What killed the Option???

[Blackshirt]

Thought this was a pretty interesting art from the kcstar that may appeal to quite a few of you.

Ahhh... the good old days..

 

 

Requiem for the option

 

One of college football's signature offenses is no more, overtaken by fancy passing games and a healthy fear of injury

 

By JOE POSNANSKI

 

The Kansas City Star

 

The option will be back someday. Heard a man say those very words at a family restaurant in Iowa. He was an older guy wearing a John Deere hat, and he was eating the catfish. When the waitress asked what two side items he wanted, he had said, “Corn and corn.” The man said the option will be back someday.

 

After all, he said, “the durned thing works.”

 

The option play was Midwestern football. For 50 years, autumn in the heartland was marked by falling leaves and quarterbacks running to the corner and then pitching to the trailer. The option was the driving force behind Barry Switzer's Oklahoma (and, OU faithful will tell you, Bud Wilkinson was running the thing in the 1950s). It was the power behind Tom Osborne's Nebraska and won Eric Crouch a Heisman. It was Missouri's play in the glory years — there are still people who credit Missouri's Don Faurot for inventing the option when he came up with the Split T formation. As you will see, though, the question of who invented the option is tricky.

 

But whoever invented it, everybody around here used it, all the Big Eight teams, all the high school teams, all the pee-wee teams. Throughout the Midwest, fathers taught their sons early about God, the American flag and how you have to wait until the linebacker commits before you pitch the football. The option has been as much a part of the heartland as slow-moving combines holding up traffic on two-lane roads.

 

And now? Well, now Oklahoma throws the football all over the field like it's bleepin' BYU. Nebraska just went out and hired an NFL coach — not just any NFL coach, either, an Oakland Raiders coach — and now they're planning to go to a West Coast offense, which is a little like Bob Dole releasing a rap album.

 

There are still a few Midwestern teams that have the option in their playbooks — Kansas State and Missouri come to mind — but it's just an accent piece now, a bit of nostalgia to keep the defense honest. Nobody builds their offense on the option.

 

“No one has the discipline or the disciples of the playbook to run it anymore,” says Switzer, the patron saint of the option. “It's a dinosaur. But if people wanted to win, they'd use it.”

 

***

 

Here is a simple rundown of the option. Of course, everybody runs a slightly different version. Some run it out of the wishbone, some out of the I-formation, some out of the T-formation and so on. Some call it the triple option, some call it the veer, some just call it the option.

 

Whatever it's called, it's pretty much the same play.

 

The quarterback takes the snap. He pivots. And he has three options.

 

Option 1: The handoff. If the quarterback sees that the middle linebacker has run upfield, he can give the ball to a fullback who would then smash right up the middle. The fullback dive is an often-overlooked part of the option, but it helped Osborne finally win his national title. In the 1995 Orange Bowl, Miami's linebackers were running all over the field, cutting off the outside. So in the fourth quarter, Nebraska quarterback Tommie Frazier started giving the ball to bruiser Cory Schlesinger. He bashed straight ahead for two touchdowns, and Nebraska finally won the big game.

 

Option 2: The run. If that middle linebacker is in position, the quarterback's job is to fake the handoff and start running down the line. He has to figure out whether the “pitch key” — the first defender — is to hit him or hit the running back behind him. The best option quarterbacks have a sixth sense about this. If they see the defender leaning even slightly toward the running back, their job is to cut inside and gain big yards.

 

Option 3: The pitch. If that first defender is on the quarterback, he has to pitch the ball. The key here, though, is he has to wait until the last possible second before pitching. Otherwise, the play won't work quite right. Most option quarterbacks pitch too early and leave their running back stranded out there. The quarterback has to draw as much of the defense to him in order to clear the outside for the running back.

 

In other words, the quarterback has to allow himself to get absolutely pounded.

 

This is why there aren't many good option quarterbacks left.

 

There is actually a fourth option: The quarterback fakes everything and then throws the ball. But throwing is not really part of the option. In fact, throwing the ball is what killed the option in the first place. But we'll get back to that later.

