In pass-happy era of football, PAC teams still value running game

Longtime Geneva coach Geno DeMarco tried the newfangled system. He spread out his offense and ran as many plays as quickly as possible, often throwing.

Not to his liking.

When Andrew DiDonato was hired to resurrect Grove City’s program three years ago, he easily could have used a passing system. Wide-open offenses had become all the rage, and DiDonato was the product of passing systems at South Fayette and GCC.

Instead, he chose to do things the old-fashioned way.

Though football has become more pass-happy at all levels, in the Presidents’ Athletic Conference, teams still place a premium on running. Consider:

• Until last season, per-team rushing averages in the PAC had increased for six consecutive seasons.

• The PAC has produced 18 1,000-yard rushers — including Sam Benger’s 2000-plus-yard season of 2015 — and 14 more backs who had at least 700 yards over the past four seasons.

• Last season, five of the top six teams in the PAC standings — W&J, Case Western Reserve, Grove City, Carnegie Mellon and Bethany — finished among the conference’s top six in rushing offense

“(Running) is crucial,” said Grove City rising senior Wesley Schools, who rushed for 1,741 yards last season. “It’s the essence of football. Who wants it more? And that’s where it shows up is running the ball.”

At W&J, Mike Sirianni has a reputation as a coach who likes to put the ball in the air. But last season, Presidents running backs Jordan West (Washington) and E.J. Thompson combined for nearly 2,000 yards on the ground and 21 touchdowns.

Sirianni calls West and Thompson “the best ‘running back’ in the league, they just split the carries.” Sirianni even plans to have them on the field at the same time in certain situations this season.

Before them, Sirianni had 1,000-yard rushers Ryan Ruffing, Dion Wiegand and Tim McNerney.

“We 100 percent want to be balanced,” Sirianni said. “I think we’ve been known as a passing team, but I don’t know if that’s fair. We’ve always been in the top two or three rushing also.”

Added West: “We’re really utilizing all our weapons on the field. Our running attack has been great, and I don’t see us going away from it.”

While the ground game has brought success for teams such as Grove City and W&J, Geneva has been on the other side. Using a triple-option, the Golden Tornadoes have won only two PAC games in each of the past three seasons.

Still, the Golden Tornadoes have been close. Six of their 13 conference losses of the past two seasons — including W&J last fall — were decided by one possession. This fall, DeMarco expects a breakthrough after having the past three seasons to stock up on recruits more suited to running the triple-option, a luxury he didn’t have when he abruptly switched philosophies.

“We had run the ‘air raid,’ and we were going 100 mph and running 80 to 83 plays a game,” said DeMarco, who is in his 27th season as Geneva’s coach. “I just felt we were going to go back and were going to do what’s best for the kind of kids we get: kids that are disciplined, kids that understand process. We’re going to go back to being a physical football team.

“If you come to (our) practice, you’re going to hear music from the ’70s that I listen to. You’re going to see an offense that’s archaic and a defense that’s very physical.”

For Westminster coach Scott Benzel, the frequency with which a team runs the ball isn’t necessarily as important as how it runs. He calls them “attitude runs.”

“If it’s third-and-2, I want to get behind center some and push you off the ball,” he said.

On the flipside, stopping the run also remains a priority in the PAC.

Last season, three of the top five teams in rushing defense — W&J, Case Western and Westminster — also were in the top five in the standings. A season earlier, five of the top six teams in the standings of what then was an 11-team conference — Case Western, W&J, Westminster, Thomas More and Grove City — also were among the top six in rushing defense.

Some of that, of course, could be attributed to opponents being forced to abandon the run and throw more while trying to play catch-up. But the goal of making an opposing offense one-dimensional remains paramount.

“Stopping the run is the biggest part of our defense,” said lineman Daniel Gibson (Woodland Hills), who anchored a Bethany unit that led the PAC in rushing defense, scoring defense and total defense. “If we stop the run and make the other team one-dimensional … some of the teams really aren’t passing teams, so if we stop the main part of their offense, we’re certain we can win the game.

“W&J … their running backs set up the big passes. If we stop their running backs, that means that’s all they have is the big passes, and play action isn’t really going to work.”

Sirianni agreed stopping the run is key.

“Second-and-long is a tough position,” he said. “A lot of coordinators get nervous in second-and-long, and all they want to do is throw the ball.

“If you can get teams behind the sticks … I think the way we play defensively, being a little more aggressive, helps us do that. Maybe we give up some big plays, but I’m OK with that as long as we get off the field and create long sticks for the opponents.”

All that being said, Benzel said teams can’t obsess over the run. He pointed out the PAC’s two most successful teams last season, W&J and Case Western, also were the top two in the conference in passing offense.

Benzel, who was defensive coordinator at Robert Morris and St. Francis (Pa.), said his philosophy revolves more around creating favorable matchups and forcing negative plays.

“We want to pick and choose when we want to stop the run and stop the pass,” he said. “Yes, one-dimensional football is important, but what’s more important is negative plays on defense.”

In talking about matchups, Benzel pointed to DiDonato. The fourth-year coach has, using the running game, brought the Wolverines from the throes of a 33-game losing streak to the program’s first ECAC Bowl victory in just three seasons.

His philosophy — run to set up the pass and keep his defense off the field — might be considered antiquated by some. But he has used the running game like a chess grandmaster to manipulate defenses. Running the ball effectively, he said, forces more defenders into the box and opens up space for the Wolverines’ big, athletic receivers.

And the young coach with the ’70s mentality believes running is the future of football, not the past.

“When I was at South Fayette High School and we were the first to run the no-huddle and throw the ball everywhere … it caught everybody off-guard,” he said. “I come to Grove City, and at the college level, pretty much everybody is running the spread offense.

“So how are we going to stand out? … We’re going back to old school. We’re going to run the ball and let that set up our matchups to throw. I think everything comes full circle, and we wanted to be at the front end of going back to old-school type mentality.”