Under Center Triple Option

[ithurtstowatch]

Watched Navy play Memphis pretty tough last week. From this armchair quarterback's perspective, it seems like Navy is still running a fairly successful TO under center. I hate our new offense. Makes watching Army football less enjoyable for me. Is it just me or did we abandon the under center TO for this new offense too soon? I am not blind and see that we have not really run the TO well for the past 3 years, with limited pitches and way too many QB follows. I know we needed to change up how we have run the offense for the past three seasons a little bit, but having a unique offense that other teams must prepare differently for gives us an advantage that we seem to have lost going to this new offense. To me, having a bruising FB gash defenses and seeing a well executed TO that ends up in the slotbacks hands without breaking stride is something I loved about watching Army football. What are everyone else's thoughts on this?

[Army Frog Fan]

Army's shotgun TO is unique. Is anyone else in the country running it? I'll give it a few more games before I fully buy in though.

[ArmyRoadFan7]

Navy hasn’t run the triple option since probably Keenan Reynolds. Their offense has become completely reliant on having a great quarterback. When they have Malcolm Perry they win 11 games. With the guys they have now they win 4. Navy threw the ball 20 times against Memphis. This narrative that they have embraced the old school flexbone offense is greatly exaggerated.

[WrekDivr]

Let’s check some 2023 stats:

Points per Game
Army 36
Navy 17

Total Yards per Game
Army 413
Navy 336

Rushing Yards per Game
Army 236
Navy 223

Time of Posession
Army 35:28
Navy 31:18

This is only 3 games, but our new O wins this one. As another check, let’s compare Navy vs. Memphis and Army vs UTSA, two fairly good G5 teams:

Points Scored
Army 37
Navy 24

Total Yards
Army 442
Navy 432

Rushing Yards
Army 254
Navy 299

Time of Possession
Army 44:25
Navy 32:49

Our new O gets the edge here too although Navy did have more rushing yards.

It is definitely too small of a sample size for a firm conclusion, but it looks like our new O is delivering so far. After two years of frustration, it is encouraging to me.

[ithurtstowatch]

Interesting responses. I am not convinced on the new offense. Winning is the cure for all things though and I hope I am wrong.

I do like our defense this year so far.

[WrekDivr]

Interesting responses. I am not convinced on the new offense. Winning is the cure for all things though and I hope I am wrong.

I do like our defense this year so far.

FWIW, I’m not totally sold either. After the last 2 years of futility, I am open to doing something different. Time will if our new O is the something different we needed. Our performance in the UTSA game did start to win me over. If we move the ball well against Syracuse that will be a great sign.

[wpgrad]

As I have said before, not sure how anyone could have watched the AF game last year and not said to themselves "we need to do something drastic."

And, as I have said before, I think Coach Monken is one of the top 5 or 10 guys in the business. You really think he is going to just jump into some new idea, after 2 decades of under center option, without having really, really thought it through?

I think its going to be a long season this year, but I think part of that is bad scheduling. I think by next season we will see an 8-4 team running a very unique offense.

[PrideandDream]

I mean the tale of the tape gets told each successive game. For me I'm still skeptical but if the O line plays the way they did vs UTSA then we are gonna move the ball I think. Now maybe that changes with Syracuse and BC and LSU. But we will see. I don't care so much about truly running triple as I do about being under center and establishing the fb and qb power. I've said all along that it was the o line play killing us the last few years more than the scheme. One thing that I haven't seen with this new offense is the creativity I thought I might expect.

I know this the expectation that we play every game with no penalties, no turnovers, and being 6 of 6 on 4th down is unlikely. It will be a miracle to do that each game this year. But at the end of the day each game these guys win with this offense the more impressed and on board I will be.

PD