In a darkened theater at the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame, Paul Johnson spoke with typical confidence. At a June gathering of football coaches and players from around the state, the Georgia Tech coach was asked how the Yellow Jackets could replace the B-back production of Anthony Allen.
Johnson pointed out that fans and media had wondered a year ago if Allen could adequately replace Jonathan Dwyer (2,790 in two seasons) at B-back. In 2010, Allen pounded out 1,316 yards en route to a first-team All-ACC berth.
“I would hope that would be the case from last year to this year at that position,” Johnson said. “That’s kind of been the nature of it where I’ve been.”
With a 7-3 record, Tech has exceeded most expectations, and many of its offensive metrics have matched the production of Johnson’s first three Jackets teams. However, B-backs David Sims and Preston Lyons will need to ramp up their production, starting with Tech’s ACC finale Saturday against Duke, to match the historical standard of B-backs in Johnson’s spread-option offense and make a prophet of their coach. (To his soothsaying credit, he practically sneered at the next question, about Florida State’s return as a national power.)
Said co-offensive line coach and longtime Johnson aide Mike Sewak, “This is the first time it’s ever been like this.”
Since Johnson became coach at Georgia Southern in 1997, through his six-year run at Navy and then his first three seasons at Tech, Johnson’s B-backs have cleared 1,000 yards. Often it has been one player, but sometimes a two-man effort and one season a trio that shared carries to combine for 1,000 yards or more, and usually it’s been cleared with room to spare.
With 148 of the 167 B-back carries this season, Sims and Lyons have advanced the ball a net total of 794 yards in 10 games. That’s on pace for 1,032.2 yards by season’s end. However, in the past four games, they’ve averaged 61.5 yards and 3.9 yards per carry.
The lack of production has puzzled Johnson to the extent that he said this week that he and his staff plan to study the matter after the season in a search for answers.
“It hasn’t been the production that we would have liked,” Johnson said, “but I don’t think it’s necessarily all the B-backs.”
At times, the line hasn’t surged at the optimal pace or with the right timing. Linemen haven’t held blocks long enough. Sims or Lyons haven’t followed blocks correctly or broken through tackles. Fumbled center-quarterback exchanges or misreads by quarterback Tevin Washington have doomed plays before they could develop. Defenses have gotten in the way.
“It’s not like they’ve had a lot of gaping holes that they’ve had to run through that they’ve stumbled and fell,” Johnson said. “So it’s a combination of things.”
In the Jackets’ loss to Virginia Tech two Thursdays ago, Sims got his feet tangled up with a lineman on the first drive to thwart one carry. Later, a Hokies nose tackle split a double-team block to haul down Sims. On both plays, Sims said, better execution would have meant touchdowns. It has been that way all season, he said.
“The yards are there,” said Sims, still growing into the position after switching from quarterback in the spring. “We just haven’t executed.”
Sims and Lyons are hardly bumblers. Sims has a 5.4 yards-per-carry rate and Lyons’ is 5.2. But they also don’t appear to have the home-run potential that Dwyer and Allen had. Dwyer had 19 runs of 20 yards or more in 2008 and 14 in 2009. Allen had 10 in 2010. Sims and Lyons have six through 10 games — their longest run is 41 yards by Sims — including none in the past four.
It says something about them and the offense that their per-carry averages are in the same neighborhood as Dwyer’s (5.9) and Allen’s (5.5) in 2009 and 2010, respectively, without the big gainers to prop them up. Further, with 148 combined carries through 10 games, they’re getting a few less opportunities per game than did Dwyer and Allen, although Dwyer and Allen’s big-play count likely reduced their carries.
Saturday brings another opportunity to break loose. The Blue Devils, with a beat-up lineup and a 4.7 yards-per-carry average on defense, may be the tonic. Johnson also said this week that he’ll give No. 3 B-back Charles Perkins snaps with the offense.
Said Sims, “You just have to keep plugging away.”
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