Film Room: UVa's quarterbacks do a little of everything

Virginia handled its business in Saturday’s season opener, rolling by William & Mary 43-0 at Scott Stadium. But the performance wasn’t always pretty, particularly for the offense. Robert Anae’s offense got off to a bit of a slow start, with just three points halfway through the second quarter, including a pair of fourth-down failures.

But UVa wasn’t simply trying the “easy” stuff, and failing. Instead, Anae dialed up a slew of exotic running plays, using interesting personnel packages along the way. Those plays didn’t always work but certainly gave defenses a lot to defend. One notable trend was that UVa gave the ball to four different quarterbacks in Saturday’s win. Brennan Armstrong started the game, and Keytaon Thompson was involved throughout as well. Ira Armstead was expected to backup Armstrong but played throughout the game in a variety of roles. And finally, freshman quarterback Jacob Rodriguez flew under the radar in fall camp, before seeing a good amount of action in the opener.

In today’s Film Room, we take a look at UVa’s quarterback-driven ground game, and wonder whether these plays are a sign of things to come, or simply a coaching staff experimenting in a low-risk game.

Brennan Armstrong

58 snaps: (49 QB, 2 backfield, 1 slot, 6 wide)

2 designed runs, 2 TD, 1 scramble

Armstrong’s role was the most typical of the four, as expected. UVa’s QB1 did line up outside of his normal position on a few plays but wasn’t really involved in most of them. At wide receiver, he could be away from the play and not have to engage as a blocker, which is good for his health long term. Virginia’s overall run game strategy was certainly diverse but didn’t include Armstrong very much. UVa only ran a pair of plays that were truly designed as runs for him and both resulted in short touchdown scampers. Armstrong did have one scramble for a 1st down on a designed pass play as well.

Anae’s limited use of Armstrong isn’t too difficult to figure out. The Wahoos were playing an overmatched FCS team and never trailed. They didn’t need to use Armstrong’s legs and the coaching staff was probably perfectly happy keeping their starting quarterback out of harm’s way in a game that they had in hand.

If the game had remained close into the second half, they may have been more aggressive with Armstrong, but the Cavaliers pulled away, and he was able to hand off or make quick throws downfield.

Keytaon Thompson

41 snaps: (26 slot, 8 wide, 3 QB, 2 backfield, 2 inline)

4 rushes, 43 yards

Thompson’s role was as expected as well. The “Football Player” was one of UVa’s most-used options on offense and was one of the unit’s focal points.

On the first snap of the game for the Cavalier offense, Thompson was lined up at running back next to Armstrong. As a runner, he had five carries for 43 yards, most of which came on one long run. Thompson also had a few short-yardage opportunities, which should continue. He is tough to bring down and should be one of UVa’s top options around the goal line and on “money” downs. Thompson will be used more frequently as a wide receiver as well, so he may be capped at about 10 carries per game most weeks. Like with Armstrong, UVa probably gave Thompson a light load this week, and he could see more touches this weekend against Illinois.

Ira Armstead

21 snaps: (11 QB, 8 wide, 2 slot)

5 carries, 54 yards

Armstead saw some snaps at QB last year, especially when Armstrong was hurt. But his injury in UVa’s loss at Miami ended his freshman campaign early. This year, he is the primary backup quarterback and seems to be in a position to once again factor in on offense. Armstead played 21 snaps, 11 at the quarterback position, and not all of those snaps came in garbage time. The sophomore quarterback also lined up in a wide receiver position on 10 plays. Armstead flashed a lot of speed in the open field and could be one of UVa’s top athletes on offense.

Jacob Rodriguez

10 snaps: (4 slot, 2 backfield, 2 wide, 1 inline, 1 QB)

4 carries, 31 yards

Finally, the biggest surprise inclusion on offense Saturday was backup QB Jacob Rodriguez. The Texan enrolled at UVa early but was seemingly fourth on the depth chart at Quarterback behind Armstrong, Armstead and fellow freshman Jay Woolfolk. Rodriguez entered the game early at wide receiver, and saw ten snaps throughout the evening. Rodriguez took one snap behind center, and saw three carries on the day. Rodriguez broke a run for a big gain in the third quarter, showing why the coaching staff thought enough of him to have him take snaps away from more traditional wide receivers and running backs. Rodriguez is now on the depth chart, and like Thompson, is listed in the new “Football Player” position.

