It is apparent that IU has not been able to break through in the last 25 years. Modern spread offenses are based on putting your athletes in space, this works against IU as they can't recruit on the same level as most B1G teams. Like Navy and GA Tech it will give them a leg up. It is a scheme most teams would see once a year. If they were to adopt the triple option within 3 years the Hoosiers would be feared and hated by the rest of the conference.
The Hoosiers need to run the triple option
- Thread starter newIUfan
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That is a great point. Here is a statement from a Ga Southern site about the option attack. I think it applies to IU.
"Okay, now that we’ve got that out of the way, why should we run the option? Glad you asked.
Another contradiction in Wolken’s tweet is that his premise works both ways. It limits your “pool” (although you’re only hiring one person) but also limits the number of schools willing to hire your coach away. Georgia Tech may very well have lost Paul Johnson after winning the Orange Bowl a few years back if he ran some more PR-friendly scheme.
Granted, that hasn’t stopped the revolving door for successful Southern coaches of late, but it can’t hurt.
I’ve been hearing for at least the last 15 years the option is outdated, and yet as I write this Army is 6-2, Navy is 5-2 and Georgia Tech is 4-2. Somebody needs to tell them they’re not allowed to win with those old-school schemes.
The biggest reason of all to hire an option coach is identity. The Triple Option IS Georgia Southern’s identity, known across the country among discerning college football fans. At this level of football you need to have something to hang your hat on or risk becoming part of the interchangeable list of random mid-majors. There’s no good reason to trade in that history and tradition.
Beyond that, the option provides real, major advantages in recruiting. You don’t need to compete with Georgia, Auburn, South Carolina or any other of the nearby big-timers for talent, since the option requires shorter, smaller, faster players from the offensive line all the way to the quarterback."
The last italics is mine.
Triple option is a great offense if you get that one particular kid ... the quarterback. Those guys are not made they are born. We tried to run it several years back but it is so hard to teach that kid how to read the triple. We spent day after day trying to teach it. We had a really smart kid that was very athletic and it just did not happen. If you are a true triple option team you have to be willing to run triple anywhere at anytime. Also not a great offense for playing from behind.
I've always loved watching it (we ran it in HS) but in the Big Ten East the competition has the two elements on defense than can stop the Option: Speed and Athleticism.
Take a hard look at what Notre Dame does to Option teams 9 out of 10 times they play them... (they beat them). That's the result (the Loss) we'd get against M$U, o$u, P$U, MI, along with any other top 30 team we had to play (in my opinion).
We'd also struggle against any other team on our schedule that had decent speed on defense (most of them).
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We ran the option with Randall El and we wasnt all that good at it, as far as I can remember. Poor kid got the ever lovin tar beat out of him some games.
