Free-wheeling QBs in charge

By TIM MAY

Daryll Clark and Terrell Pryor have breathed life into formerly stale offenses.

It’s no stretch to say that Penn State’s Joe Paterno and Ohio State’s Jim Tressel are two of the more control-minded coaches in major college football. So why would they turn their offenses over to throwing/running/sometimes free-wheeling quarterbacks this season?

Kirk Herbstreit knows the answer. He’s watched junior Daryll Clark direct one of the more explosive offenses in the country, elevating Penn State out of the gloom of the Anthony Morelli era. And he’s watched freshman Terrelle Pryor help OSU win five straight games since taking over for returning senior starter Todd Boeckman.

“These two coaches, they’re playing the guy they believe gives their team the best chance to win,” said Herbstreit, national college football analyst for ESPN and ABC.

While that might seem to be a radical departure for Paterno and Tressel, remember that both did similar things a few years ago. Tressel turned his offense over to the playmaking Troy Smith, who went on to win the 2006 Heisman Trophy. Paterno gave the ball to Michael Robinson, who rose to 2005 Big Ten MVP.

“If we had looked at this in ’05, I think we would have said this is really out of character for these two coaches, to bring in quarterbacks who can make plays with their feet and sometimes getting out of the principles of their base offense,” Herbstreit said.

But look around the country in 2008, Herbstreit said. Coaches are doing cannonballs into the dual-threat pool.

In this week’s BCS top 10, for example, five teams are led by dual-threats. No. 1 Texas has Colt McCoy, now the Heisman frontrunner; PSU has Clark; No. 6 Oklahoma State has Zac Robinson; No. 9 Ohio State has Pryor; and No. 10 Florida has Tim Tebow, who’s trying to become just the second man to win two Heisman trophies.

“So many people talk about scrambling quarterbacks and their ability to run for extra yards, but what I am seeing more and more is quarterbacks showing the ability to improvise, create time, keep their vision downfield, still looking to throw it,” Herbstreit said. “Eventually, even the best defenders can’t cover a man for six or seven seconds.”

On top of that, the fleet-footed quarterback is a perceived threat that often causes a defender to leave his coverage responsibility altogether in favor of chasing the quarterback.

“I think Colt McCoy right now is the best in country at doing that, at baiting the defenders with his running threat,” Herbstreit said. “Terrelle Pryor, because of his abilities, eventually will become the man in college football in doing that.”

He’s not just high on Pryor. He’s also high on Clark, the Youngstown native who played at Ursuline High.

“He’s a passer who wants to stand in there and deliver the ball, but you know he can also beat you with his feet,” Herbstreit said. “And you can see how the players on that offense have responded to him as a leader.”

Maybe that’s why Paterno indicated he had no qualms when he named Clark the starter, and that Clark shouldn’t either.

“I think Clark ought to go out and have a little fun playing,” Paterno said at the time.

“I don’t want him looking over his shoulder.”

Tressel has told Pryor pretty much the same thing. That’s why the teams’ collision in prime time Saturday night, with national prestige and the Big Ten lead on the line, is so alluring.

“These days, with defenses being so good and well-prepared, coaches have to have a certain element of trust in their quarterbacks, because you are asking them at times to improvise and create, to do things you didn’t necessarily draw up in the meeting room,” Herbstreit said. “The trust comes in the coaches having a feeling that quarterback is going to make good decisions for the most part.”