Option-based Spread Offense.

August 7th, 2008 | by john |

We are merely weeks away from witnessing the new generation of Georgia Tech football.  New coaching staff, new offense, new quarterbacks, new running backs, new defense, new uniforms, and so many other “new” things… and I’ve been trying my best to keep up with everything that is new and developing since the end of our disappointing season last year.  Of course, the biggest change of all is the change that our new Head Coach, Paul Johnson, is bringing with him from his former tenure at the Naval Academy: the option-based spread offense.

The Old Regime
Under former Head Coach Chan Gailey, Georgia Tech ran an offense predominantly known as the “pro-style” offense in College football.  This type of offense pivots on two types of plays, a passing play where the quarterback snaps the ball under center or in shotgun and throws it to a wide receiver or a running play where the quarterback hands off or pitches the ball to one of his backs.  The question that the defense needs to answer is… is the offense going to pass the ball or are they going to run the ball.  Chan ran this type of offense during his entire career at Tech and it was a decent offense but as we found out over the past five years, it was never consistent due to talent that wasn’t spread across the field on both sides of the ball.

The New Regime
Paul Johnson, on the other hand, runs predominantly an option-based offense in flexbone formation that tries to spread the defense out across the field.  The core of such an offense is a strong dual-threat quarterback that has the ability to run the ball himself as a carrier and at the same time have the arm to throw the football.  The triple option is quite an elusive offense because no one really knows where the ball is going to end up, not even the offense, until the whistle is blown.

Snapped under center, the QB receives the ball and has to make multiple decisions based on how he reads the defense.  First option is to hand it off to the B-back who will run it up the middle.  If he sees the linebackers in the path, he will hold onto the ball and start rolling out to either his left or right and be flanked by an A-back.  If he sees that a defender is shadowing him, his second option is to lateral to the A-back right before the defender commits to tackle him in which case the A-back will have the ball to run the ball.  Otherwise, if the quarterback sees that a defender is shadowing his A-back, the third option is to keep the ball himself to run the ball.  Technically, there is also a fourth option which is for the QB to throw the ball to a receiver down the field but this is rather called the option-pass play rather than a triple-option because the wide receivers on a triple-option play are usually used as blockers instead of running routes.

The key to this offense is not brute strength or speed, it is execution.  Every time a play is called, every single person on the offense will have a job that they have to execute flawlessly because no one knows who the ball carrier will be or where the ball is going to go.  Paul Johnson has had a lot of success with this type of offense so far at his previous coaching positions at non-BCS schools.  So when Paul was hired, there were plenty of opinions by practically everyone that this type of offense will not work as effectively at the BCS level.  The primary argument seems to be that the defense is faster so that the elusiveness of the triple-option becomes null.

My (maybe biased) Opinion
As a Tech fan (so I may be guilty of bias here), I think the criticism has been overdone.  No one knows what this offense is going to look like; Paul Johnson was quoted as saying that they ran the ball at Navy because it was what his team at the time was good and he was taking advantage of what he knew the team was capable of.  Yes, he likes and has absolute belief in his offensive scheme (a.k.a the “system”) but this certainly does not mean that the system is not flexible to fit the profile of the team.  A good Head Coach will take advantage of the available talent and get the victory.  If Paul believes that he can do this at GT without throwing the ball, I’m not going to argue with him.  Otherwise, if Paul sees good things happening when the ball is in the air, I am confident that he will not neglect to pass the ball.  It is simple as that.

Personally, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Yellow Jackets came out in the first game and pass the ball often to give those sports columnists something to write about for Friday.  On that same note, I also wouldn’t be surprised if Tech never threw the ball in the first game and keep it on the ground 100% to give future opponents a false sense of security by letting them think that they will only have to worry about defending the ground game.

Either way, as you may be able to tell, I am very excited about this season.  I had very high expectations last year and was let down pretty hard.  I think we will have some surprising wins this year and also unexpected losses but I will be a happy fan just to see the critics proven wrong whether it be this season or the next.

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