I heard Coach Richt's press conference when he mentioned this change in philosophy. Should work to their benefit although he did say that that the downside is that you'll see an increase in fumbles and it takes away the QB ball fake.
SEC fans might have noticed that Georgia’s doing something a little different on offense this year — more toss plays. Even on inside runs.
As Mark Richt explained to The Athens Banner-Herald, pitching the ball to a back on a between-the-tackles run “softens up” linebackers who usually see a pitch and think the ball’s going outside. It also enables the quarterback to serve as a blocker against backside pursuit.
Richt had no problem sharing where his staff got the idea:
“It’s basically old-school power. We’ve handed if off over the years; most everybody in the country still hands it off. (But) LSU has been a team that’s tossed it like that and you could see the benefit of it on film when we watched LSU do it.”
So will this become a trend that you’ll see at your local stadium? Probably. Coaches are copycats by nature and if something works for Team A, you can bet Teams B through Z will eventually give it a shot. We’ve seen that with Wildcat packages. The past couple of years Pistol packages have also popped up around the nation, too.
So don’t be shocked the next time a ballcarrier takes a toss from the quarterback… and cuts inside between the tackles instead of outside as you and the defense might expect.
