Four down territory: West Virginia and the season’s turning point

Well, when we last left off Tech decided to demonstrate how to play offense which is good because Tech fans needed that to better appreciate when good offense was played. Seriously, that was an atrocious display and one can only hope the bye week solves the blues this program has.

First Down: Run Colombi

David Yost coached Jordan Love to an incredible few years at Utah State. Since then, he has had two mobile quarterbacks play for him. I remind you of Love because for both Jett and Henry it has looked like Yost had never seen a quarterback who could run. I am unaware of an actual called run for Jett, and Colombi’s runs have all been improv as well.

Just like last year, Yost has a bye week to prep for a quarterback change and the mobility Colombi brings to the table cannot be wasted. Colombi’s arm is still a mystery, but his legs look dynamic and capable of reviving what has become a very stagnant rushing attack. This seems like a no brainer, but we will see what happens.

Second Down: Attack downfield

Iowa State’s defense is built around the idea of not giving anything up deep, but Yost is more than capable of doing that himself calling short route after short route. Colombi looked very strong 15-25 yards down the field, so this is a good time to actually get creative with the route trees.

Attacking deeper down the field will force teams to back-off which will pay dividends for that short game Yost wants to use to move down the field. If teams feel like they can’t be beat deep, they will body up the LOS and snuff out that part of the offense.

Third Down: This game is a must win for Tech

Matt Wells has looked incompetent, and scared for a lot of his tenure. Worse than that, against ISU he gave up on his team. With the season hanging by a thread, if Wells wants any hope of saving his job this program needs momentum. Beating West Virginia could spark a run into next season finally giving this tired, sinking ship some new life.

Losing to West Virginia is a bad sign going forward, and will very likely spell doom of salvaging any kind of “sucess” from this year to take into year three. And without the Big Mo’, the odds are good Tech will show him the door after next season.

Fourth Down: Quote of the week

“We can’t win at home. We can’t win on the road. As general manager, I just can’t figure out where else to play”. - NBA Executive Pat Williams (And any Tech fan slightly rephrased)