BLACKSBURG, Va. (AP) -The flashy highlights this season for Virginia Tech have mostly belonged to Ryan Williams, the redshirt freshman who leads the ACC in rushing.
Almost overlooked for the 14th-ranked Hokies this season has been the development of quarterback Tyrod Taylor. Always feared as a runner, the junior has shown more patience than ever in letting plays develop, and turned himself into one of the nation’s most efficient passers.
Through 11 games, Taylor has thrown 13 touchdown passes and just three interceptions. The latter is tied for the lowest figure in the nation among full-time quarterbacks, and both highlight how far he has come. A year ago, he threw for two TDs and had seven interceptions.
He’s ranked 13th in the nation in passing efficiency, and will enter Saturday’s game against Virginia having gone 98 passes without an interception. Earlier this season, he had a streak of 84 passes without being picked off before throwing two in a loss to No. 7 Georgia Tech.
dits his teammates for his improvement, and how hard they all worked with him throughout the summer. But he also says knowing his responsibilities – and how they differ from what his role was as the quarterback at Hampton High School – has helped immeasurably, too.
“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,” he said Tuesday. “That’s not what I have to do here. I can put my trust in my teammates and … we can win as a team.”
Learning he wasn’t expected to be the whole show was a process, he said, especially as the more mobile option in a shared quarterback situation with drop-back passer Sean Glennon.
Last season, when he became the No. 1 quarterback, it started to sink in.
“My freshman year, I felt like I was coming in pretty much to make plays like high school,” he said. “When I was a starter and playing full games, I had to put my trust in my teammates.”
That trust includes having them realize when a play breaks down, Taylor is not automatically going to pull the ball down and run like he used to. Several times this season, he has scrambled around behind the line for what seemed like an eternity before throwing.
`It all starts with protection, and on some of those play-action passes, if you can hold off some people, it creates seams down the field.”
Taylor’s most notable scramble came in the Hokies’ comeback victory against Nebraska. On the winning touchdown pass with 21 seconds left, he scrambled for 9 seconds before hitting Dyrell Roberts.
Last weekend against North Carolina State, he had been hit low by a defender and was falling onto his back when he fired a pass toward Jarrett Boykin near the end zone. Boykin made the catch, a 17-yard completion to the 2, and the Hokies scored three plays later.
Taylor said the play didn’t feel like a big deal to him – and that he had tried to execute a similar pass earlier in the season against Duke – until people gushed about it afterward.
Cavaliers coach Al Groh said Taylor’s ability to make plays on the move, whether running or throwing, makes him like a 12th man to contend with, and one that is hard to stop.
“Sometimes it’s more challenging when he’s just out of the pocket, and it doesn’t show up in passing statistics,” Groh said. “But that’s what distorts the structure of coverages, when the quarterback is out and moving. … It’s pretty evident that there’s been a good deal of attention spent on doing the scramble drill with the receivers to adjust to the quarterback.”
The Cavaliers and Groh will get to see it for themselves on Saturday.
Add A Comment