Interesting tidbits from a Dec 23 article in the Times Picayune: Johnson has employed [the triple option] with considerable success for some time now, having taken Navy to five bowl games with it before heading to the Yellow Jackets. It's the effectiveness of the Yellow Jackets' offense that is the most salient point for LSU. No. 14 Georgia Tech (9-3) comes to the Dec. 31 game in Atlanta with the No. 3 rushing offense in the country, averaging 282.3 yards per game and with 32 rushing touchdowns. Against that wave, LSU (7-5) will present the 17th-best rushing defense. The Tigers have allowed an average of 105.7 yards per game on the ground. Those two outfits -- Georgia Tech ground attack vs. LSU rushing defense -- should form the game's essence. If both units play to their potential, some experts predict, the bowl could equal an outstanding prizefight. Paul Johnson's success, coupled with the championships coaches like Barry Switzer and Tom Osborne racked up in the option's glory years, make it curious more teams don't employ a version of it. BARRY SWITZER: "Option football never died, it's just that option football coaches are dying off, " Switzer quipped. "If Tom Osborne still wanted to coach, he'd still be winning championships with the option like he did in the '90s at Nebraska." The core issue, he said, is that terrific athletes who run option offenses in high school get used at the collegiate level as safeties and receivers. "I recruited black quarterbacks all over the country, " Switzer said of his wishbone days. "Look at Jamaal Holliday -- one of the best quarterbacks I ever had. He could have gone anywhere in the country and been a safety, but I figured him and some others might still want to play some quarterback at Oklahoma." URBAN MEYER: Florida Coach Urban Meyer said more teams would use the option if the NFL had anything like it. It is tough to recruit kids who want to play professionally to a system that has no professional status, he said. STEVE PATTON: "If LSU wants to play the way it did against Alabama, if LSU brings its old SEC kind of defense, they can stay with Georgia Tech. And it should be a hell of a game, " said Steve Patton, coach of Gardner-Webb, who played the Yellow Jackets perhaps tougher than any other opponent this season, giving up just one first half touchdown on a 70-yard screen pass before falling 10-7 in October. As it happens, Patton is an old SEC man himself, having been recruited by Bear Bryant at Alabama. He also goes back with Georgia Tech Coach Paul Johnson -- recently named the ACC Coach of the Year in his first season -- and thus had some familiarity with the option offense Johnson employs. In the Yellow Jackets' case, the fullback presents the key because the job has been handled this season by sophomore Jonathan Dwyer, whom Patton described as a superb player. Dwyer topped 1,000 yards and scored nine touchdowns. He had seven 100-yard plus games, and his 105.6 yards-per-game average led the ACC by a wide margin. Gardner-Webb caught a break, Patton conceded, because Yellow Jackets quarterback Josh Nesbitt was banged up and didn't play. But even with him in the lineup, Dwyer remains the key "From watching the film and talking with some other coaches, we thought stopping No. 21 was the key, that you simply have to stop No. 21 between the tackles, " Patton said. "That way if you stopped No. 21, then the quarterback would have to make some decisions." The Bulldogs chose to play man-to-man almost exclusively in the secondary. There was a gambling element to that plan, Patton acknowledged, but Georgia Tech's play selection, like most options, is quite lopsided in favor of the run. One other element to defending the option is constant motion up front. Patton said if the defensive line gets frozen in any way, it's just gas on the fire to an option offense. "That should be something LSU can make happen, too, because they are big enough up front defensively to maintain their movement, " Patton said. LSU PLAYERS: There is one other quality a defense must have when it faces the option, an aspect mentioned by coaches and players alike -- discipline. "My job is really simple, actually, " said LSU defensive end Rahim Alem when asked what wrinkles the option presents to a defensive game plan. "You have to be disciplined. Every single play you have to lock in." Finally, if the defenders get too caught up in trying to follow the ball, the option offense will leave them flat-footed. In an effort to avoid that, teams often have the scout team run without a ball in practice, a trick LSU has employed in its preparations. "It causes a lot of confusion, " Riley said. "You've got to watch a lot of people, there's a lot of people crossing, and so you've got to keep your eyes in the right place." http://blog.nola.com/lsusports/2008/12/lsu_tigers_defense_faces_stern.html
the key will be turnovers. Like the article said we had significant turnovers (deep in opponents territory) in our 3 losses. In ugag and um games we were playing better and avoided turnovers. The GW game we were using our 3rd string QB who CANNOT run the option so that will only be relevant if you knock our 1st two QB's out of the game. IMO the reason option cannot work in NFL is b/c it is predicated on getting the ball to the D's weakness. In the NFL there are no weaknesses. If you look at the Ugag highlights you see that our RBs were bouncing off single tackles for long yardage. Even great defenses have 3 or 4 people that dominate the D and can at least assist on almost EVERY play. That will not be the case in the chicken bowl. You will see your DB's on islands and it will be VERY easy to tell who is making plays and who is NOT. We were being blown out in the 1st half against ugag. Then all of the sudden the FIRST play of the second half we go for 60 yd TD. We blast up 26 pts in the quarter. About LSU having a top run D I think Miami, F$U, and Ugag were all ranked better than you all UNTIL THEY PLAYED US. That being said we lost to UVA AT HOME, UNC looked like all-americans against us and we could not close the deal on VT. Like I said at the beginning I think it will be about turnovers. We have been able to avoid them lately I hope it continues. I think Miles is a great coach and I loved it when you beat ugag in SECCG. You all had some bad luck w/ your QB's which kept you out of the mix this year, but I expect a strong recovery and I doubt you will be in the peach for awhile (unless it becomes a BCS bowl).
I probably sound simplistic, but if we jump out to lead, that may force them out of their offense. Ball control also, short passes to keep the clock running and pressure off the running game (keep them from stacking 9 in the box)
