Just speculation on my part, but it wouldn’t surprise me to find out P’nut wanted to try something like this but TF(1F)G absolutely forbade it from happening because it would involve admitting some parts of an option offense might work and the transition wouldn’t have been as historical.
I wrote in another thread that Patenaude's offense at GT was a watered down version of what he ran at Coastal Carolina. Patenaude ran option, and even triple option, to go along with his passing attack. I haven't really dug too far into what Patenaude ran their in terms of their passing offense, but I have zero doubts he ran the staple route concepts of the Air Raid (4 Verts, Stick, Mesh, etc). Most passing games at every level run some degree of the Air Raid staple passing plays. He ran them at GT as well. His QB at Coastal had over 11,000+ yards in total offense during his career there and broke the conference record for QB rushing TDs.
It kinda makes me angry that CGC basically hand cuffed our staff (from multiple reports) and all of our coaches couldn't coach up to their full potential. Offensively, we had James Graham, Tobias Oliver, and Lucas Johnson who would have been REALLY good in Patenaudes Coastal Carolina offense. CGC valued appearances over production...that offense could have been SO MUCH more better those first two years had Patenaude gotten to unleash Graham/Oliver/Johnson in the option run game.