Will we see some of the Air Force offense again this season?
I've read several times now that we won't see the Air Force offense again. I sure hope not but can we be sure Nebraska and Ohio won't try to run some of the same offense that made us look so vulnerable on defense last Saturday? I'm thinking back to the Ohio game in 2006 when Tressel came out with spread formations that caught us off guard. We were not expecting to see them spread out receivers as it was the bane of our defense during those years. This is why a game such as this early in the season is a plus - we are now battle tested and should have some idea how to defend this type of offense in the future. My hope is we do not see it again, but you never know!
September 10th, 2012 at 8:56 PM ^
/thread over
September 10th, 2012 at 8:57 PM ^
we will see option looks. We will not see Air Force up tempo triple-option million formation madness.
September 10th, 2012 at 9:39 PM ^
September 10th, 2012 at 9:00 PM ^
something tells me they wont need to run triple option up tempo offense to move the ball on our defense
September 10th, 2012 at 9:39 PM ^
Part of the reason why triple option is so effective at gashing teams even with good defenses is the OC - he'll run the team's bread and butter play (let's say a triple option dive/speed/play) and then he'll see what everyone's role on the defense is. So let's say he notices that Kovacs the SS has the pitchman on the speed option. The next time he runs the bread and butter, he will send the FB out to cut Kovacs down before he can reach the pitchman.
So you see, it's not about discipline, but about outsmarting the opponent. Even if you're a 100% disciplined team, the offense will work to destroy whatever system you had set up. Now imagine telling your defense: "Okay #32 you're going to get the pitch man for the first quarter, then #35 you've got the pitch man the 2nd quarter, and #44 you've got the pitch man in the 3rd quarter, and #8 you've got the pitch man in the 4th quarter". You CANNOT do that. The result will be a confused defense who will probably be gashed for even more yards.
The problem is not that our defense is bad, it's that it's not filled with extremely athletic people. If Kovacs was bigger (like Jarrod), he could probably take the cut block from the guy who's trying to stop him and keep going. If he was slightly faster, he could probably avoid the cut block. But as it is, their scheme destroyed us.
Keeping with this - if a non-triple option team tried to run triple option, they wouldn't be able to install these nuances within a week, and those types of plays without the counterattacks are much easier to defend.
September 11th, 2012 at 7:22 AM ^
"The problem is not that our defense is bad, it's that it's not filled with extremely athletic people."
I thought this was the difference when Ross was in for Morgan. Ross was just that much more athletic and was able to get to the ball, whereas Morgan wasn't quite able to get there. It is a little stunning to me how many 18 year olds Michigan has on the field, but it's the atheletic difference that is the reason.
September 10th, 2012 at 9:02 PM ^
September 10th, 2012 at 9:04 PM ^
No we will not see the AF offense again this season. AF runs more than just the 'triple option' even though that's it's base. They throw in so many different formations, substiution packages, motions, misdirections, and tempo; it's really the triple option on steriods. I believe the AF HC takes exception to just calling it the 'triple option'. Remember AF's system has been built over several years under their current HC expanding on the old triple option offense, and there's a reason they are by far the best of the service academies.
However, we will see option plays, exactly as we did last year. Illinois, NW, Nebraska, Purdue and OSU all have run or will run some form of triple option concepts, mostly out of the shotgun. We've tried it at times as well, just not very well. But no team will be able to implement the AF system in a week or even two in order to just go after UM.
September 10th, 2012 at 9:36 PM ^
September 10th, 2012 at 9:48 PM ^
Well AF has won the last two Commander-in-Chief's Trophies, and has made 5 consecutive bowl games. I really don't know enough about strength of schedule; I do realize Navy plays ND every year, but AF has played a few big boys the past few years including UM, Oklahoma, ND. And they play in an actual conference that has included TCU, Utah, and Boise.
September 11th, 2012 at 7:26 AM ^
Let me just say as an former Army man how wrong it is that Air Force has the best ground attack among the service academies. They should be the aerial attack! What's next, dogs dating cats?
I spent a few years as a professor at West Point in the early 90's (some of the best years of my life). Back then Army ran the triple option and racked up 400 or so ground yards per game. (We also used to beat Navy every year.) It was just so right! Something has gone wrong with America when Army takes up a passing game and Air Force runs all over people. And Navy should always be the best wet conditions team.
September 10th, 2012 at 9:03 PM ^
sure hope so. teams that get out of their element fail. remember when ND tried to run the option with claussen after we failed to stop Oregon and the horror?
September 10th, 2012 at 9:03 PM ^
No, a team doesn't just decide to run what AFA runs in one week. Some teams will throw the option at us on occasion, but not that.
