There are times when Georgia Tech guard Shaquille Mason can barely wait for the ball to be snapped. Mason, a veteran of 36 career starts and 48 games for the Yellow Jackets, can recognize when the offense is going to spring a big play.
In Tech’s expectation-surpassing season, that has happened often when coach Paul Johnson has called for a counter play to catch defenses cheating towards an expected option play. So it was when Mason and the Jackets lined up for a first-and-10 from the N.C. State 16-yard line on the opening drive of Saturday’s 56-23 win. Johnson had called for a quarterback keeper for quarterback Justin Thomas against the flow of the play, with Mason and right tackle Errin Joe to pull out in front of him and clear the path.
“I knew it was going to be a free lane (for Thomas) if I got my guy,” Mason said.
Mason did, barreling into play-side linebacker Rodman Noel’s legs to stagger him and give Thomas all the space he needed to zip by him on the way to the end zone. Big-hitting counter plays have been plentiful this season. A-back Charles’ Perkins 63-yard run on the opening play of the Georgia Southern game was a counter run. A-back Tony Zenon’s 19-yard touchdown run against Tulane was on a counter option play, as was his 6-yard touchdown run against Miami. Thomas’ 80-yard touchdown run against Virginia Tech that was wiped out by a penalty was also a counter.
“If they’re out of position, you know it’s going to be a big play,” Mason said.
The success of a counter play is a direct result of Tech’s success hammering opponents with B-backs Zach Laskey and Synjyn Days and its crew of A-backs on option plays. With the hard-charging aid of the Jackets’ offensive line and Thomas’ effective decision making on option plays, Laskey averages 5.0 per carry and Days averages 6.2, and the A-backs have collected a number of big plays.
With a steady flow of 4- and 5-yard runs mixed in with runs of 20 yards or more, Tech leads the country in third-down conversion rate (59.3 percent), ranks eighth in time of possession (33:42) and caused opponents to sell out to stop option plays. When defenses see the A-back going in the standard “orbit” motion behind the B-back, safeties and linebackers will often begin sidestepping in that direction to be in place for an option play.
When the play goes the opposite direction, as on Thomas’ touchdown, they’ve given Tech enough space to run free. It presents defenses with a pick-your-poison conundrum — honor the possibility of a counter and allow Tech’s option game to chip away, or commit an extra defender to the option play and risk getting burned by the counter.
“I wouldn’t say we’re doing it more,” Mason said of counter plays. “We’re just executing it better.”
On the aforementioned touchdown against N.C. State, Tech lined up at the Wolfpack 16 on the right hash mark. When A-back Tony Zenon came in motion to his right, safety Josh Jones, lined up presnap at the 8-yard line opposite Zenon on the right side of the defense, tracked with him. Thomas faked a mesh with Days, further selling the option.
By the time Thomas pivoted to run left, taking off at the 20-yard line from the right hash mark, Jones was at the 8, at the same hash mark, running in the opposite direction, still pursuing the expected option play.
Said Johnson, “I knew when the safety was chasing, that there was nobody over there.”
The rest was a footrace to the goal line between three N.C. State defenders and Thomas, who had three teammates blocking for him. Mason, Joe and wide receiver Darren Waller all did their jobs well enough to enable Thomas to get to the end zone.
It was the first time Tech had run the play this season, a suggestion from A-backs coach Lamar Owens during game planning.
“If they were going to overpursue, then that’s something you’ve got to be able to do,” quarterbacks and B-backs coach Bryan Cook said.
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