We'll start with Thompson on this 3rd and 3 play, which is pretty typical of the kind of carry that's designed for him. The senior is a bull in short-yardage situations and here UVa gives him a simple power play against the Tribe defense.

Ultimately, William & Mary sniffs it out and defends it well. But these are the types of plays we will likely see Thompson get all year. In the opener, they didn’t need to give him many of them, however.

While the first clip is an example of a typical Thompson usage, this next one is an example of the upside these types of plays can have.

Thompson is lined up at QB and this play sends Armstead in motion, giving the defense two primary ball carriers to watch. Thompson fakes the give and finds the hole for a quick gain. He quickly hits top speed, turning a nice gain into a longer one, and almost scores a touchdown after several broken tackles.

As a side note, check out the block on the edge from Armstead, helping spring Thompson.

In his debut, Rodriguez saw plenty of action and had one big play.

In this clip below, Rodriguez comes in motion from wide receiver to the backfield and takes the handoff from Armstrong. UVa has used these types of looks for Thompson, and others, including Joe Reed, in the past.

Rodriguez shows some real ability here, with great ball-carrier vision, finding a hole and several cut-back opportunities. He also has good size and speed and really runs like a natural running back.

It will be interesting to see what his role will be going forward but Rodriguez seems to be carving out a spot for himself in an offense full of playmakers.

This next play didn’t work but it’s included here to show how UVa’s coaches tried to find ways to get Rodriguez the ball. On this play, he is the target of a quick pop pass from Armstrong. The play was a bust but luckily the lateral was forward, making the play an incomplete pass instead of a fumble.

For Armstead, we’ll start with a play that also did not work as designed.

On 4th down, UVa lined him up at QB and had him run a read-option look. The Tribe defense handled this play very well, with all options covered up. The fact that UVa showed them a look with the backup quarterback probably helped the defense sell out for the run, but the fact that UVa trusted Armstead to outrun the defense on a 4th down play.

Armstead saw more action in the fourth quarter and showed off his top-end speed.

This next one is a well-executed read-option play, with plenty of bells and whistles. Thompson comes in motion and ultimately sets a block, not unlike Armstead did for him earlier in the game. Armstead reads the defense correctly, hits the hole, and is quickly into the second level of the defense. He gets run out of bounds here but this type of ability makes Armstead a candidate to keep seeing carries in this role.

He shows off his speed again here, racing down the sideline once more. Armstead steps out of bounds after 20 yards but really could have been end-zone bound if he had stayed a little further away from the white paint.

Still, this type of ability bodes well for Armstead in the short term and in the long term, as a future starting QB with Bryce Perkins-like explosiveness.

Finally, let’s talk about the starting quarterback.

Armstrong had a quiet day on the ground by design but UVa did call his number for two short touchdown runs.

On this first clip, his second rushing touchdown of the day, Armstrong has no blocking set up for him and really this is a counter look. The play is supposed to look to the defense like a handoff, with Armstrong hopefully taking advantage by hanging on and running into open space.

Instead, the Tribe defended this play pretty well but it wasn’t enough to keep Armstrong out of the end zone.

We will hold off judgement on the strategy for now, but it’s clear that UVa has a lot of talented options on offense, even at QB. Armstead and Rodriguez can simply provide depth and give defenses something to think about, if not more. We know what to expect from Armstrong and Thompson, who should see more focus in the run game going forward. And we haven’t even mentioned the group of running backs, who carried the ball just 11 times in Saturday’s blowout win.

We don’t know exactly how UVa will deploys playmakers in the running game this year but if Saturday’s game showed us anything it’s that the schemes won’t be vanilla.

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