Maximizing Hokies' Quarterback Brenden Motley's Production

Saturday was Brenden Motley's first career start and it couldn't have come against a better opponent. It might have taken a little longer than most of Hokie Nation would have liked, but Motley eventually had the offense firing on all cylinders on the way to an easy victory over Furman. Motley found success throwing the ball down the field. He attacked the Paladins' defense vertically rather than relying on a ball control short pass game. Those vertical routes by the wide receivers allowed Motley to show off his arm strength and it could be a sign of how offensive coordinator Scot Loeffler will maximize his potential moving forward.

Motley's Arm Strength

It's nice to have a quarterback that can bomb it 60 yards down the field, but even more important than how far you can toss the ball is how fast you can throw it. The faster you can get a ball from point A to point B, the less time you give the defense to react and close down throwing windows. Michael Brewer is a very capable quarterback. He excels in making quick decisions and accurate throws which allow him to run an offense that relies on a large volume of high percentage short pass plays. Brewer does lack elite arm strength though, and it limits his ability to drive balls into tight windows down the field. On Saturday Brenden Motley didn't look as polished as Brewer did reading coverages and finding receivers underneath, but he did show the necessary arm strength to make every throw on the field.

Here on third-and-19, Loeffler gets Isaiah Ford against a two deep safety look by using three receivers aligned to the field. Loeffler has the innermost receiver run a hook route in the middle of the field and he has the slot receiver run an out route. Both of these routes are designed to draw their defenders away from the true target, Ford on a deep in route. Ford only has to beat his corner to the inside, as the safeties are too concerned with deep vertical routes to be in position to defend the intermediate route. It's easy to visualize the triangle that Loeffler has employed on this play, using the base of the triangle (Phillips and Malleck) to open up the throwing window for the receiver at the top of the triangle (Ford).

Ford gets so wide open that every FBS quarterback on scholarship would have the time to complete this pass. Still, Motley's arm strength is a welcome sign. He is a beat late on delivering the throw, which should improve with experience, but he puts it on the money and he delivers it with good speed. Even against moderately tight coverage this would be a completion for a first down.

After seeing this throw made on Saturday, it instantly reminded me of some throws that another big armed quarterback Loeffler called plays for used to make.

Similar to Motley's situation, Logan Thomas is in a third-and-long and he finds a receiver open on a deep in route in front of a safety who is not in position to stop the throw. The window that Logan threw into is tighter than the one Motley was, but this is a good example of how a QB with a stronger arm can make it a lot easier for an offensive coordinator to scheme wide receivers open.

This is another example of Motley making a difficult throw look easy thanks to his powerful arm. Phillips is being covered by the safety (No. 4), and after the fake sweep play draws the play side linebacker towards the flat, Phillips gets open on the sideline. Motley has the arm to drive the ball into the sideline rather than floating it out there, getting the ball to Phillips quickly and giving Phillips the time to make the catch then head up field. If this ball is floated out to Cam instead of thrown on a rope, the defense would have time to rally to the football and at least prevent Cam from getting inside the one-yard-line. This play also reminded me of a throw that Logan Thomas made often during his senior year under Loeffler.

This is the exact same play two years apart, the only difference being Byrn's inability to stay in bounds and get some extra yards after the catch.

If Scot Loeffler wants to get the most out of Brenden Motley in the passing game, it would be in his best interest to focus on pushing his receivers up the field on vertical routes. Motley probably isn't going to have the percentage completion that Michael Brewer would have, but he has the ability to average more yards per completion than Brewer did. There will still be a need to run five receivers on five short routes to take advantage of certain defensive alignments, but Loeffler shouldn't have that be a focus of his offense the way that it was with Brewer. Motley has a different skill set than Brewer, and Loeffler should gameplan accordingly.

Get Under Center

Motley's big arm isn't a just a benefit in the dropback passing game, I think there is a real opportunity to see Tech move the ball while lined up in traditional formations with the quarterback under center. This is the second game in a row where we've seen the offensive line create space for the running backs on the ground, and there is no reason to think that run blocking won't be a strength of Stacy Searels' group moving forward. If Loeffler commits to the ground game, he should be able to establish the run while using Motley's mobility and arm strength to challenge defenses with play-action.

On Saturday it was evident how a strong run game can help out the pass while in shotgun, but one of my favorite plays of the game came with Motley under center. Brenden faked a handoff, which helped buy his receivers some extra time to get down field, and then he turned and found his man against single coverage.

Kalvin Cline starts in the slot and Ford is at the top of the screen. After the snap, Cline runs a route that breaks towards the middle of the field and Ford runs a skinny post to the outside. Cline's route holds the safety just long enough to prevent him from helping the cornerback, who is playing with outside leverage on Ford. Motley sees the safety bite on Cline's route and drives the throw into Ford instead of lofting it out to him. The trajectory and velocity on the ball allows Ford to position himself in between the defender and the ball, preventing the defender from making a play on the ball without committing pass interference.

Just as Motley was able to find Ford for a long touchdown off of play-action, Logan Thomas was able to find receivers who got open against single coverage down the field.

Logan Thomas didn't just chuck the ball deep off of play-action though. Defensive coordinators get paid too, and they were able to coach their safeties and corners to prepare for those home run throws. When the secondary did stay deep and covered the vertical routes, Loeffler was able to exploit the space in between the safeties and the linebackers who attacked the run.

UNC's two interior linebackers have to respect the run and get sucked towards the line of scrimmage. In order to protect against another long touchdown, UNC also has their secondary playing a deep zone coverage. Loeffler has both receivers run intermediate routes which ensures that one of them will find the space in front of the safeties. UNC's linebacker (No. 34) tries to recover, but doesn't have enough time to get the depth in the middle of the field to prevent the completion for a first down because of the speed with which Logan gets the ball to his receiver.

We now know that Motley has the arm to complete both throws deep down the field as well as the velocity zip the ball into tight windows on intermediate routes. Loeffler isn't limited to those two type of throws on play-action passes though. If the defense play man coverage, a play-action pass from under center is a great way to get tight ends and fullbacks open with room to run. With Tech having plenty of depth and talent at those two positions, I would love to see Loeffler try and get those players room to operate.

D.J. Coles was a weapon that Loeffler found creative ways to get the ball to by lining him up all over the place. Bucky Hodges is at least as talented as D.J. in the passing game, and is definitely a better run blocker. Loeffler should have no problem finding ways to hide Bucky from the defense on play-action passes if he lines him up the same way he does Coles on this play. Having two tight ends on the field and faking a run almost guarantees a mismatch in the pass game. Linebackers tasked with covering Malleck or Hodges or Cline while also trying to diagnose run plays will often fail to do either.

Motley won his first game as the starter for Virginia Tech, and although he got out of the gate slowly, he finished strong and showed there are some things he can do really well on a football field. If Loeffler wants to get the most out of Motley as QB1, he can't pigeonhole him into the same scheme he was using for Brewer. Loeffler will need to lean on his offensive line to create rushing lanes and utilize Motley's skills as a powerful and explosive runner to challenge defenses to stop the run first. From there Loeffler can simplify the passing game for Motley by relying on slower developing intermediate routes that are easier to read, if harder to throw. Loeffler can also use the play-action pass to buy time for Motley in the pocket and get guys open against aggressive defenses. If Motley has to drop back 20 times a game and throw short, quick hitting routes against tight coverage, Tech probably isn't going to be terribly productive on offense.