College Football's Outcast: Why The Option Still Gets No Love

With Georgia Tech coming into its second season under the tutelage of Paul Johnson, many are anxious to see the sustainability of the option on FBS level. While the service academies have run the option for several years waith respectable levels of success, Georgia Tech’s entry into the Noble Order of the Option has marks one of the first conference teams in a decade to adopt it. Despite a markedly improved season for the Yellow Jackets, the option’s street cred is still suspect.

Most dissenters point to the lack of option offense in the pros as evidence of its inadequacy at the higher tiers of football. True, Atlanta had modest success with the option, but in the absence of a freakishly fast quarterback and even faster running back, NFL defenses are too fast for it to be feasible.

But we’re not talking about pro football.

For some reason, people seem to blur between college football and professional football when they are not even remotely close to the same level of athleticism. The best college team would still get utterly annihilated by the worst pro team, Detroit included. Thusly, though the option doesn’t cut it in the pros, it has found a thriving niche at the college level.

The service academies have a tough time recruiting simply based on the fact that most players don’t want to be committed for four years after graduation. The option helps level the playing field by valuing speed and intelligence over strength and talent. On the same token, Georgia Tech has difficulty recruiting in the same pastures as the southern juggernaut of UGA. It’s tough to convince a top prospect that they’d be better off at an ACC school than a powerhouse SEC school, but the option helps mitigate this disparity and make smaller programs more competitive. For this very reason, don’t be surprised to see the option cropping up in smaller schools like Michigan State over the next few years.

For proof of the option’s mystical talent-negating abilities, look no further than the 45-42 upset of GT over UGA last year. The Bulldog faithful will be all too happy to tell you that GT’s victory was merely a fluke by way of special teams aberrations, but the fact remains that an offense that bequeathed the number one overall draft pick and three top 50 draft picks was defeated by a skinny quarterback and his trio of running backs.  Even without the flukes, the option still hung with a more talented offense and got the job done.

The most overlooked reason the option is so effective is that when you’ve got it working, it’s demoralizing. You know exactly what play is coming, but you still can’t stop it. Even if you get good backfield penetration and secondary playing in tight, they can still get five or six yards per carry. And just when you think you finally have them down in the backfield, the QB pitches the ball and they break for 40+ yards.

What kills me is that opponents constantly loom an ever-present inevitability that someone is going to "figure out" the option and GT will be done for.  A mere glance at the ESPN conversation boards for any of Tech's losses (or even close wins) will be met with hundreds of posts touting the option's fallibility and that this is the end of Tech's success.  But why does this only apply to the option offense?  Why is it when a team with a more traditional East or West Coast offense get beat, no one triumphantly proclaims their scheme obsolete?

I’m not saying the option is going to take teams to the national championship, but give credit where credit is due. It's tough to stop, it can be used for long or short yardage, and it gives unparalleled clock control. Look to GT for another exciting season of triple option high jinx.