 

***

 

No one person invented the option. The basic concept of the option — run or pitch — goes back to rugby. Still, many believe that the modern option was born in 1941 when Missouri coach Don Faurot looked at the newly designed T formation and said “Split it.” That is, he moved his offensive linemen apart, giving his quarterback more of a chance to run sideways. And this opened up the opportunity to run or pitch.

 

“Most original and significant contribution to offensive football in the last 10 years,” Bud Wilkinson would say. And he should know. While Faurot had success with his new Split-T — his 1941 Missouri team led the nation in rushing — Wilkinson took it to a whole new level. His Sooners ran something very much like the option, and they won three national titles and, at one point, 47 games in a row.

 

After that, it gets pretty confusing. During the 1950s and through the 1960s, it seems like coaches all over America were busy inventing the option. Homer Rice was coaching high school in Kentucky when he came up with this idea of adding a fullback to the Split-T (creating what later would be called the wishbone). From there, he designed something awfully similar to what looked like the option.

 

“Kind of happened by accident,” Rice said many times.

 

Then, there's a story that Bill Yeoman while coaching at Houston got sick and tired of watching this linebacker blow up his offense. So he came up with this idea involving a fullback and the old Split-T and, voila, he invented the veer.

 

Then, there's the most famous option invention story, the story of Texas' Emory Bellard, who dreamed up the wishbone one day (the name “wishbone,” incidentally, was coined by Houston sportswriter Mickey Herskowitz) and spent the summer working out details of the triple option in the backyard with his sons. He then presented his idea to coach Darrell Royal, who said, “Son, you need to get some sleep.”

 

No, he didn't really say that. Royal, who had played for Wilkinson and understood the power of the option, took Bellard's offense, added a few wrinkles and, voila, his Texas team promptly tied Houston. But the very next week they, well, lost to Texas Tech.

 

Still, Texas stuck with it. And after that, they won 30 in a row.

 

And that's when Oklahoma, Nebraska and everybody else in the Midwest started using the option.

 

***

 

So where did the option go? Why did it die? It all depends on who you ask.

 

Theory No. 1: Quarterbacks are endangered species.

 

“The option could absolutely work on any level,” says Chiefs offensive coordinator Al Saunders. “I could run it in the NFL and win with it. The only thing is, you'd have to give me 15 quarterbacks because that's how many I'd go through.”

 

Yes, we are living in a time when it's hard enough to find one good quarterback to lead the team. The option undeniably puts that quarterback in harm's way. He has to take big hits — whether he has the ball or not. And with defenders getting bigger and stronger and faster, option critics say it's football suicide to throw your quarterback into that firestorm.

 

“Let's see how a team feels about running the option when their guy gets knocked out by an earhole shot,” Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops said a few years ago, when he was still a defensive coordinator at Florida. In fact, if you want one man to blame for ending the option, Stoops might be a decent choice. His defense tends to destroy the option. And, of course, he has taken Oklahoma's offense as far away from the option as possible.

 

“I remember a game when Bob Stoops was coaching, and we weren't having much success running the ball,” says J.C. Watts, the option quarterback who led Oklahoma to back-to-back Orange Bowl victories. “I heard the Sooner fans say; ‘Quit trying to run it and just throw the damn ball.' How times have changed.”

 

For what it's worth, not everybody believes that quarterbacks are too brittle to run the option. “I don't think that's fair,” Osborne has said numerous times. “To me, it's much more dangerous when a quarterback gets blindsided. He can't adjust. In the option, he can see the hit coming most of the time.”

 

Theory No. 2: Defenses are too fast now.

 

There are those who say that defensive linemen and linebackers get to the corner too quickly now for teams to run the option against them. To them, the option is outdated. This idea infuriates Switzer.

 

“Defenses have gotten faster?” he asks. “Shoot, I can assure you that Miami and Nebraska had defenses that could run. The talent on defense has nothing to do with it.”

 

Theory No. 3: Nobody wants to dedicate the time to the option.

 

Everything in today's game is “diversity.” You've got to be diverse. You have to keep the defense off-balance. You can't be predictable. And so on. It's a new era.

