By Jimmy Hyams
Many defensive coaches look upon the triple option offense with disdain.
To stop it, you must play assignment football. You must be disciplined. You must fend off cut blocks. You must have eye discipline.
When John Chavis was Tennessee’s defensive coordinator, he despised going against the triple option.
But Brady Hoke, UT’s defensive line coach, has a different outlook.
“I embrace it,’’ Hoke said in a recent interview. “I love it.’’
When Hoke as head coach at Ball State, he faced Navy’s triple option twice. At San Diego State, he went against Air Force’s flex bone each year and battled Navy in the Poinsettia Bowl. When he was defensive line coach at Oregon State, he faced the Beavers’ triple option every day in practice.
Tennessee’s opening opponent Sept. 4 is Georgia Tech, which runs an innovative triple option under the guidance of coach Paul Johnson. The Yellow Jackets went 3-0 against SEC teams last year and can bedevil a defense.
But Hoke is eager for the challenge.
“I enjoy preparing to play this type of offense,’’ Hoke said, “and I enjoy it because I think it truly is the essence of reaction, reading keys and doing your job.
“If you get undisciplined with your job, that’s when you get hurt. … It becomes a toughness game.’’
But often times defensive coaches complain about cut blocks from triple option teams.
Not Hoke.
“When you get chopped is when you’re not doing your job or you’re slow doing your job or your eyes aren’t where they’re supposed to be and you’re not reacting to that key,’’ Hoke said.
“Guys that get chopped are the ones that take their eyes back to the guy that’s going to chop them and then you get chopped.
“I love playing those guys. I think it tells you a lot about where you’re defensive line is at because you’ve got to be a tough-minded son of a gun to play that kind of team.’’
Alabama coach Nick Saban hoped he had a tough-minded team when the Crimson Tide hosted Georgia Southern in 2011. Bama had the nation’s top-ranked run defense, but the FCS opponent shredded the defense for 302 yards on 39 carries, 7.7 yards per attempt, in Alabama’s 45-21 victory. The score was 24-14 at halftime.
“Very few teams run it,’’ Saban said of the triple option. “So your players get very little experience at playing against it. They have very little understanding.’’
The triple option is so unique, Saban said “you cannot prepare for it in a single week, nor can you get the kind of scout team look that you need to get to prepare for the speed of that kind of offense and the way those people execute it.’’
Saban said the week before the Georgia Southern game in 2011, he brought in people to teach his staff the offense so Bama could teach the players how to defend it.
“Obviously the way we played against it was not very good,’’ Saban said.
The way Georgia played against Georgia Tech last year was not very good as the Yellow Jackets prevailed 28-27. Tech also beat Vanderbilt 38-7 and Kentucky 33-18 in a bowl game last season.
“If you’re not disciplined, you’ll get ran out of the stadium,’’ said Georgia linebacker Roquan Smith.
But if you disciplined, chances are you can contain the triple option, no matter how many variables are thrown at you.
And Hoke hopes to put a disciplined defense on the field Sept. 4.
“I’m excited about (playing against Georgia Tech),’’ Hoke said. “It’s going to be a heckuva football game.’’
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