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Triple-option prep: Ga. Southern helps Georgia get ready for Georgia Tech
By Keith Farner
Published:
If Georgia needs to take solace in facing back-to-back triple option offenses, the Bulldogs should look to 2012.
That year they demolished Georgia Southern and Georgia Tech 45-14 and 42-10, respectively.
While that team went on to lose to Alabama in the SEC Championship, this one has a chance to improve its bowl standing.
But first it must handle an onslaught of cut-blocking from the nation’s top rushing attack in Georgia Southern, which averages 379 yards a game.
Both the Eagles and Yellow Jackets employ the legal cut-blocking scheme where players are blocked below the waist straight ahead if they are not engaged with another blocker.
“We’ve had to play some cut-blocks before, but nothing like what we’re about to see,” linebacker Jake Ganus told reporters this week. “We did all sorts of drills in camp, and I got cut in situations in (the Auburn) game, but we’ve definitely practiced it. There is a technique and an art to it, but we’ll definitely have to hone that up these next two weeks.”
Added coach Mark Richt, “It will challenge our guys, I promise you. I don’t know what the fan base thinks about this game, as far as who should win, but I can promise you we’ll get tested in this game as much as any. We’re looking forward to the challenge. It’s a lot of work, a lot of prep.”
The Eagles’ attack is a bit different than Army, Navy or Georgia Tech in one regard: Most of its option plays are from shotgun. While that spread look is different, it still has many of the looks of traditional triple-option football.
“There’s different blocking schemes where they run the triple,” Richt said. “The bottom line is there’s two defenders that you don’t block and you read them and do the opposite of what they do.”
Richt added that the alignment of the defense is forced to be closer to the line of scrimmage because a safety would be too far away in a traditional look.
“It’s going to be key everyone stays in their gaps, it’s going to be key everyone plays their assignments, it’s going to be key that everybody defeats a block and makes a play,” Richt said. “It’s just different than anything we’ve seen all year. We’re getting our scout-teamers to work hard at simulating it, but it’s just hard to do.”
The speed of how Georgia Southern executes the triple option is what Richt is concerned about, and why he said, “I’d prefer not to play them because they’re that good. I think it’s good that we do play them, when you look at the big picture.”
Perhaps because Georgia Southern is 7-2 and confident in what it does, Richt said, that makes them difficult to beat. What’s more, coach Willie Fritz has 192 wins.
“I say it all the time, teams that are used to winning are very difficult to beat,” Richt said. “They win because they do things right. You watch their special teams, they fly down and cover kicks. They protect well. They place the ball where it belongs. Defensively, they’re always hustling to the ball … Overall, teams that know how to win are hard to beat, period. We’re playing a great team in that regard.”
A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South.
