I referenced a few numbers in tomorrow’s story about Virginia Tech quarterback Tyrod Taylor, which you’ll see below.

But there are plenty of others that illustrate his development from an athlete playing quarterback to a complete quarterback, as his position coach, Mike O’Cain has put it. Here are some ...

2008
99 of 173
1,036 yards
2 TDs
7 INTs
6.0 yards per attempt
11 passes of 20-plus yards (11.1 percent of completions)
Longest streak without interception: 53 attempts
126 runs, 842 yards (not counting sacks)
15.7 pass attempts per game
11.5 true runs per game
161.3 total yards per game (run and pass combined, counting sacks)
2009
118 of 211
1,917 yards
13 TDs
3 INTs
9.1 yards per attempt
34 passes of 20-plus yards (28.8 percent of completions)
Longest streak without interception: 98 (current)
70 runs, 469 yards (not counting sacks)
19.2 pass attempts per game
6.4 true runs per game
202.5 total yards per game (run and pass combined, counting sacks)

BY DARRYL SLATER
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

BLACKSBURG – There are plenty of tangible ways to quantify junior quarterback Tyrod Taylor’s progress in his first complete season as Virginia Tech’s starter – probably the Hokies’ most important storyline this fall and next.

You can look at what he has done – 1,917 passing yards and 13 touchdowns – and compare it to last season, when he threw for 1,036 yards and two touchdowns while sharing time with Sean Glennon. You can look at what Taylor hasn’t done: three interceptions (one on a Hail Mary pass), versus seven last year.

You can even dig deeper and learn that 34 of his completions – or 28.8 percent – have covered at least 20 yards. Last year, he had 11 20-plus passes – 11.1 percent of his completions. Or that he has now attempted 98 consecutive passes without an interception, after a streak of 84 earlier this season. His longest streak last year: 53.

It all speaks to Taylor’s development as the foundation of Tech’s offensive improvement this season. Entering Saturday’s regular-season finale at Virginia, the Hokies are averaging 379.6 yards and 27.9 points per game (not counting defensive and special teams touchdowns), compared to 303.4 and 19.6 last season.

Taylor’s less-obvious benchmarks of improvement, though, matter even more to Tech’s coaches. It is harder to see, from numbers alone, perhaps the greatest sign of their increased trust in him: their recent willingness to let him, and not his offensive coordinator, pick a play at the line of scrimmage based on what he sees in the defense’s formation

Tech handles these calls—audibles, in football parlance—the way most college teams do, said quarterbacks coach Mike O’Cain. Offensive coordinator Bryan Stinespring calls two plays, which are signaled from the sideline to Taylor, who says the names of both plays in the huddle. When he gets to the line, he surveys the defense, picks the play that matches up best and yells it to his teammates.

Most of Stinespring’s audible packages include two plays. A few have three. Some comprise two run plays, some two passes, others a run and a pass. Stinespring said he used eight packages in Saturday’s win over North Carolina State. Taylor said the coaches let him audible by choosing a play at the line on about 20 percent of a game’s snaps.

Taylor audibled like this a little bit last year, but the Hokies have used the system more in the past four to five weeks. Earlier this season, their audible method did not rely on Taylor’s decisions. Instead, when the Hokies went to the line, Taylor called a “dummy” snap count, which let Stinespring see, from his booth above the field, how the defense was aligned. Then he called a play he deemed appropriate for the defense, and it was signaled from the sideline to Taylor.

That setup had its flaws. Defenses knew an audible was coming every time Taylor lined up behind center looked toward the sideline. So if Stinespring noticed a defense preparing to blitz, and he called a play to counter that, the defensive players would see Taylor’s head turn and shout, “Mayday!” They were telling each other to abandon the blitz and change their plan, perhaps by dropping back to cover the quick pass Stinespring had called. Stinespring’s move had been foiled.

Also, Taylor said, “It’s easier for you to tip the defense sometimes when you break the huddle too fast. Some teams know that you don’t have a play call set and that you’re just going to look to the sideline [for Stinespring’s audible].”

Tech’s coaches had used the advanced, more-furtive audible system, in which the quarterback picks one of two plays at the line, more with Glennon. Its benefit was obvious: “We didn’t get locked into calling a play and having to live with it,” O’Cain said.

But was Taylor ready to handle it? In his first two seasons, the staff “didn’t want to have that burden on him,” O’Cain said. Taylor was still learning how to predict a defense’s plan based on its pre-snap alignment. “You’ve got to have in your mind 75, 80 percent of an idea of what they’re gonna play,” O’Cain said. “Until you’ve got that down, you’re always a little bit late.”

O’Cain began to see progress during spring practices. That continued early this season, when Taylor made quicker and better decisions. Rather than scrambling out of the pocket at the first sign of a blitz, as he did too often last season, he stayed in and let the play develop.

Part of that change involved Taylor trusting his teammates, believing his offensive line would block and his receivers would catch his passes. “When I first got here, I kind of thought that I had to make all the plays, maybe because of what I had to do in high school, trying to put the team on my back,” Taylor said. “That’s not what I have to do here.”

His coaches, in turn, saw enough to believe he could read a defense and pick the correct play. “I have tremendous confidence in him now, seeing everything,” O’Cain said. “It’s a trust and we feel like he can handle it more.” So far, in Taylor’s at-the-line play selection, “I don’t think he’s made a mistake with it at all,” O’Cain said.

The staff handing Taylor audible duties, and him properly executing them, marked a critical, albeit uncelebrated, moment in his time at Tech, the type of unseen decision that could help him grow further next season, when the Hokies return their entire offense except two offensive linemen, a tight end and a fullback.

“Any time you have a quarterback that’s been in the game, fully in control of the game, I think that’s when you start leaning on that quarterback more and more,” Stinespring said. “He’s the one who snaps the ball. He gets the last look at the defense.”

Virginia Tech’s coaches are allowing their quarterback to call more audibles at the line of scrimmage.