Army football runs the Triple Option just like Navy, and they seem to have made it work for their crew. These guys are enrolled at West Point, and it appears that they like to Run. They had 513 yards rushing in their opening win against Fordham, and they did not complete a pass. I think this would be really interesting if a big time team could make it work, but it will never happen. The triple option is purely a Navy, Air Force, Army, Georgia Tech thing to run.
Why the triple option?
The triple option is easy to understand if you are not focused on football all the time.
if you go to Army, you are not planning on playing in the NFL. You are playing football at Army because you want to. You do not have a ton of time to devote to football, and the triple option makes sense. You go through your options, and you let the play unfold. I mean, any of us could run a triple option offense just because it makes sense when we watch it. However, perfecting it like this is very difficult.
How do you avoid passing?
I think you avoid passing by deciding that you simply do not care how much your team passes. You could decide that you want your team to run constantly because you do not have any trustworthy receivers, or you might us a bunch of stunt plays to get your receivers involved.
If you have a good offensive line, you can run behind them in college, and you will have more than enough time to score if you are controlling the ball.
They are not trying to be entertaining
No one is trying to market Army football as this entertaining time. They are just trying to win. We pass in major college football and the NFL because it is entertaining to look at.
The players on the field are so big and fast that you have to get by them by simply passing over their heads. It looks great, and many of the best plays in the history of the sport have been passes. Army does not have time to entertain us because they are also learning to be military officers.
Can they keep it up?
I hope they can keep it up because it is a really interesting thing to read every week.
I wonder how many yards you can rush for in a season if you start out by rushing for 500. That would be intriguing because they were number two in rushing last season. You can assume that they will be just as good going forward, and it would help them be more competitive than normal. I never imagine that Army or Navy could be prominent like they once were, but they can relevant again because they are bucking the passing trend.
