@2davidc8 In classic football, no. In the college game most QB’s are given a play from the head coach (called in from the sideline) and they run it. In some cases the coach will allow a seasoned QB to “audible” at the line of scrimmage before he hikes the ball. That is just changing the play to match what he thinks the defense is going to do based on how they’re lined up (IE if he thinks the play called won’t work well). But for the vast majority of QB’s, especially on the college level, they know exactly what they’re doing before they hike the ball.
The read option allows the QB to change his mind about what he’s doing during the play.
In essence, many QB’s have been doing it for decades. But rarely, if ever, was it designed that way. Steve Young would get out of the pocket (the offensive linemen defending him) and do basically a read option, but his plays weren’t designed that way. It was just a matter of what was supposed to happen fell apart, and he used his tremendous athleticism to make a play. Now many coaches are designing plays to be this way from the get go, probably inspired by the likes of Steve Young and how well it worked for him.
FWIW, the regular option play has existed since the 50’s or 60’s. In that play the QB has no option of passing and simply runs the ball with another back, and he has the option to pitch it to the other guy if he thinks he’s going to get more yards than him. But it’s different than the read option in that the QB is for sure going to run the ball to one side with his back, and very rarely would there even be a receiver down field.
I dunno that any one person is credited with “inventing” the read option. Several prominent coaches started running it around the same time.