Dual Quarterback Systems Are The New Wildcat Formation

Today Temple announced that Chester Stewart would start against the Maryland Flag Pins. Stewart lost his job last year due to ineffectiveness and was replaced by Mike Gerardi, who did rather well. A coaching change did not alter Gerardi's starting job, although we unexpectedly saw Stewart play a few series against Penn State.

To supplant the Stewart announcement, Steve Addazio added that "That is not to say that Mike Gerardi is not going to play." So I'm not sure what that means. But it smacks of dual-quarterbackism.

Toledo does this. As the MAC favorite, it boggles me that toggling between the mobile/accurate Austin Dantin and the power-arm of Terrance Owens would keep them in ballgames, but I guess that defenses must prepare for two different quarterbacks.

In the Ohio State game, Dantin was the primary QB for most of the game but Tim Beckman decided to use the younger Owens for the final drive, and it really did work. Owens' stronger arm may have been the reason for that key 4th and long completion to Eric Page, as his spiral traveled with little arc and reckless abandon.

For Temple, specifically using Stewart is puzzling. He has the ability to rush a little in that he has career positive rushing yards. He runs about as much as Dantin but only gains 1.4 yards per carry in his career (compared to Dantin's 2.4) although in 12 carries that number's gone up to 3.3 ypc. His completion percentage in his career is 49.4 percent and just 50 percent this season. Gerardi seems to be an overall better player. Temple has tailback depth. They don't need a mobile quarterback.

But this is a different look that Maryland must now consider.

We've seen this with OHIO in the last two years. Boo Jackson (now Tyler Tettleton) is the main quarterback, with Phil Bates as the changeup quarterback who rarely throws it. Although this year Bates has zero pass attempts. Even NIU took out Chandler Harnish during the Wisconsin game, for no veritable reason other than to give Jordan Lynch a few reps when the game was still winnable.

Miami is not doing this. It's Zac Dysert and Dysert alone; Austin Boucher has no stats this year, even though he won a MAC Championship during Dysert's convalescence. Alternatively you might think Akron or Kent State would be trying different QBs, because what else do they have going for them.

Basically it appears that some teams, especially those competiting for a division title, are going with mutliple QB looks. Again I guess this might be to give the opposing defense extra homework. With football becoming painfully specialized (the NFL now has third down personnel) I could certainly see a growing trend where coaches start recruiting quarterbacks with different skill sets so their depth chart is a Voltron-type headache for their foes. We're seeing it in Toledo, Temple, Ohio and maybe NIU. A few years ago it was the proliferation of direct snaps to non-quarterbacks, or the Wildcat formation. Before that it was the spread option. 100 years ago it was the forward pass. We could see it elsewhere where backup quarterbacks become secondary quarterbacks.