How to Stop the Option

Coaches agree: While difficult, the option offense can be contained
by: Curt Block
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Snap to the Q. He sprints to the right, instantaneously scans the defense as he is hit. At virtually the same time he pitches to the fullback. Quick cut to the left, he darts through the hole and rips off 55 yards.

How often have you seen it? How many times has it left you pacing the sidelines, shaking your head and clipboard? It’s the ageless option pitch/run. How do you stop it? What options does a coach have?

AFM contacted a number of high school and college coaches and posed those questions. We found a wide range of opinions on everything from the best fronts to employ, to what they rate as the key defensive positions, to the most important physical attributes for defensive players. Some of their answers might surprise you.

Minority Opinion

One coach we talked to seemed invested in the old theory that the best defense is a better, much better, offense. Tony DeMeo is entering his first season as head coach at the Division II University of Charleston Golden Eagles in the West Virginia Conference and describes himself as one of the most offensive minded coaches in the country. As for stopping the option offense, DeMeo had two views. “First is to have really superior talent,” he said, echoing what every coach in America dreams of. His second concept was more blunt, even radical. “I would get in touch with your booster, alumni, and radio and TV people and get them to assault it because schematically it’s not going to be done. You can try to contain or outscore it but I don’t think teams have a lot of success lining up in a particular scheme. I say keep your defense off the field and score a lot of points yourself.”

More Optimistic

Bryan Collins has been head football coach at C.W. Post College on Long Island since 1998. During his tenure with the Pioneers he has compiled an outstanding 63-14 record, giving him the top winning percentage (.818) among all Division II head coaches. His knack for developing a sound defense is evidenced by the fact that Post has had the number one rushing defense in the U.S. four of the last five seasons.

“We use an eight-man front against the option,” he says. “The eight-man has stood the test of time. I like it because it’s very flexible. That makes it very attractive at the high school level where the kids may not be quite as good at stopping the run especially in areas where you see the wing T one week, option the next and maybe the power run the next. Coaches use it because it’s a good run stopping defense.”

“The thing I want most is speed. You must have kids who can run and stay on their feet. Athleticism and speed. Size and strength are always things you’re looking for and the bigger they are and faster they are the better. Also, the intelligence factor is a big thing for us but you can work around that with a good game plan and strong defensive package. Obviously, we also want our kids to be football savvy.”

Collins’ Keys: • Sound run support players in defensive secondary. • Stay on your feet and be a disciplined defense. Do your job and no one else’s. • Be able to make slight adjustments and be able to run different types of responsibilities within your defense. • Don’t give up the big play.

Two On The Q

Wes Warren is Defensive Coordinator for Head Coach Butch Goncharoff’s Bellevue (WA) High School Wolverines, who have been Washington State Champions for the last four seasons. “Our first key to stopping the option,” Warren says, “is we always assign two men to the quarterback and one of them is always an end.

“In Cover 2 it’s seven in the box but if we add our two corners we’re jamming the line of scrimmage which we consider the contain. Then we take our D-ends and we splatter every back and ball carrier out to the corners so essentially we have nine in the box but one less LB because he’s actually a two-deep safety. If we’re in Cover 2 the backer is on one side of the option that’s right next to the middle backer. We go outside in and see who has force on the play. In Cover 2 our corner is force so he will have the pitch man. The next person inside from him is the strong backer so he will have the QB along with the end. In Cover 3 our comers aren’t in the run game at all. We’ve got an extra safety up as a LB so we have eight heavy in the box but only eight in the run game. In Cover 3 we’d have the strong safety rolled down as an outside linebacker.

“At halftime we have to see if our backers are getting to the QB. If it’s the dive back that’s hurting us, we have to see which gap. If it’s straight up the middle we would have to take our two interior linemen and put them in the A gaps.

“If it’s the QB we have to see if our end is getting sealed. If the back has someone in his face we would move our front so our blocking would have to adjust. If it’s the pitch man hurting us and our corner can’t get off his block we just have to rally to the ball.”

Key Player

“Without a doubt our strong LB is our key. He is first assigned to the QB but he’s also the one guy out in space that helps out on everything. At the snap he should be shuffling his feet and scraping outside so if the QB is coming at him he has to force him outside to get help.

“Lateral quickness is the key attribute. If you make a mistake and step into a hole you can get walled off by a guard or tackle. You have to go side to side quickly and be able to use your hands to get off the blocks and fight to the outside.”

Warren’s Summary: • Always assign two men to the quarterback. • Always assign the force player to the pitch man. • Assign your interior players to the dive man. • Never penetrate too far up field so you can’t rally to the ball.

Free Safety Is The Man

Armwood High School in Seffner, FL had won 29 in a row coming into the ’04 season.. They’ve also chalked up the number one defense in Hillsborough County the last seven years under Defensive Coordinator Matt Thompson.

“The first thing an offense does,” says Thompson, “is look to see who is over the quarterback. Then they look to see who’s on pitch and then they run their blocking scheme to try and block those people.

“We primarily use an eight-man front but we also add the free safety. For us, the best player has to be that free safety who has different reads. The way we’re successful is always run an extra man over there. We have two guys designated to the QB whether we’re running stunt or blitz. A lot of people think you can’t blitz an option but that’s totally wrong. It’s just that everybody’s responsibility changes.

