And that’s why we see so many teams using the triple option today!

I think it is more a function of having their legs battered up the week before by AF. Playing teams who make good use of cut blocking back-to-back will take its toll.

It seems that INJURIES will happen in the option if you don’t get the other team off the field.

It is imperative to stack the box and limit the option at the line of scrimmage. The excellent quarterback MAY hit big passes. But then our offense needs to retaliate with a score. On the other hand, our D may stop them and prevent a LONG drive with MANY plays involving their offensive linemen with speed (and momentum) and damaging cut-blocks.

With the way our offense was playing, I would throw the dice and shorten the Navy drives one way or the other. If it is the other (an aerial strike by Navy), our offense has a chance to respond.

GO IRISH!!!

Hawk: One of the beauties of football, particularly with the college game, is the wide variety of offenses to choose from, and the fact that certain teams rarely have to defend against the triple option doesn’t mean it should be banned. Is it also your opinion that knuckleball pitchers in Major League Baseball should be banned becasue hitters rarely see that pitch? I think when someone utilizes an out-of-the-ordinary way to win within the rules they should be celebrated, not vilified. If your logic would’ve been in vogue back in the day, Rockne and Dorais making the forward pass a real weapon in 1913, and Rockne’s famous “Notre Dame shift” from the 1920s, might never have happened and football would still be in the stone-age.

This kind of football will never go away, you’ve just got to be prepared and not have your stud in the middle (Irish Chocolate) out.

I see what you are saying about that unique situation, but I don’t understand why people are so hung up over Kelly’s decision on this overall. Swaying to the alma mater after losing a game is not a decades-honored tradition. From everything I have read, it was started during the Weis era, which was a disastrous football era. I don’t blame him for not wanting his players to stand there on national TV in front of the cameras after a loss. Maybe it gives the guys an extra incentive in some small way, so that they can sway to the alma mater after the game if they win. How dare I say that?

That does add some perspective. Was Hounshell really considered second string before the season started? I know Springmann was considered next-man in.

That is just whining. Quit it. Complain about the cut blocks, fine, but quit whining about the offense they run, which is what Lou ran all the time.

Hawk: The reason why most teams gave up on the triple option years ago is because it’s tough to come from behind and win because running the ball so much eats up a lot of the clock, and option quarterbacks take a beating from running the ball so much. Not real football, eh? Tell that to the teams from Oklahoma, Texas and Nebraska who a couple decades ago won championships running the Wishbone (or a similar version of triple option), which is another form of the triple option similar to the Flexbone that Navy runs. The triple option offense is the only way for Navy and Air Force to compete these days with more talented teams like ND. If that wasn’t true, why would they run it? That offense is ideal for those teams because their players have less size than other teams, yet their kids are smart, disciplined, gritty competitors and that’s what it takes to be a strong option team. BTW: There are ways of fighting off cut blocks, which have been around since football started and are well within the rules. Notre Dame’s defensive coaches and players need to get better at dealing with that because that technique isn’t going away. BTW: If you ever get the chance to watch highlights of ND’s 1988 national championship team, you’ll notice that Tony Rice was superb at running the option under Lou Holtz. They didn’t always run the option, but it was seen a great deal, particularly in goal line situations when ND would appear in the Wishbone formation.