Football reading for those found wanting more

Here's a great entry by Navy blogger Mike. He discusses Paul Johnson and new head coach Ken Niumatalolo's efforts in the wake of Johnson's departure.

Yahoo! has always been my favorite source of sports information but the merger with Rivals is a little annoying. Either way, here's a featurette about Roddy Jones on Rivals. My favorite quote:

...it is amazing we won any games last year," he said. "At the beginning of the year we had some guys make some great plays. When a play would breakdown Josh Nesbitt, Jonathan Dwyer or Demaryius Thomas would go out and make some plays. We were able to win some close games and towards the end of the year when we got used to the offense, things started to click...

This quote is the definition of last season. Josh Nesbitt and Jon Dwyer created big plays early on (BC and VT). The season progressed and we saw some Bebe action (MSU). And finally the A-backs and the offense started to roll (e.g. the U, FSU, and uga).

And since I liked the link about Darryl so much this morning I looked up articles about Michael Johnson and Andrew Gardner.

You better have your reading glasses on.

Triple Option 101

This is for the LSU fans who aren't totally accustomed to Tech's version of the Triple Option. Let's start with basic terminology:

A-back - This is our slotback in the basic Paul Johnson formation. Starters are Roddy Jones and Lucas Cox. Typically, this position is played by a smaller back with able hands and good speed. Cox is an atypical A-back. He found his way into this position however because he plays hard every play and is an excellent blocker.

B-back - This is our fullback in the basic Paul Johnson formation. The starter is Jon Dwyer. Typically, this position is a big bruising back that carries a bulk of the load.

Here's our basic formation:


The basic Tech Triple Option involves one of the A-backs motioning presnap into the backfield creating an "I-formation" and right as the I is dotted, the ball is snapped. The QB reads the defensive end on the play side and determines if the end is crashing in to take the B-back or dropping off to cover the option. If the DE crashes, then the QB keeps the football and runs around the blocking A-back with the motioned A-back trailing as a pitch man. The QB then makes a second in play read on whether or not to pitch or keep. Thus, the Triple Option. Option 1 - Nesbitt hands to Dwyer. Option 2 - Nesbitt keeps the football. Option 3 - Nesbitt pitches to Roddy or Cox.

For information straight from the horse's mouth watch this video.