Dear Andy: What QB and OC do you choose for a must-score drive?
The clock is ticking on the 2024 college football season, and you, the listeners and viewers of Andy & Ari On3, have questions. Let’s dive into the latest edition of Dear Andy to answer your college football questions.
From Jon in Dallas:
Down by five. Three minutes left. Ball on your own 10. What QB do you want under center and what play caller do you want in his ear?
I probably need to know the stakes first. Does my life depend on whether this offense scores a touchdown? Or is it the last leg I need for a parlay? Either way, I think I have the correct duo. To make things more interesting (and current), my choice is based only on what we’ve seen so far this year.
I quickly narrowed my quarterback options to two: Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders and Miami’s Cam Ward.
Sanders makes routine throws look routine and “wow” throws look routine, and I’m probably going to need a both to traverse these 90 yards. Watch Sanders against Baylor, and we’ll wait while you pick your jaw up off the floor after the last throw.
But I’m probably not picking Sanders for my One Drive To Rule Them All. Because this is a do-or-die situation, I need someone who can make jaw-dropping throws but who also has some Harry Houdini in him. Enter Miami’s Ward.
Ward has done this at a smaller school level at Incarnate Word. He’s tried to perform miracles with less talent around him at Washington State. Now he’s fully bloomed in his final season of college football.
But command of the offense is one thing. If this is a drive for my life, I need a QB who can turn chicken you-know-what into Wendy’s Saucy Nuggs (the presenting sponsor of Andy and Ari On3, of course). Check out this play from the Virginia Tech game. Ward should be done. Miami should be done. But he just finds a way.
Here’s another play from last week’s win against Duke.
I might need some magic to make it to the end zone. Ward can make magic.
So who calls the plays? Since we’re in a last-ditch drive, I want someone comfortable calling plays on fourth down. So I want an offensive coordinator who has been not only successful on fourth down this season but who has faced quite a few fourth-down plays. I don’t want someone who has gotten lucky a few times. I want someone comfortable in the situation. I want a coach who starts setting up his fourth-down call on second down — who knows playcalling is a holistic endeavor and not the act of assembling a random assortment of ball plays.
BYU doesn’t have the highest fourth-down conversion rate this season. That’s Minnesota (seven of eight). But the Cougars and play caller Aaron Roderick have converted 15 of 18 fourth downs this season. Combine that with the way Roderick has directed QB Jake Retzlaff and company on every other down, and I feel confident Roderick can send Ward some plays to get us a touchdown.
I realize there may be some Utah fans saying, “Hey, didn’t Kyle Whittingham fire Roderick as our playcaller after the 2016 season because we couldn’t punch it in once we got in the red zone?” That is true, but that isn’t an issue for Roderick anymore. The Cougars have scored on 29 of 31 times (93.6 percent) of their red zone trips this season with 20 touchdowns.
We’ve also seen Roderick call a game-winning drive earlier this season under more dire circumstances than what is required for this exercise. The Cougars trailed Oklahoma State by four when they got the ball on their own 25-yard line with 1:13 remaining and two timeouts. Roderick — with game-management advice from head coach Kalani Sitake — managed to squeeze off eight plays. This included a fourth-and-7 conversion from the BYU 28-yard line with 52 seconds remaining. On that play, all 11 offensive players looked completely calm. Retzlaff was in complete control. That’s a credit to Retzlaff and to Roderick. Later, after a 27-yard Retzlaff run followed by a perfectly executed clock kill at the Oklahoma State 35-yard line to save BYU’s final timeout with 13 seconds remaining. That would allow for at least two shots at the end zone while leaving the middle of the field available for throwing.
Darius Lassiter caught Retzlaff’s pass on an in-breaking route near the left hashmark — possible because of the timeout — at the 10-yard line and danced into the end zone because Oklahoma State was stretched out defending the entire width of the field. It was a masterclass of a drive, and it’s what I’d want if my life or my parlay depended on it.
From Steve in Loveland, Ohio:
I know we can play this game endlessly for the next month but hear me out…
In the SEC, what if…
Ole Miss beats Georgia
Georgia beats Tennessee
Texas loses to *not Texas A&M*
Texas beats Texas A&M
Alabama beats LSU
And let’s assume all the above teams win all their other games.
By my count, that puts seven teams at 6-2 in conference. Ignoring the SEC tiebreakers, who gets in the playoff?
The 6-2 conference mark only matters for the SEC title game, and since Steve told us to ignore the tiebreakers and the title game, let’s just try to figure out who would make the CFP.
