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AFM Magazine

AFM Magazine


Innovators of the option

by: Curt Block
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The number of coaches who are proponents of the option offense exclusively are like members of a select fraternity. They are relatively few in number and show mutual admiration for one another. The officers of this would-be Sons of the Option order might include Paul Johnson of Navy, Rice University’s Ken Hatfield, Mike Sewak of Division I-AA Georgia Southern and the Air Force Academy where Chuck Petersen is Offensive Coordinator. AFM spoke to all of them and others about their potent scoring machinery and its influence on the game.

Few programs have experienced such a quick fix with the option that Kevin Wright achieved after he arrived at Warren Central High School in Indianapolis. The Warriors, who had basked in the good times of two straight state championships in the 80s fueled by prep phenom QB Jeff George, had run low on petrol by the end of the century. When Wright took over in 2000, Warren Central had skidded to one winning season in the previous four years. Clearly, a new direction was needed.

“I set out to do something different and do it better,” Wright now recalls. “At the time we felt the option best fit our personnel. We did not have great size upfront but we had good skill people.” It didn’t take long for the new approach to pay dividends. “I guess we hit the national scene in 2002 when we broke the national federation rushing record when we ran for 756 yards in one game. Then, the next year we scored 50 points and rushed for 460 yards in the first half in the state championships which we eventually won, 57-7.”

That sort of performance has continued. They’ve averaged over 400 yards rushing and 40 points per game over the last four years and early this season they were putting up 60+ points regularly. To what does he attribute that success? “In terms of personnel you need a great decision maker at quarterback. He doesn’t have to be big. We have never had a quarterback over six feet tall. We’ve never had a pocket passer. The option offense however gave us a chance to utilize our players athleticism and speed.

“We’re a spread option team. Most of our offense comes from the Georgia Southern offense that Paul Johnson then took to Navy. If you watch Navy play, that’s us in a nutshell. We very seldom use a tight end. We run from a double slot. We try to spread the field. This year we’ve incorporated the shotgun and also run the zone option and zone read to go along with the inside veer and midline plays that we run behind the center. I should also add that we’re a no-huddle team. We’re trying to stress the defense out. We don’t throw it much but we throw it enough to keep people honest.

“Now when you talk about the option obviously you’ve got multiple options within one but we don’t run a lot of different plays. We try to keep it relatively simple for our kids so we can get real good at our blocking schemes and come off the ball with speed and quickness because I think that’s key to this offense.

“The option is an offense that has carried its weight throughout history going back to Oklahoma and the great teams they had running the wishbone. It’s been successful at every level. Just look at the success Air Force and Navy have had. I often wonder why more teams don’t use it.”

That’s a good question for coach Johnson at the Naval Academy. Why don’t more schools employ the option? “I think to do good on offense you have to truly understand what you’re trying to do,” Johnson says. “There’s not a whole lot of people who run the option anymore so if you understand it you’ve probably got a leg up on some people. I’m not sure everybody understands what you’re trying to do. It’s hard to get ready for it if you don’t really understand it.”

Without a playbook crammed with big yardage passing plays some critics have claimed the grind it out format is less appealing. Johnson’s not buying it. “There’s a misnomer out there that the option is boring and fans don’t want to watch it. Some people think it’s three yards and a cloud of dust which makes me laugh. Everywhere we’ve coached we’ve set attendance records.

“I used the option at the University of Hawaii and we won a lot of games. Then we won a bunch of games and scored a ton of points at Georgia Southern and won the league five straight years there and probably averaged about 40 points a game. One of the neat things about the option is you don’t have to block everyone. You can pick and choose who you don’t want to block. By being able to read and option some guys, it gives you a chance to get some angles and double some others who might be tough to block. You don’t have to put a hat on everyone.”

Coach Hatfield of the Rice Owls agrees with the assessment that a QB must be able to make quick decisions but adds another dimension. “With this offense your quarterback must want to run the football. He should have a running back mentality. The tradeoff is if you run the ball a lot your QB could get hurt but no worse than you have it as a passing quarterback when you back side is not protected. At least his way you’re going forward and you can usually see who is trying to tackle you.”

“Not very many teams use it. Most Div. I-A schools are pro-oriented and they’re throwing the ball a lot so the advantage is not many people are running a true triple option attack. Oklahoma, Texas and other great programs have won with it. “Today the reason the top colleges don’t run it is because they’re trying to recruit a lot of guys who want to go to the NFL early. In helping them prepare for the NFL they need a pro style attack. And also some schools began hiring NFL coaches with a pro background. Only a few teams are true triple option teams. Paul Johnson has had great success with it. The Air Force Academy uses it well and we still run it but that’s about it for the most part.”

Chuck Petersen was a defensive back at the Air Force Academy in the mid-80s and has been OC since 2000. He still recalls how this system began for the Falcons. “I remember when Coach Ken Hatfield went to it here in 1980. I think the unfamiliarity that defenses have with it helps make it successful. If you had to put a label on what we do I guess you’d call it a multiple option spread offense. We use two different types of read options. We use the read triple option and the read midline option which accounts for roughly 60 percent of our run game.

“The difference is that pre-snap in the triple option we identify one man on the line of scrimmage who we call our read key. The quarterback will either keep the ball or give it to the fullback depending





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