Virtually every college football pundit is asking the same question: "Will Georgia Tech's option offense work in major college football?" Pardon me, but has there ever been a time when the option has NOT worked in major college football?
A time all of these talented well coached option teams were going 2-9 every year, only to switch to the West Coast offense or the run and shoot and start winning national titles?
Let me tell you: If it happened, I seem to have missed it.
Now, the media certainly declares the option to be dead often enough, but its collective thesis is completely unproven because no major college team has tried to adopt the option and failed. (By contrast, more than a few programs abandoned their option-oriented attacks for the passing game with much fanfare, only to have less success than before.)
Teams did not abandon the option because it was ineffective. Teams adopted the passing game because it's what gets you noticed by the media. Cases in point: Cal and Texas Tech, two programs that get more exposure for going 7-4 every year than run-oriented teams get for winning a conference title.
The truth is that most university presidents, alumni, and athletics directors don't know any more about football than the average fan, much less a coach or a player. So if the media claims, year in and year out, that the option is dead and the passing game is the way to go, that is what they are going to believe, and hiring decisions are made in favor of Rick Neuheisel as a result.
That is why even option great and longtime Nebraska Cornhuskers assistant Turner Gill had to go off to the NFL and become a West Coast offense guy so that he could become a head coach at Buffalo: He knew that it was the only way to get a job in this environment. But the truth is that Gill knows that—just as his Tommie Frazier-Scott Frost teams demolished Miami, Florida, and Peyton Manning's Tennessee teams for national titles in the 1990s (all teams that had better athletes on paper), and just as even Tom Osborne's witless successor Frank Solich beat defending national champs Tennessee in the 1999 Fiesta Bowl (one of just two losses the SEC has suffered in the BCS era, the other was to West Virginia, who incidentally runs the spread option)—an option team with good talent and coaching can compete on the college level.
And that is precisely what Paul Johnson is going to prove at Georgia Tech.
The southeast is full of option talent because that is what most of the high schools in that area of the country run: the veer and the wishbone. The media would have you believe most of the great athletes from those powerhouse programs simply go to I-AA or mid-major schools, but the truth is that the better option athletes from those high schools go to the passing programs like everyone else. Those that can quickly adopt the skills for the passing game and
2 comments Last one added 10 months ago — Leave a Comment
Ron Jones 10 months ago
Good commentary,
Case in point Nebraska, since the 60s never fewer than 9 wins until the brainiacs in charge want the west coast offense. Now they are mediocre without the talent base to sustain such an offense. They would be well served to go back to the power option or a spread option focused on running the ball.
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Gerald Ball 10 months ago
Ron:
I agree 100%. Few teams can consistently attract the QBs, WRs, pass blocking offensive linemen, or even the versatile tailbacks to run the passing game. Then there is the problem of competing with the NFL for the best position coaches. And then, because the passing offenses lengthen games, shorten drives, and increase the potential for turnovers, you actually need more talent on defense than you do on offense. If you are a traditional powerhouse that can recruit nationally or if you have a ton of talent in your own state, the passing game is viable. But if you do not fit that description, then you are better off running another system, including the option. A lot of people are finding that out now, and that is why so many teams are going to the spread option. Pretty soon, these folks are going to be forced to admit that the option works better out of the I - formation than the shotgun, and when that happens we will be right back to the offenses that Nebraska, Colorado, Clemson, and Georgia Tech won titles with in the 1990s. One thing that actually never will come back is the wishbone. But now that we have so many dual threat QBs that can run and pass, there is no reason to go back to the wishbone anyway.
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