LSU, with three losses that include a defeat by five-loss USC, would be out. Texas A&M, with losses to Notre Dame, South Carolina and Texas, would be out.
For this exercise, we probably should assume chalk in the Big Ten, which would mean an Oregon-Ohio State Big Ten title game (both getting into the CFP) and an 11-1 Indiana and 11-1 Penn State. Steve didn’t include Missouri, but the Tigers don’t have any of the above teams listed on their schedule and could theoretically be 10-2 as well.
Georgia, with a 10-2 record and wins at Texas and home against Tennessee, would have the strongest resume. Alabama, with wins against Georgia and 9-3 LSU, would have a good case.
The next group would get thrown in with Indiana and Penn State and the quality of wins would get parsed pretty thoroughly by the committee.
Missouri’s best win in that scenario might be South Carolina, which would need to beat Vanderbilt and Clemson to finish 7-5. Plus, Missouri has a 41-10 loss to Texas A&M and a 34-0 loss to Alabama. The Crimson Tide would absolutely be ranked ahead of the Tigers, and the 9-3 Aggies might be as well.
Tennessee’s best win is Alabama, but the Volunteers wouldn’t have another tentpole win. Still, they would have a better best win and a better strength of schedule than 11-1 Indiana and 11-1 Penn State despite having one more loss.
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3-loss SEC teams or Penn State?
Debating College Football Playoff selections
The same would go for Ole Miss, which would have the same record and a best win against Georgia. The loss at LSU would be forgivable, but the Kentucky loss is bad and might produce a debate.
In this scenario, the best wins for Texas are against 9-3 Texas A&M and a Vanderbilt team that — based on Steve’s win-loss assumptions — is at best 7-5. We’ve assumed all year the Longhorns would get into the CFP. I’m not sure they would in this situation.
I’m not sold that the committee would absolutely put four Big Ten teams in the bracket in this instance. Oregon and Ohio State would be no-brainers, but Penn State and Indiana probably would get thrown in the same bucket as the non-Georgia, non-Alabama 10-2 SEC teams.
Of those remaining SEC teams, Missouri would have the weakest case and probably would be out. Texas might have the next weakest case. The Longhorns probably would need to hope Notre Dame loses a second game. Then two teams with wins at Texas A&M would be compared by the remainder of their schedule. Steve’s scenario calls for Texas to lose to Florida, Arkansas or Kentucky. The most likely culprit is Arkansas, which also beat Tennessee.
It would be a mess. Here’s my best guess.
If Notre Dame didn’t take another loss, the SEC teams that would make it would be Georgia, Alabama, Ole Miss and Tennessee and one of Indiana or Penn State would be out.
If Notre Dame did take another loss, those four SEC teams would be in and either both Indiana and Penn State get in or two of Indiana, Penn State and Texas get in.
From Jeffrey:
Before we address these obviously impressive comparisons between this year’s Indiana team and last years national champ, let’s first give credit to Jeffrey for calling the Hoosiers’ shot in the offseason. Jeffrey tweeted at me this summer that Indiana would enter the Michigan game 9-0. I didn’t see a single other person predict this, so let’s take a moment to applaud the belief of a long-suffering Indiana fan.
These numbers shouldn’t be shocking to anyone who has watched Indiana all season. They actually win in a fashion quite similar to 2023 Michigan, although it feels Indiana QB Kurtis Rourke gets a few more opportunities to cook than future first-rounder J.J. McCarthy got last year.
At this point last season, Michigan still had to play Penn State and Ohio State. The strength of schedule — and the degree of difficulty — was about to soar. For this year’s Indiana team, the strength of schedule will get tougher with Michigan and Ohio State on the horizon, but not by as much because Michigan is not nearly as good as it has been.
So to be viewed as a peer to last year’s Michigan team, Indiana will have to match that team’s greatest regular-season accomplishment. It needs to beat Ohio State.
A Random Ranking
Jon in Dallas wants me to rank John Williams scores. This will be difficult and almost certainly controversial, because this music is so deeply woven into the fabric of most of our movie-watching memories that it’s basically as tough as ranking our children. (Which Deion Sanders does, and having tried it a couple of times, it’s a surprisingly good motivational tool.)
1. Star Wars Episode IV
2. Jurassic Park
3. Jaws
4. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
5. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
6. Superman: The Movie
7. Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
8. Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
9. Far and Away
10. Schindler’s List