekend
Freakin’
Out on the message boards sayin’ I’m in trouble
Ain’t all my fault if my screens are all bubbles

Lose to Notre Dame–what?
Coach that got a gunt-what?
You don’t even care now
I was unaware now just
How thin this roster was before I bailed on Morgantowwwwwn…

Blame it on the guards
Blame it on the tackles
Blame it on protection best described as ramshackle

Blame it on the per-per-per-per-per-personnel
Blame it on the per-per-per-per-per-personnel

Blame it on Navarre
Blame it on the Henne
Blame it on the qb who run a six-fiddy

Blame it on the per-per-per-per-per-personnel
Blame it on the per-per, per-per-per, per-per-per-per-per-per–

Music stops.

JF: Man, that was impressive. Have you been practicing that?

RR: Oh, only for about a year and a half now.

Begin.

Phil. Steele.

Note: buy Phil new t-shirt.

You are not ready.

We therefore recruited help for 1-10 in the form of R. Kelly, who in addition to fucking the same girl happen to be huge college football fans with plenty of angles to cover on the upcoming season. The end product is so hot, it reminds us of our Jeep, because it makes us wanna ride.

See provisional 1-3 here, including our standard overreach for Michigan.

4. Texas. Is this a blind reach for a blue-chip program, or an actual stab at coherent forecasting? Considering that we’re reading Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s book Black Swan right now, we’ve been disabused of the notion of accurate forecasting and can happily toss this out there as a rank and giddy guess–since they’re all guesses that will inevitably be up to 180 degrees from what we thought would happen.

Colt McCoy: will be merely excellent this year, a letdown from 2006.

Nevertheless, Texas makes for solid guessing for good reason. The linebacking corps returns intact; the defensive line will feature defensive tackle Frank “The Subpoena” Okam, who along with his fellow d-lineman Derek Lokey is taking the LSAT in preparation to become a lawyer (and therefore a future reader of EDSBS.) Colt McCoy and his fake-ass assumed name (born Edwin Schlobodowitz, Poughkeepsie, NY) had the best freshman season in recent memory, insuring that whatever he does this season will be a letdown of some sort. We’d say he can’t be as good, but the Greg Davis offensive system remains a run first game, and Jamaal Charles et al constitute the usual nightmarishly talented Longhorn backfield to keep the pressure off McCoy. Limas Sweed, Quan Cosby, and Billy Pittman are already getting open as we speak, and there’s nothing you can do about it.

Kells:

Straight up, dog.

Kells on Texas: Straight up, dog.

5. LSU. Everyone else’s automatic number two winds up at six five here, mostly because we think this team just has two losses written all over it this year. Placing them at two requires taking certain factors as givens we’re not willing to grant, namely:

1. New offense, no problem=untrue. Jimbo Fisher can’t help but be overrated after the bidding war that ensued this offseason between FSU and Alabama, yet the dropoff between him and Gary Crowton must be noted. Crowton’s offenses at Oregon rang up huge numbers against the gnomes of the conference and sank when confronted with actual defenses. The totals against uSC, Arizona, and BYU: 10, 10, and 8. They also badly mismanaged a quarterback rotation, something that still has a gambler’s chance of happening between Matt Flynn and Ryan Perriloux, who’ll happily give you odds on just that scenario at your local Harrah’s Casino.

2. Lester the Unready. Les Miles’ teams, fiery as they are, just have a tendency to commit crippling mistakes at crippling junctures in games. Last year LSU pulled off some dramatic wins fueled by the Dancing Ent, Jamarcus Russell, who often committed the turnovers to put the Tigers there in the first place. He wasn’t alone, however–the precision of, hmm, say, an Urban Meyer or Frank Beamer team in execution and preparation simply isn’t as obvious from the performance on the field. He’s a player’s coach, and like many player’s coaches, he relies on players to occasionally pull victories directly from their very talented asses rather than game planning the bejeezus out of the opponent. On this spectrum, Les is obviously over on the emotional, loosey-goosey side, a side with a loss margin of around two a year in our estimation.

Do you trust this man? Hayley Lafontaine doesn’t.

3. The talent differential cometh. The depth chart stocked so obsessively by Saban can’t last forever, and we’re happy to wager that Miles isn’t recruiting the same grade or ferocity of beast Saban did. Miles may actually be a better motivator and people skills type–then again, so is the dead carcass of a Komodo Dragon–but now the roster’s looking more and more Les Miles-ish, an unknown unknown at this point in terms of quality.

They’re still good, but they just feel like a ten game season from the gut. And our gut’s known for making great decisions like not buying Amazon stock, ordering the Baconnator at Wendy’s before a strenuous workout, and thinking that seeing the ATHF movie without getting baked beforehand was a good idea.

Kells says:

My mind is telling me no…
BUT MAHHH BODEEEE!!!
MAHH BODDEEEEE!!!!
Is telling me yes

SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT… (Fade out)

Kells is: Wearing purple and peeing on a picture of Matt Flynn to show his support for LSU.

Kells likes LSU so much he’d pee on them and still film that shit.

6. South Carolina. Now we’re just being provocative, sure, but we’d rather attempt to actually trend-spot and fall flat rather than simply rejigger the 2006 finishes of teams and call it a thought process. Steve Spurrier, openly and unashamedly beloved by this website, got the SC offense with dancin’ Blake Mitchell up to #20 in total offense last year, a stat which should improve this year as Mitchell has a final year in the Cock ‘n Fire. The tailbacks give hope for improved production, too, as Mike Davis and Cory Boyd man a veteran–nay, positively grizzled backfield.

Oh, it’s a stretch. But we trust the chef.

A leap of faith must be performed for the defense, but there’s evidence a-plenty for the jump: the amazing Brinkley brothers, the meanest Ladi you’ll ever meet, Ladi Ajiboye, and defensive coordinator Tyrone Nix, a young defensive coordinator who constructed small miracles with a defense that took the field last year with one–one–returning starter.

Kells says:

You must be straight trippin’
From the purple drank you sippin’
Got your brain straight fried
Like some tasty-ass chicken.

I haven’t mentioned a sponsor
This verse done need a sponsor
Navigator Cris’ and Escalade
Cocks good but they ain’t got it made…

Kells is…

…deeply suspicious of your pick.