Georgia Tech QB Vad Lee Reportedly Considering Transferring to JMU
According to reports, Georgia Tech quarterback Vad Lee is leaving the Yellow Jacket program and transferring. Lee is expected to seek out an opportunity to play for an FCS program so that he does not have to sit out a year. Reports indicate that he is interested both Richmond and JMU. He has 2 years of eligibility remaining.
Lee played his high school football in Durham, NC. He was a much sought after recruit due to his athleticism and ability to both run and throw effectively. On paper, he sounds like the perfect JMU QB (under Mickey Matthews that is). According to the hype, he had the most passing ability of any QB that Paul Johnson had ever coached at Georgia Tech. However, he struggled as a starter this year and completed less than 50% of his passes on his way to 11 TDs and 10 picks. Of course in Johnson’s triple option attack, no QB is going to amass tons of yardage or TDs throwing the ball. And speaking of the triple option, according to ESPN’s Joe Schad, Lee said “The triple option was never really my thing.” Fair enough. Let’s assume he came to that realization after deciding to attend Georgia Tech and learning the system. Because if being an option QB never appealed to him, then Georgia Tech would be a really odd choice.
Michael Birdsong is coming off a record setting year for the Dukes. Personally speaking, I think he’s earned the starting role and I’d love to see him continue as QB 1 under Coach Withers and whomever signs on as offensive coordinator. With all due respect to Dan Schiele, getting some additional depth at the QB position would not be a bad thing. And if bringing in a transfer added just an extra bit of motivation for the Ginger Giant, that wouldn’t hurt either. Or maybe Lee could become the umpteenth JMU player to come to the school as a QB and make an impact at some other position. We’ll see how this thing plays out.
h/t to Michael Evangelista (@Michael_2Clutch) for bringing this to our attention
Hasn’t Withers stated his offense will be a run first offense? Seems Lee will be a better fit for JMU now than Birdsong.
At first, I was really excited and thought “GTFOH!!”
…but then I read the part about “The triple option was never really my thing”. If that is true, GT, Army, Navy and Chair Force would not even be on your list. Lee’s first year on the flats was 2011. At that point, Paul Johnson had been running the triple option at GT for 3 years. With 3 seasons of emperical data…. or even one episode of sportscenter….a rational person would have easily concluded that GT was not a good choice for someone who’s “thing” isn’t the triple option. From this we can deduce, therefore, that Vad Lee is not very situationally aware, and does not have a high “football IQ”. Not sure i want him reading pass coverages and calling audibles for my team. Just Saying.
If you watch Wither’s interview with Curt Dudley – he says he wants to air it out in the new offense so I assuming we may go a more shotgun pass-oriented spread. If anything, he does want to implement a north/south power running game to supplement the pass. He was a spread QB in HS (just like our former QB commit Jackson Mcdonald) and interesting enough Withers recruited him while he was at UNC.
2004, while I agree that he had to know GT ran the triple option, none of us know what Paul Johnson and the staff told him when they recruited him. They very well could have told him that they would open up the offense some to allow him to be more of a dual threat QB as opposed to a traditional triple option running QB.
With respect to the article, I would not judge his passing abilities on his completion percentages in a triple option offense, as it’s not necessarily indicative of whether he could be a successful passer in a more traditional pro-style or spread offense. Most passes in the triple option are either 3rd and long where the D knows what’s coming or shots down-field to a one WR route to try and surprise the D. Neither of those situations are high percentage throws. Not to mention the OL run blocks on nearly every play in games and in practice, and run and pass blocking are two very different things, so when the QB does have to drop back, he’s not going to get the best pass protection.
I would love to see Lee to transfer to JMU, as he’s a big-time athlete and would give us more competition and depth at the QB position. We have no depth at QB right now, and if Lee turns out to be the better QB based on the coaches’ evaluation, then he should get the nod as the starter. I would imagine, and hope, that Withers will come in and tell everyone on the team that the best player will start at all positions based on the coaching staff’s evaluation during spring and fall practice, regardless of past positions and game performance.
Looks like he had a pretty dern good high school career in that football juggernaut state of North Carolina. But really I think he would be a nice addition to our backfield…as a RB. His real name is Lavaedeay. How do you pronounce that?
“Coach, Tajh Boyd has thrown for over 200 yards in the first half. How do you contain him in the 2nd?”
“Fire my defensive coordinator.”
Yup, let’s fire the DC who can’t contain a QB (who very few college teams have been able to stop) throwing to top-5 NFL pick WR. Setting the bar a little high? It’s not like the defense got lit up by a second string QB at UNH.
Attention EW – On your way back from the Orange Bowl, stop in Atlanta & sign this kid !!
Thank you 🙂
*i was joking.
VAD is coming to JMU!!!
http://www.whsv.com/sports/headlines/Former-Yellow-Jacket-Lee-Transferring-to-JMU-239987961.html?ref=961