It’s no longer a college football anomaly.
In fact, it’s swiftly becoming quite the norm.
“We talk about it each and every single week — designed quarterback runs,” Tennessee defensive coordinator John Jancek said Wednesday. “That’s just the wave of college football right now. To have those types of game plans are an advantage for an offense when you run the quarterback.”
The latest of such threats is Kentucky signal caller Patrick Towles, who’s racked up 264 yards rushing and five ground scores in 2014. Despite it being his first season with full control over the Wildcats’ offense, the redshirt sophomore quarterback has quickly obtained the trust needed to successfully utilize his dual-threat abilities.
In 10 games this year, Towles had 15 or more carries in four of them, while also churning out three performances of at least 55 yards rushing. Two such outings came against ranked teams.
“He’s got a lot of confidence,” Jancek said. “I think they’re doing some really good things with him in the running game. … They’re going to neutralize the extra defender when they do run him.
“The other thing that I think Towles does a really good job of is in the throw game. If it’s not there, he takes the ball and tucks it and takes off. He’ll hurt you with his feet. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve seen him on third-and-long, if it’s not there just tuck the ball and go pick up a first down.”
A peek at last week’s game film provides an excellent example of just that as Towles’ mobility wiggled Kentucky out of countless unfavorable situations.
In the Wildcats’ 63-31 home loss to then-No. 20 Georgia, the former Kentucky Gatorade Player of the Year moved the chains with his legs on five separate occasions — three of which came on either third or fourth down.
“The quarterback is a physical runner, and you don’t have a gap for the quarterback in the run game,” UT linebackers coach Tommy Thigpen said Wednesday. “So just by using him, like what you saw in the Georgia game last week, they did a great job of running him and did a great job of letting him throw deep balls. He threw a couple China routes that were right on the money.
“So just watching him, he’s going to be one of the better quarterbacks in this conference in the near future.”
While Saturday’s showdown will mark the first on-field encounter between Thigpen and Towles, the same can’t be said for a large chunk of UT’s additional staff, who recently ran across the Kentucky quarterback at previous coaching stops.
Current UT head coach Butch Jones — along with Jancek, offensive coordinator Mike Bajakian, defensive line coach Steve Stripling, special teams coach Mark Elder and offensive line coach Don Mahoney — were all on board at Cincinnati in 2011, when the Bearcats made a strong push to reel in the dual-threat Towles.
“Know all about him,” Jones said Monday. “Even though (Towles) is from Kentucky, he is from Highlands (High School), but that is right across the river in Cincinnati. So we were involved in the recruitment of him. He is a winner. He has won numerous state championships. So it is going to be a great challenge for us.”
