We have a HC who has a film library of JJ's teams destroying the triple option and let's GA Tech run for 318 yards. I don't think he cares to emulate successful coaches.
Meanwhile, if these level of Canes defenders played those level of Oklahoma optioners, the tally would be far greater than 318 yards.
Not to mention we got extremely fortunate in 1987 when Charles Thompson quarterbacked that Orange Bowl, not Jamelle Holieway. The '85 and '86 Miami defenses with Jerome Brown were eligible to disrupt the fullback exchange far beyond the 1987 Canes, the team that Sammie Smith shredded for more than 200 yards.
Nobody wanted to accept that quarterbacking makes a difference in the triple option, until Justin Thomas was running Georgia Tech, and not stiffs like Vad Lee or Tevin Washington. There's such juvenile animosity toward that offense that the overall knowledge base is comically low. That's why it's really not much of a risk around here for me to praise the attack, and assert that anybody who rips the triple option is the lowest denominator among football fans, and the greatest litmus test I'm aware of regarding football knowledge. My friends and I have used it in Las Vegas for more than 20 years. I've yet to see it fail. I may have only one team going for me at this point. Drop from Georgia Tech and you're left with Navy and similar third tier gunk. One team with competent personnel is plenty, as long as the coach is committed and not somebody who picked it up recently. The schemes and fundamental aspects like 3 on 2, 2 on 1 and 1 on 0 mismatches are so superb that success will naturally follow.
That Oklahoma team went 33-3, BTW. One national championship, the same number we managed over the same period. They patiently ground out the same Penn State team for a title one year before we brainstormed to throw away the championship via foolish forced passes into coverage.
I seem to remember Nebraska having some success with the option in the '90s. Maybe I'm wrong about that. There was laughter in the Orange Bowl locker room in January 1992 when Tom Osborne announced that he was sticking with his run oriented option offense, that it was fine as long as the caliber of surrounding players steadily improved. Bill McCartney at the identical point in time overreacted at Colorado and shifted away from option football to a pass happy style. That team softened immediately and became easy pickings for Nebraska, after giving them fits while running the option.
The hilarity, of course, was that the sports media and Bar Stool caliber fans praised McCartney's decision while mocking Osborne.
