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| Is the Traditional Option Dead in College Football? |
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| Written by Nick Meyer | |||||||||||||
| Tuesday, 23 October 2007 | |||||||||||||
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The spread option seems to have forced the old stand-by right out the door. But is it too late for a revival? For decades, the Nebraska Cornhuskers ran the traditional option with the type of power and precision that made teams quake in their Nikes. It was fast, it was hard-hitting, and it was near-impossible to stop when run properly.But now, the Naval Academy is the only somewhat well-known team runs the true form of the option in college football. The curious thing about that is the fact that it still works pretty well even with the team's lesser talent. The Midshipmen are currently 24th in total offense in the NCAA. The problem with that ranking is that they are 1st in rushing and last in passing, which means a lack of balance and is the offense's achilles heel when it's all said and done. A true option team that falls behind by multiple scores early in a game often has little chance of catching up due to their inability to throw the ball. It was a problem even those heralded Cornhuskers teams had with QB's like Scott Frost and Eric Crouch who were great runners but not very dependable through the air. Can this flaw be correct within the offense? Sure, but it takes a special QB who's good both throwing and running as well as tough enough to withstand the multiple big hits option quarterbacks sustain over the course of a long season. Recruiting such a quarterback is extremely difficult because good QB's typically want to play in a pro-style offense that gives them a better chance to show what they can throwing the ball for NFL scouts. The newer spread-option attack as well as the lesser-used "Pistol" formation have arrived on the scene as the new up-and-coming, popular offenses in college football, mainly because they take some of the same principles of the true option and add more balance in the passing game. The QB in the spread option has a better chance to sit back and read the defense before delivering the ball than he would on an option where the defense is constantly in attack mode going after the ballcarriers. Another problem with the true option that the spread option solves is the high rate of fumbles caused by the constant pitching of the ball on the option. The spread option's typical "zone read" run play is a simple fake that doesn't involve the transferring of the ball, so the QB can either hang on to it or hand it off and still deceive the defense. In the true option, the pitch play is a little dangerous because it requires precise timing to execute. Throw in the fact that today's college football defenses are faster and stronger than ever before and you can see why the true option is not practiced nearly as much as it used to be. Players in the true option take a ton of punishment and it's a tough offense to stay healthy in. And yet, you look at Navy's overall offensive success and wonder why almost no one else uses the option any more. Part of their success can also be attributed to the fact that teams don't practice against it much at all, so they have a hard time reacting to it at game speed. For this reason, perhaps we haven't seen the last of the traditional option after all, and some crafty coach out there is just waiting for the opportunity to unleash it on the college football world yet again.
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wpeery
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I liked this article alot and I actually just went on Associated Content and read your column on the Pistol formation--very well done. I agree that the Pistol formation is up and coming in college football and I wouldn't be surprised to see more college football teams use it. Syracuse uses it alot and I really love to watch teams run that formation. I have always been a pretty big Nebraska fan and I loved watching their teams run the option attack so beautifully. Who will ever forget the days of "Touchdown" Tommie Frazier running the option at Nebraska with flawless efficiency. Eric Crouch and Scott Frost were fun to watch too. I'll never forget that reverse pass Crouch ran against Oklahoma that broke that game open for the 'Huskers. I think the option can work in college football today, I think it is just extremely tough to run it against a team with tremendous lateral speed. For instance, the Miami defense of 2001 exposed the option because they were way too fast laterally. The funny thing is Crouch still rushed for over 100 plus yards against that defense, which is unreal. If anybody tried to run the option against South Florida, their offense would be stifled in the very same way that they shut down West Virginia's offensive attack. Even with the zone read, WVU really had no chance. Rutgers played their defense much smarter, because they played power football and ran right at the Bulls, instead of trying to run around them. I love the option offense and I would love to see it make a return to college football, but I feel like the zone read scheme offers so many more options that teams won't likely switch from the zone-read to the traditional option. The zone-read scheme offers more options, the quarterback can run, pass, or hand it off. Wheras in the option attack you are going to have much more trouble getting off a pass. You've pretty much covered it all, the zone read scheme has more options and it is a much higher percentage play of handing it off to the runnng back instead of pitching it. |
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ItOffishul77
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yeah, it's too bad more teams dont run it. even kstate ran it well not that long ago now teams are afraid to. ah well, at least somebody still uses it |
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Bugeatersteve
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I really don't know too much about this subject (  ), but I'll see what I can contribute. Actually the first thing you really need to make an option offense effective is a solid fullback. If the defense does not honor, or worry about the first option which is, what Nebraska called the "belly" series, then all they have to worry about is the quarterback and the pitch play. Fullbacks such as Jeff Kinney, Tom Rathman and the Macovicka brothers in the 90's is what made the option click. After that it is the quarterback, who besides being able to read the defense, has to have a "gut istinct" of whether to give to the fullback or keep it and go with it. Then it because a decision as to whether keep the ball between the tackles, or go to the outside with the trailing back, and then knowing whether to keep or pitch it. Besides the aformentioned Frazier, Frost and Crouch, two of best I ever saw, were from Oklahoma and the wishbone attach with first Jack Mildren in the early 70's and then Holloway in the 80's running it for Barry Switzer. Again, not that I know anything at all about how an option offense is suppose to work. Oh yea the Houston Cougars used to have a very good one running the veer offense that Bill Yeoman developed.  |
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Nice article Nick. Maybe the Big 12 title game...DRS Gear
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