 

Vince Lombardi earned his place as the greatest coach of all-time while essentially running one play over and over, the Packer sweep. In recent years, coaches such as Bobby Bowden and Steve Spurrier — with their complicated offensive schemes — have become the standard.

 

Yes, now offensive coaches want choices. They want different formations. They want an array of pass patterns. They want to be, as coachspeak goes, “multiple.” The consensus is that to run the option effectively, you have to practice the option pretty much non-stop. Coaches are not willing to make that kind of commitment.

 

“I think any offense can be successful,” says Turner Gill, one of the original option quarterbacks at Nebraska. “It's not true that winning football teams can't run the option. It's just a matter of getting the right people, putting them in the right situation and making plays.”

 

Theory No. 4: Everybody loves the pass.

 

This is the big one. Many coaches say they simply could not recruit the best quarterbacks and best receivers if they used the option. Those players have their eye on the NFL, and nobody plays option football in the NFL.

 

“Kids want to be in passing offenses,” Switzer says. “They want to catch passes. They see it every week in the NFL.”

 

And it isn't just the kids. Big-money boosters like the pass, too. Fans in the stadium like the pass. Sportswriters and talk radio show hosts and television commentators like the pass. You run the option, you risk being called obsolete. You risk getting canned.

 

“It's the excitement of throwing the football,” Gill says.

 

***

 

OK, so you know the reasons why the option has died.

 

Will it come back? Maybe. The man in the John Deere hat does have one thing right: The option still works. Even today, with all the reasons against the option, it works quite well for some of the military academies. It is still an effective play for schools that run it.

 

“You couldn't defend it today,” Switzer says. “Because all of a sudden, a defense that has been seeing spread offenses and that (stuff) every week has to get ready for an offense they haven't seen all year. I'd take my chances against that.”

 

Says Saunders: “In my mind, nothing has changed except the injury factor. The option, to me, is as sound an offense as it has ever been. If teams committed to it, there's no doubt in my mind that it can still be a dominating offense.”

 

For now, though, the option — like the mom-and-pop stores on Main Street — has disappeared in the Midwest. Where once, Saturday afternoons in the heartland meant Steve Davis and Turner Gill and Jamelle Holieway and Tommie Frazier and Darien Hagen and Corby Jones running to the corner and pitching, today's Midwestern football doesn't look a whole lot different from anywhere else.

 

Quarterbacks drop back. And they throw. Same as Miami.

 

“It's just a real shame,” Switzer says. And it is a shame. But time marches on, and nobody pitches to the trailer anymore.

 

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/s.../9497867.htm?1c

[DaveH]

I think the biggest contributor to the apparent death of the option is that defenses are too fast now. The game is two one dimensional for modern defenses. I think the quarterback reason isn't that great of one. It's not that you would need 15 of them, it's that you would need 2-3 tough ones.

 

Also, the lack of a good O line recent years has really hurt. However, that would hurt in any offensive scheme, I believe.

[Armistead]

The option worked last year......Dailey showed flashes of a great option QB....Lord on the other hand was the worst kind of Option QB, he was not a good runner , he never made the play action stuff keep the safeties and the db's honest, and when he did get around the edge he promptly look for the pursuit because he was lonely....I guess.

 

The option with the guy we got this year would have been fine,I think that is why Solich was let go last year instead of one more run with him at the helm....We would have won 9 games agin and Pederson just wanted a change.....If you look back the Husker history, the QB to follows a great QB always sucks and then we right the ship and roll on....The fact that Solich stuck with Lord and never went to Dailey is what doomed him.I know some guys will say Lord rolled up alot of wins and tons of Yardage....but he never did it on the big game days.Jamal Lord doomed the option at Nebraska.

[DaveH]

The option worked last year......Dailey showed flashes of a great option QB....Lord on the other hand was the worst kind of Option QB, he was not a good runner , he never made the play action stuff keep the safeties and the db's honest, and when he did get around the edge he promptly look for the pursuit because he was lonely....I guess.

