Originally posted on 07/24/2014:

Quote Originally Posted by GT21Megatron View Post
The only thing I don't like about the ML here is that OSU will have ample time to prepare which is never good for these types of offenses. Look up their records playing a team coming off a bye week and in bowl games. It's not good at all. I do think Navy can get first downs and control the clock. I love these teams getting points like this and Reynolds outside of Nesbit is probably the best triple option QB I've seen.
The preparation-time-as-an-option-antidote probably has more to do with sportscast rhetoric. I think that coaching is key here: a flexbone OC should have his unit prepared for every front/scheme, as it's basic protocol. There are only so many ways that the offense can attack, yes, but there is only a finite number of ways that a defense can perform in switching assignments to try and confound the offense. Neither side is reinventing the wheel here.

If the quarterback simply cannot handle back-to-back reads then they're processing it like it's back to back after the snap. One cannot read it as "alright, #1. And. Then. It's --- #2." It should always be an "area read" where the QB reads the DT/DE and LB/S simultaneously; if they both crash the B-back/QB at the same time, the QB seats the ball and pitches immediately, under control. If the QB is versed in doing so, the defense cannot commit to this approach in "option destruction" because it's strategic suicide. An effective QB in this scheme is always taught to leverage pitch in this situation. If done correctly then it won't matter if they're running it against the AP All-Pro 1st-team defense -- it'll be 8-to-12-to-touchdown.

The same thing applies to the "2-1 exchange" where the EMLOS (DE/OLB) switches responsibilities with the LB/S. I've seen this singlehandedly reduce Paul Johnson's squads at Georgia Tech (even with Josh Nesbitt) to abandoning the veer in favor of predetermined play-calls for the remainder of the game because the QB just can't handle it. Then the whole thing crumbles. Don't even get me started on Vad Lee. Good luck to him and his career, but, damn, it was a travesty watching his head spin every play.

The 3-2 exchange goes along the same lines if then the QB keeps the ball and replaces the original alignment of #1. The 3-4 exchange is the responsibility of the A-back/tackle communicating with the WR, reading the safety and cornerback on the run so that the arc block is performed appropriately with what the defense is doing with the secondary on run support.

If any of these aspects aren't mastered with effective personnel and stimuli over and over again then they're fvcked.

I think that some may construe these issues as evidence of under-center triple-option being rendered obsolete with enough practice time. It usually has more to do with the talent differential not being modified when the specialty of an entire team is wasted by being ill-prepared in implementing the entire focus of their offense. They've lost the competitive equalizer, they fall behind schedule, the score gets out of hand, and they're forced to try what they just can't do.

Just as the difference with elite passers in the NFL is measured and felt along that fine line, so it goes with the elite flexbone QB. Reynolds is just a different breed.


What Navy backers will really need here is the defense playing just well enough to get about 2 punts total from Meyer, Miller, and Co.