Fumbles, a problem... Not so much

After watching Coach Johnson's new offense stumble & and more importantly fumble their way through the T-Day Spring Game, a lot of questions have arisen about the fumbling problems the team has suffered throughout spring practice. In my brief football playing career I am familiar with the option offense. It is a great test on the mental aptitude of your quarterback, not only to find the defender he has to read but then to read him and make the right play. All of these decisions have to be made in a split second leaving lots of pressure on the quarterback and plenty of wrong decisions early in the process. Now in terms of the fumble problems, the buck doesn't stop with the quarterbacks, the backs also have their own share of the blame. In my opinion though this is much less of a concern than made out to be, especially in a game that the players get to show the fans what they can do. These kids are still twenty somethings, and some part of their brain is conditioned to follow in the footsteps of their hardcourt And-1 peers, so the urge to show a little more than the offense asks for is expected. Jonathan Dwyer dropped perfect pitches due to the fact he was looking for the nearest defesnder, instead of looking the ball into his mitts and getting six or seven yards. However, not everything is so easily defending when talking about the team's performance. Where were the offensive line?!?! They protected the quarterback slightly better than a sieve holds water. I understand there's a change in blocking scheme, but it's still finding the person and hitting him. Especially in an offense where the O-line should never be noticed, the linemen made plenty of mistakes that stood out to me. Tech's frontline was made for this offense, slightly undersized and quick, the protypical building blocks of an option offense. The first team O-line made the second team defenders look like Reggie White and Albert Haynsworth. If you don't think this is Tech's biggest concern, just follow Coach Johnson. Even through all the fumble problems and turnovers, CPJ saved his intense dialogue for only one set of position players, the big hogs up front.

~Jason Boral