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Home > Terence Moore > Archives > 2008 > November > 18
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Don’t blame Tech’s butter fingers on option
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The numbers are horrible for Georgia Tech’s football team, but don’t jump to conclusions. As for those numbers, nobody in the ACC has lost more fumbles than the 17 for the Yellow Jackets. Worse, when it comes to those in Division I-A, they rank 118th in that category.
That’s out of 119.
Not good.
This is good: Despite that sloppiness, the Jackets will enter Bobby Dodd Stadium on Thursday night against surging Miami at 7-3 overall and 4-3 in the conference. They also have a heartbeat (although a faint one) in search of reaching the ACC title game. Plus, contrary to what you’re thinking, many of those fumbles had little to do with the Jackets going from six years in Chan Gailey’s pro-style approach to the eternal running, frequent pitching and constant decision-making involved with Paul Johnson’s triple-option.
So don’t blame the triple-option for much of anything bad at Tech, especially since the Jackets are the nation’s eighth-best rushing team at 251 yards per game.
“I would have to go back and look, but I would venture to think that, probably in the 10 games we’ve played, I would doubt that we’ve had more than 10 fumbles that had anything to do with the offense,” said Johnson, of his mostly young team that was a triple-option mess earlier this year during his first spring in town. No more, suggested Johnson, adding, “It’s not like we’ve had a bunch of pitches batted down in games, or the mesh fumbles.”
In case you’re wondering, “mesh” is a triple-option term. It refers to the quarterback having the choice of sticking the ball in the belly of his B-back and keeping the ball there or yanking it out for a quarterback run. Added Johnson, “We’ve fumbled for other reasons. Stuff that should be easily correctable.”
Thus the reason for optimism regarding the Jackets’ fumble fingers these days. Not only isn’t the triple-option the primary culprit here, but the things that really have contributed to most of Tech’s turnovers are “easily correctable.” They range from muffed punts to bungled snaps between quarterback and center to players fumbling while running downfield.
Tech’s 28-7 fiasco at North Carolina on Nov. 8 was the epitome of it all. There were two dropped punts, and there was another one of those mangled quarterback-center exchanges. “Of course, one time, [quarterback Jaybo Shaw] got tackled from behind, which you could relate to the option, because it was an option play,” Johnson said, before easing into a little laugh. “So we had one fumble because of the offense, but people still will say, ‘Ah, if we didn’t have that offense, we wouldn’t have all of those fumbles.’ “
The Jackets do have those fumbles (31 overall), and Johnson isn’t pleased, whether they are triple-option related or not. “We’ve got to do a better job coaching ball security, and I think sometime when you have a young team, and you’re patched-worked up front [offensive line] some, this seems to happen,” Johnson said. “The worst thing you can do is dwell on it all the time.”
So Johnson stresses more positives than negatives. For instance: Miami is ranked 10th nationally in total defense, with much help from its overwhelming speed. “We’ve probably had more success against defenses that really are athletic and fast,” said Johnson, referring to the likes of Clemson and Florida State this season. “That’s because it’s a different game for those types of defenses. They have to kind of slow down and play assignments. If you’re efficient at running this offense, you really slow them down some.”
Well, if you don’t fumble.
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