Offense Prepares for Lafayette Option

Lafayette head football coach Frank Tavani knows exactly how to diffuse a quarterback controversy.

Faced with the reality of the departure of all-league passer Marko Glavic, who led the Patriot League last year in total yards per game as a senior, Tavani knew he had to address the naming of a new team leader. The competition was between up-and-coming sophomore Brad Maurer and experienced junior Pat Davis.

Instead of appointing one the starter and letting the other rot on the bench— a situation that often divides a team into factions—Tavani decided to use both quarterbacks evenly. The Leopards (3-1, 1-0 Patriot) have rallied around the chemistry that has formed between Maurer and Davis, jumping out to an early lead in the Patriot League. When Harvard (2-0, 1-0 Ivy) travels to face Lafayette tomorrow in Easton, Penn., the defense expects to see a healthy dose of both quarterbacks.

“There wasn’t that much separating the two,” Tavani said. “Maurer is a very athletic kid, and has tremendous speed. Coming out of spring, he had an edge. But Pat has been through the battles here, and as we went on, he closed that gap.”

In order to legitimize his two-headed-quarterback system, Tavani devised an offensive scheme that would utilize the talents of both signal callers. Running the double or speed-option offense, in which the quarterback decides whether to keep the ball or give it to the tailback, Tavani has been able to bring his inexperienced quarterbacks along together, easing them into the responsibilities of the role.

“The option [offense] is something that’s kind of evolved with the way the situation is,” Tavani said. “We have two guys now that are more option-oriented at quarterback. We still try to spread teams out and do a variety of different things on offense, but we utilize more two back sets.”

Those sets will feature senior fullback Joe McCourt—who has led the Leopards in rushing the past three seasons—and sophomore tailback Jonathan Hurt. The two have split the ball-carrying duties so far this season with impressive results—the Leopards have amassed 703 yards on the ground in their first four games. McCourt, who leads the way with 53 attempts for 254 yards, moved from tailback to fullback in the off-season in order to accommodate Hurt’s explosiveness. So far this year, Hurt has 218 yards on 49 carries, despite his relative inexperience.

With the option, however, the quarterback must also be ready and willing to gain tough yards on the ground. Maurer, who is the more gifted athlete of the two quarterbacks, has added 103 yards rushing. So far, Lafayette’s foes have been unable to contain the multi-faceted running attack.

“It’s been productive,” Tavani said of his new offense. “We’re trying to achieve some balance, so defenses don’t zero in on one aspect or the other.”

But while the Leopards certainly have balance throughout the ground game, their passing lags behind, as Lafayette has thrown for only 575 yards on the season. Davis has been the more effective passer thus far, completing 21 of his 34 attempts for 296 yards and two touchdowns, but he and Maurer have combined for only 143.8 yards per game through the air.

“We must force Lafayette to throw the ball, which is not their overwhelming strength,” Harvard coach Tim Murphy wrote in an e-mail, “as well as playing more ‘assignment’ football to account for the [quarterback, tailback], etc.”

Forcing Lafayette to throw the ball will not be easy, though. To do so, the Crimson will have to shut down the Leopards’ option running attack. Harvard struggled last week in giving up 250 yards rushing to Brown’s more pro-style offense, a dangerous sign for an unproven Crimson defense which had targeted the Brown running game for containment. But the defense did a much better job in the second half, holding the Bears to just 112 yards of total offense, as the Crimson outscored Brown 25-3 after halftime to pull out a 35-34 victory.

“We said we must stop the run against Brown and did not until the second half,” Murphy said. “Only time will tell with our defense, but certainly I believe that the first half against Brown was an aberration. I am not content at all with a bend but don’t break defense. We can and will become a defensive power in the league.”