Taylor Made: Virginia Tech quarterback has command of offense

By: By Darryl Slater | MEDIA GENERAL NEWS SERVICE
Published: November 27, 2009

There are plenty of ways to quantify junior Tyrod Taylor's progress in his first complete season as Virginia Tech's starting quarterback.

You can compare some of his numbers (1,917 passing yards, 13 touchdowns, three interceptions) to last season (1,036 yards, two touchdowns, seven interceptions) when he shared time with Sean Glennon.

You can dig deeper and learn that 34 of his completions (28.8 percent) have covered at least 20 yards, compared to 11 (11.1 percent) last season. Or that he has thrown 98 consecutive passes without an interception, after a streak of 84 earlier this season. His longest streak last season -- 53.

It all speaks to Taylor's development as the foundation of Tech's improvement on offense. Entering Saturday's regular-season finale at Virginia, the Hokies are averaging 379.6 yards and 27.9 points (not counting defensive and special-teams touchdowns), compared to 303.4 and 19.6 last season.

But it's Taylor's less obvious signs of improvement that matter more to Tech's coaches. The greatest sign of their increased trust in him -- their recent willingness to let him, and not the offensive coordinator, pick a play at the line of scrimmage based on what he sees in the defense.

Tech handles audibles like most college teams, said quarterbacks coach Mike O'Cain. Offensive coordinator Bryan Stinespring calls two plays, they're signaled in from the sideline, and Taylor names both in the huddle. When he gets to the line, he surveys the defense, and picks the play that fits best.

Taylor audibled this way a bit last year, but the Hokies have used the system more in the past four to five weeks. Earlier this season, the audible method did not rely on Taylor's decisions. Instead, Taylor called a "dummy" snap count at the line, which let Stinespring see from his booth above the field how the defense was aligned.

He then called a play that was signaled in to Taylor, but the setup had flaws. Defenses knew an audible was coming every time Taylor looked toward the sideline, and they adjusted.

"It's easier for you to tip the defense sometimes when you break the huddle too fast," Taylor said. "Some teams know that you don't have a play call set, and that you're just going to look to the sideline."

Tech's coaches used the more furtive audible system, in which the quarterback decides at the line, more with Glennon. "We didn't get locked into calling a play and having to live with it," O'Cain said.

But was Taylor ready to handle that? In his first two seasons, the staff "didn't want to have that burden on him," O'Cain said. Taylor was still learning how to predict a defense's plan based on its alignment. "You've got to have in your mind 75, 80 percent of an idea of what they're going to play," O'Cain said. "Until you've got that down, you're always a little bit late."

O'Cain began to see progress in spring practice. That continued early this season, when Taylor made quicker and better decisions and stayed in the pocket longer to let plays develop.

Part of that change involved Taylor trusting that his offensive line would block and his receivers would catch his passes. "When I first got here, I kind of thought that I had to make all the plays, maybe because of what I had to do in high school, trying to put the team on my back," Taylor said. "That's not what I have to do here."

His coaches, in turn, saw enough to believe Taylor could read a defense and pick the correct play. "I have tremendous confidence in him now, seeing everything," O'Cain said. "It's a trust, and we feel like he can handle it more."

Stinespring said: "Any time you have a quarterback that's been in the game, fully in control of the game, I think that's when you start leaning on that quarterback more and more. He's the one who snaps the ball. He gets the last look at the defense."

Darryl Slater covers Virginia Tech for the Richmond Times-Dispatch.