September 11th, 2012 at 8:32 AM ^
September 10th, 2012 at 9:04 PM ^
I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if MSU installs the triple option just for the one game.
September 10th, 2012 at 9:11 PM ^
That's easier said than done. It's easy to say, yeah we'll run triple option, with a fullback dive, qb keep and pitch, but that's not what Air Force does.
I mean yes that is what they do, but they've basically perfected running it out of a multitulde of different formations with a variety of different players in motion.
MSU has to play Notre Dame, OSU, and Iowa before us, they're not going to have time to implement the Air Force Triple Option just for us
September 10th, 2012 at 10:43 PM ^
Right now on MLive, some Spartan fan is talking smack in the comments section to a UM article by saying "Air Force done exposed y'all. Dantonio gonna run the triple option on yous bitches..."
September 10th, 2012 at 11:53 PM ^
...on a burnig couch? Otherwise, there is NO WAY that gets implemented.
September 11th, 2012 at 8:30 AM ^
September 11th, 2012 at 9:47 AM ^
September 11th, 2012 at 11:42 AM ^
Gah, somehow sarcasm comes through better on a computer than on the ap.
September 11th, 2012 at 1:19 PM ^
Yeah, maybe this is one where I should have included the "/s." I don't like doing that, though--it often ruins the effect.
September 10th, 2012 at 9:14 PM ^
Can we change it so that you need at least 500 pts to start a thread? Or maybe 1000?
September 10th, 2012 at 9:32 PM ^
I say it should be twentyteen billion
September 10th, 2012 at 9:47 PM ^
September 10th, 2012 at 9:32 PM ^
September 10th, 2012 at 9:37 PM ^
more than half of the big ten uses running QBs (Michigan State, Purdue, Penn State, Iowa, Wisconsin don't), i wouldn't be surprised if you saw option, but i doubt you have to worry about the fullback getting involved
September 10th, 2012 at 9:37 PM ^
I would say after Pelini is fired and Osborne brings back Big Red to Nebraska. However, we play them too early in the season. So, no.
September 10th, 2012 at 9:54 PM ^
It's the triple option. It's not just a formation you throw into a playbook. It's a way of life for a team that runs it. They live and die by it. They have to recruit specifically for it by getting a fast, quick thinking qb that can take a hit, a running back with good hands who can run block as well as get to the edge faster than anyone else on the field, and they need quick o-linemen who know how to cut block and seal. So no, we aren't going to see it again. You would know if we were going to play a triple option team and to be blunt, the fact that you asked that question as a topic of a thread is a sign you probably shouldn't be starting threads. ND and OSU (now that they're under Meyer) may run a few read option plays, but nothing near the complexity of a service academy style triple option.
P.S.- Seriously, man? OSU didn't catch us by surprise in '06. Tressel's offense had pretty much always been a tame version of the spread.
September 10th, 2012 at 10:34 PM ^
Unless you are going to commit to being a triple option team, you aren't going to run it effectively. That's part of why teams like Michigan have such a hard time defending it. It's a difficult thing to recreate in practice with scout team players who are not immersed in it the entire off season. You can never run it the way a team that lives and breathes it.
September 10th, 2012 at 10:07 PM ^
Trying to run the triple option for one week would be like trying to switch to the 3-3-5 in the middle of the season. You can try it, but if your play caller doesn't know how to run it, it's not going to end well.
September 11th, 2012 at 12:06 AM ^
The reason you see so few teams switch to a 3-3-5 in the middle of the season is mostly because they don't have the stuffed beaver which is necessary to the implementation of said defense.
Well, that and because it bites.
September 10th, 2012 at 10:17 PM ^
If we were caught off-guard by the spread formations Tressel employed in 2006, we certainly shouldn't have been. OSU ran a lot of spread stuff that entire season.
September 10th, 2012 at 10:39 PM ^
Caught off guard or not, it worked because we didn't have the players to defend it. We completely whiffed on recruiting CBs in 2005 (3-stars Sears and Richards who were both off the team by 2007) and 2006 (didn't sign a single CB), so there wasn't a young guy on the roster to fill that nickle corner spot. OSU was smart to exploit the weakness (as Ball State had done to some extent a week earlier), but knowing exactly what they were going to do wouldn't have made it any easier to stop.
Things got worse after Leon Hall graduated and that is a big part of why App State and Oregon tore us apart a year later as well.
September 11th, 2012 at 8:26 AM ^
September 10th, 2012 at 10:37 PM ^
Other teams may try it, but you have to remember, nobody is going to run it as well executed as AF did. They run the option near flawlessly. So I don't think we'd struggle with it wrinckled into another teams offense.
September 10th, 2012 at 11:06 PM ^
September 10th, 2012 at 11:27 PM ^
September 11th, 2012 at 7:59 AM ^