Yellow Pages
A nationwide football trend the past decade has now taken root at some Skagit County high schools.
Mount Vernon and Anacortes have taken to running full spread offenses, keeping the quarterback in the shotgun almost always with one other back and four receivers and no-huddle. Sedro-Woolley’s offense is almost a hybrid of a spread and normal offense.
The result is quarterbacks who are not only leading passers, but rushers as well. After three weeks, three of the area’s top five leaders in rushing attempts are quarterbacks.
Cubs quarterback Derek Garcia leads all area players with 53 rushes, more than half of his team’s carries. Anacortes quarterback Chris Stoneham is a close second in the county at 49 attempts, while Seahawk running backs have taken just 26 attempts.
The Mount Vernon Bulldogs have been the most extreme example, with two quarterbacks accounting for 55 of the team’s 70 rushes. When accounting for passing, starting quarterback Ray Walser and backup Jake Weber have run or thrown in 91.5 percent of the team’s offensive plays (162 of 177).
“It’s tough, but it comes with the job,” said Garcia, a junior who spent most of his sophomore season as a running back. “You’ve just got to push through it.”
The style has several big advantages. First, it allows schools to put their best all-around athletes at the quarterback slot without sacrificing the running game. Second, it provides the team with an extra blocker. The traditional quarterback, once he’s handed the ball off, generally doesn’t factor in a run play.
With four or even five receivers in the spread formation, the quarterback has fewer defenders to avoid. As a running threat, he can either keep linebackers closer to the line of scrimmage and pass over them, or if they drop back, running lanes open up.
“When I was a defensive coordinator, running quarterbacks were the toughest guys to account for,” Sedro-Woolley coach Bryan Alexander said. “They can cause all kinds of problems.”
The third advantage, one that may not last much longer, is the element of surprise. Most teams are still accustomed to stopping more traditional formations. Though, with the popularity of these offenses it allows defenses to adjust to the formations.
“Its potential is very high,” Anacortes coach Charlie Bell said. “You spread the ball around to multiple receivers. Football is football, you’ve got catch, you’ve got to run and you block. I think it levels the field out for some teams that may not be as big or as physical as you need to be to pound the ball consistently. It sure causes the defense to have to work.”
The big dangers with the style are injury and fatigue. With a quarterback having such a high percentage of the action, he also takes a greater percentage of the hits. If that player gets hurt, a team loses not only its passer but also its top runner on offense.
“Obviously that’s a concern,” Alexander said. “The more balanced you can be, the better you are as a football team.”
Two of the three teams have already used two quarterbacks.
Stoneham missed the final two drives of Anacortes’ second game due to injury, saw limited action behind center last week and won’t play this week.
Both Mount Vernon quarterbacks have missed at least the majority of a game due to injury.
None of those injuries have occurred on running plays, however.
Mount Vernon coach Jaxon Schweikert, who has run a spread formation for years before coming to Mount Vernon, said his experience has been that it doesn’t expose the quarterback to additional injury.
“We’ve rarely had our guys get hurt running the ball,” Schweikert said. “Dropping back and getting tattooed is when they’ve gotten hurt.”
Then there’s the fatigue factor. Can a quarterback who has absorbed 20 or 25 tackles in a game in addition to passing duties be sharp on a fourth quarter drive?
“It does wear down on you a little bit, but the adrenaline’s going,” Walser said. “I really don’t feel it much. You’ve just got to keep fighting.”
Compounding this problem in both Anacortes and Sedro-Woolley’s cases is that Stoneham and Garcia are both defensive starters as well.
Stoneham is also his team’s kick and punt returner.
Mount Vernon’s Weber is also a defensive starter, though he has taken fewer repetitions at quarterback.
Coaches try to steal rest for their players when they can, taking them out of the lineup for a series here and there.
Quarterbacks can also minimize some of the hits in traditional quarterback methods of sliding or running out of bounds.
Eric Francis can be reached at 360-416-2131 or by e-mail at