 

The option with the guy we got this year would have been fine,I think that is why Solich was let go last year instead of one more run with him at the helm....We would have won 9 games agin and Pederson just wanted a change.....If you look back the Husker history, the QB to follows a great QB always sucks and then we right the ship and roll on....The fact that Solich stuck with Lord and never went to Dailey is what doomed him.I know some guys will say Lord rolled up alot of wins and tons of Yardage....but he never did it on the big game days.Jamal Lord doomed the option at Nebraska.

Interesting points and I am inclined to agree with you. I think Lord did what he could, but he could never have a fantastic game in the big games.

[AR Husker Fan]

I admit to having a special place in my heart for the option, but I also think that it will return. Offenses tend to run in cycles. As defenses adjust and catch up, coaches begin to experiment - and one thing they like to do is to pull out offenses that are unique, as it makes it difficult for a team to change defensive philosophies in a week.

 

While there is some truth to the idea that players are getting bigger and faster, it's also true that most defenses are, in reality, going small. They want fast athletes who can swarm the ball. It ranges from tough to impossible to find defensive lineman that are huge - there aren't enough to go around. We see safeties becoming linebackers, linebackers becoming ends, and ends becoming tackles.

 

But I think this plays into the hands of a team committed to the option. The key is to recruit the correct kind of lineman. Rather than going for the 330 pounders, an option team should go slightly smaller - more agility and quickness. Option plays typically are either "quick-hitters" up the middle, or rely on getting to the outside and away from the interior defense. That means that linemen need to engage qickly and to get that first, initial "pop". They don't have to maintain blocks for a long time, and in most cases don't need to open gaping holes. Couple that with a true option quarterback, and there's no reason the option can't be just as effective today.

 

Yes, the option has its drawbacks - it isn't an offense that permits a team to come back from deficiets as easily as a passing offense. For an option team, the key is to always have a stud defense that can keep the score close. But all offenses have some drawbacks - passing offenses tend to be unable to get "hard yardage" when needed, or to hold a lead late in a game. And finding a passing quarterback is just as difficult, if not more so, than finding an option quarterback. There are hundreds of kids that can run and have adequate passing skills - there are far less that are true passing quarterbacks.

 

Eventually we'll see a resurgance of the option. As the trend continues toward "athletes" on defense, coaches will start to look at it. "Athletes" tends to mean players who perhaps lack fundementals or the discipline to play their gap or man. That plays right into the hands of an option offense.

 

Just give it some time...

[Eric the Red]

Speed, speed and more speed

 

The option was great, will be again, possible. As Ark Husker points out offenses do run in cycles, sort of. We haven't seen the "T" formation in a while.

 

Option was something you had to stick with. You could get stopped for a lose two straight plays and then bust one. The defense had to play perfect assignment football every play. One of the most difficult offenses to to defend. Which I believed always helped NU's defense, because they had to line up against it every week and practice against it.

 

I just believe Solich wasn't creative enough, he stuck to what he was taught ffom Oz and never adjusted. Who knows???

[AR Husker Fan]

Not to hijack the thread, but I really think Solich's demise was based on recruiting. I don't think Pederson thought that Solich couldn't coach or that a particular type of offense was needed (although I'm probably wrong on this) - I always got the impression that he thought that the quality of athlete was going down or was less than what other schools were getting.

 

One of the reasons I've thought this is the fact that he went after Nutt. Nutt is supposed to be one of those high-energy recruiters, and as a coach always puts recruiting at the forefront.

 

Anyhoo, just my impression of the situation...

[RedCountry]

Very intriguing conversation. Another thing I found interesting from the article is that Don Faurot (of MU Faurot field fame) is credited with inventing the T-formation and option. That is laughable to me. Not that I doubt it's validity, heck if I know, rather that the "Father of the Option" isn't even reverred as being one of the key benefactors of using the option in CF history. Funny that OU and NU will go down as "Option/Wishbone-U" and MU will go down as.... oh wait I guess they will just go down. The crapper.

 

Anyway, great posts guys. Mine doesnt hold a candle, but I do believe several of you are worthy of a nomination for post of the week for those!! I'll add you guys to the contest forum.

[fasteddie]

I blame george bush. if a dem was in office this would have nevr happned.

[Redout]

What killed the Option???,

 

 

Bill Callahan