We’ve always had two people on the QB and the free safety is one of them. He has a double job because he’s also looking for the wide dump or the tight end as he’s going over to the strong side. The free safety is like a linebacker playing ten yards off the ball.

“The free safety doesn’t have to be real fast but he has to be smart. He has to be coachable, somebody who understands what’s going on and where he’s going to fit. He doesn’t have to be real big but should have a little bit of speed. We like our safety to be at least 4.7/4.8. He’s got to be a solid tackler. Our free safety made 118 tackles last season because he ran all alleys so well. You don’t want a player who just nods and agrees with everything you say. It’s important they feel comfortable enough to ask questions. If you just have a ‘yes guy’ you’re never going to be really sure they understand what you’re teaching. I can usually tell if they truly understand. You can read it in their eyes. If they’re gazing off into the distance, they’re probably not getting it.”

Thompson’s Keys: • Practice game time situations. • Create your defensive philosophy and stick with it. If you don’t believe in it yourself, the players aren’t going to buy into it either. • Don’t be afraid to make adjustments.

A Real Option Team? Rockford (Illinois) College plays in the NCAA III Upper Midwest Athletic Conference South Division. The Regents are approaching their sixth season of college football. Mike Hoskins, who had two tours of coaching experience at Loris (Iowa) College, joined the Rockford staff as team defensive coordinator in 2001 and was named head coach the following year.

“We have a simple philosophy. The first thing we want to determine is are they a true option team or are they a team that likes to run the option.” Hoskins goes on to explain that “a real option team hangs their hat on the option. They’ll run a triple, midline, lead and speed. Their whole offense is option oriented. A team that likes to run the option might be more of a zone or some other offense but they run the option as a sideline.

“Teams that are good option teams want the ball in the hands of the quarterback or the dive back. They would just as soon not pitch it if they don’t have to so the offense is going to try and knock down the guy going for the QB. We might have a D-lineman play on the QB or an inside or outside linebacker or a secondary player. So if they give us inside veer we’ll have three different ways to play it.

“When we play against a midline we won’t play it as a midline. We call it quarterback-iso. We believe the midline is an isolation play with the QB. We’re going to disregard the pitch until someone proves to us they’re gonna pitch it in the midline. We’re not going to spend a lot of time on the pitch. We’re going to spend all our time taking away the dive.

“If a team is an option team we determine their five best plays and spend most of our time on that and react to everything else. If they’re really a running team which most option offenses are, we’ll spend most of our time on their three best option plays and after that their two complimentary plays that come off of it, whether it’s pass, play action or whatever.

“Team defense is the key. No one player or position can stop the option. You’ve got to take away the dive, the QB and the pitch. If you eliminate the dive you make it a double option instead of triple. Once you take away the dive you force the ball to the perimeter. You should put different people on the QB so the offense doesn’t get a consistent look at who is playing him.

Halftime Adjustments

“We chart everything we do in the first half from a call standpoint. At halftime we look at the plays we faced. Then we compare that with our defense. Which plays were successful and which weren’t. You hear a lot about how coaches make tremendous adjustments at halftime. I don’t believe in that. You can’t make that many changes because your kids won’t be able to carry them out. Make subtle ones. You have to point out what’s hurting you and what we can do to take care of that.”

Hoskins’ Summary • Discipline within assignment football. • Take away the dive. • Play the QB with different people. • Always have an alley player.

DE’s The Guy

St. Joseph’s Prep was riding a 35 game win streak going into the 2004 campaign in the Philadelphia Catholic League. Head Coach Gil Brooks has delivered players to, among other schools, Notre Dame, Georgia Tech, and the University of Michigan where DE Victor Hobson played before joining the New York Jets. St. Joseph’s was among the top three schools in the country in team defense from 2001-03. Brooks began his coach career as a defensive coordinator at Swarthmore College in the early 1980s.

Key Position

Brooks claims “it starts with the defensive end. We’re basically a 4-3. The DE has the toughest job. We ask him not only to have responsibility for the quarterback but he also has to hit and replace the guy he’s covering.

“He’s got to have speed, speed, speed and more speed. Quickness and discipline. A player has to know his responsibility and how to apply that responsibility against what he is seeing.

“We use two different techniques to play the option. We call them smash and feather. Smash means you go for the quarterback as hard and fast as you can and go after him aggressively. Feather means we try to string the QB out. Maintain a relationship with him but try to get him to slow down. Key him east and west and make him pitch the ball across his face.

“In college our teams were very mobile. We had lots of packages. We had all week to prepare for different things and we used all kinds of crazy looks. In high school you don’t have as much time to drill all those things. Even though we have a 70-man roster we’re really a one-platoon team. Guys have to play both sides of the ball. You don’t have as much time to prepare. You have to be more base-oriented.”

Brooks’ Summary: • Have rules. Responsibilities. Players must know their responsibilities. • Recognition. Recognize different types of options and how you should react. • Adjustments. Learn when to apply exceptions to the basic rules. • Pursuit. Got to have 11 hats on the ball. Got to pursue the option inside out. Get off block and get to the ball. It’s a group wide effort so if there is a breakdown you still have some guys coming to the mix.

Six coaches… six different strategies but all designed to do one thing: stop the option.

Block is based in Philadelphia.

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