STARKVILLE — So far, college football’s secret to third-down efficiency has been a quarterback who throws effectively on third down. Of the teams currently occupying the top 10 in third-down efficiency, six of them also have quarterbacks that rank in the top 10 nationally in third-down quarterback rating.
Mississippi State has taken a different route — and done so almost equally effectively.
MSU can also thank its quarterbacks for its third-down efficiency, as it has converted 51 of its 106 tries (48.11 percent) to rank 13th in the nation. The one differentiating factor: MSU’s quarterbacks aren’t doing it through the air. They move the chains on the ground.
MSU’s dedication to the designed quarterback run this season has been most apparent on third down, as 26 of MSU’s 51 third-down conversions have come on quarterback runs. MSU coach Dan Mullen turns to them for a simple reason.
“It’s accounting for 11 players,” Mullen said. “If you play an I-formation and hand it off, they don’t have to account for the quarterback and it’s 10-on-11. If you account for the quarterback in there it’s 11-on-11 and if you keep a safety back there for the home run play, the offenses now has the numbers advantage.”
It’s not that Fitzgerald has morphed into a third-down specialist of sorts — only 28.3 percent of his carries, 23 of 81, have come on third down — it’s just that he’s hyper effective in that situation. Of Fitzgerald’s 23 third-down runs, he has gained enough for the first down on 17 of them and even scored three of his nine rushing touchdowns as he went. He’s also converted on all five of his fourth down carries, including the 40-yard touchdown run against Kentucky.
Fitzgerald has averaged an impressive 7.04 yards per carry on third down.
His backup, Keytaon Thompson, has been just as good: of his 11 third-down runs, Thompson moved the chains on nine of them while averaging over 18 yards per carry (11 attempts for 204 yards).
While the last two games contained more designed quarterback runs on third down than most, MSU’s dedication to them has remained relatively constant throughout the season. What’s changed is the blocking in front of the quarterback.
In almost every instance of a designed quarterback run early in the season, it was a standard power concept. In power, the quarterback will have a lead blocker, often a pulling guard, in front of him and a second blocker creating the seam with a kickout block on the outside.
MSU has since unveiled some zone and more traditional lead concepts in its designed quarterback run game. The lead concepts have been simple: the offensive linemen and tight ends handle the immediate threats within the box and the quarterback takes off to whichever side of the formation the running back is on, who serves as the lead blocker.
MSU used a quarterback lead in the first quarter against Kentucky to convert a fourth-and-1. On that play, running back Aeris Williams took on a defensive back while Fitzgerald outran a pursuing linebacker, establish the lane for a 13-yard gain. MSU showed a zone concept — already well entrenched in the MSU offense given its use of zone read runs — on a second-quarter third-and-4 and converted.
Fitzgerald still gets limited carries from read options, where a postsnap read is the basis of whether he or the running back carries the ball. The combination of it all makes MSU quarterbacks process information as running backs do.
“When it’s not a designed play for me to keep it, usually it’s a run play going this way and the flow is all working this way, and I pull and go around (the other way). I make a move, have a wide receiver making a block or have a one-on-one,” Fitzgerald said. “Designed run plays, we’re probably going to load it up on one side and say, ‘Try to stop it.’
Loading up one side of the formation does force a quarterback to navigate traffic more than he would in the previously described option runs, in which the space is created by the predetermined flow of the game. Not only are Fitzgerald and Thompson watching tight ends and running backs make blocks: in some zone concepts, wide receivers come flying in from the perimeter for crackdown blocks while linemen and tight ends flow to the outside.
It may be more difficult to read that way, but that’s the price one pays for extra blocking help. They’re OK with it.
“You saw (Saturday), Fitzgerald said, “it wasn’t too difficult.”
Follow Dispatch sports writer Brett Hudson on Twitter, @Brett_Hudson
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