When playing Cal Poly, it’s no secret that teams have to prepare for a style of play as much as specific players.
Bobby Hauck didn’t dance around it at his press conference this week.
“Offensively and defensively, they do some things that are difficult to prepare for,” Montana’s head coach Bobby Hauck said. “They’re a true triple option team. They’re good at it, they know what they’re doing. They insist on running the ball, and they have the ability to control the game.”
Yes, Cal Poly’s vaunted triple option offense usually dominates the conversation around game week when playing the Mustangs. They don’t look like a normal team, even from the stats. Last year, the Mustangs ran for nearly twice as many yards as they passed for. Six players had at least 100 net yards on the ground, compared to just three receivers.
“Kids just don’t grow up playing against the triple or the trap play or some of the things that Cal Poly does really well, the quarterback follow off their midline look,” Hauck said. “All those things are difficult and specific to this week, so that’s an issue.”
At its roots, the triple option is masterfully simple. Traditionally, the offense is at a disadvantage — taking the ballcarrier into account, it has, at most, only 10 free players to block the 11 on defense.
Add in the quarterback, who almost never blocks, and the math becomes even worse.
All option concepts are designed to switch that equation back in the offense’s favor by using the quarterback as a potential ballcarrier.
That also allows offenses to read a defender. In a read play, the offense will allow a defender to come unblocked, but force him to choose between the quarterback and another potential ballcarrier. By making him always make the wrong decision, offenses can take the read defender out of the play without blocking him, allowing them to block someone else.
Common option concepts like the read option, and the speed, or pitch, option, are double options — the quarterback reads one defender and makes one choice, to keep the ball or give it.
The triple option, though, fuses both of those common plays into one, and gives the quarterback one more choice to make, doubling the headache for the defense.
And, in the end, it flips the math back in the offense’s favor.
“The core value of the triple option is simple: out-number the defense, 11 players to 10, by reading a defensive player’s movement instead of blocking him and employing your quarterback as a runner,” Ross Dellenger wrote Thursday in an article published by Sports Illustrated. “Free from his blocking responsibilities, maybe that extra offensive player can double-team an All-America defensive tackle, or reach block an all-conference linebacker, and open a hole no teammate is fast or strong enough to open by himself.”
In practice, that looks a lot like this:
Joe Protheroe plows through the mud and @USDFootball defenders and scores on a 7-yard run for @calpolyfootball pic.twitter.com/Bg9qjSMC8v
— Travis Gibson (@TravisDgibson) November 27, 2016
That’s All-American Mustangs running back Joe Protheroe scoring a touchdown in 2016.
Quarterback Dano Graves is running the option when he hands off to Protheroe up the middle, but he could also keep the ball himself. If he makes that read, he’ll have another option later in the play — to pitch to No. 11 Jake Smetzler on the sweep or keep it himself again.
It looks complicated, but the individual reads are very simple — and, because the differences come in the reads, it’s almost a one-play offense.
That doesn’t mean that a team like Cal Poly, who has been running the offense since Rich Ellerson took the head job in 2001, can’t make adjustments within the play.
“There are a lot of nuances that go into the game,” Cal Poly 10th-year head coach Tim Walsh said. “We can read linebackers, we can read ends, we can read defensive tackles. We can read whoever we want to read, we just have to pick and choose by what they’re doing, who we want to make the quarterback dive go to.”
It’s because of that, and because the triple option is so uncommon across the country, that Hauck is stressed this week.
When the Mustangs are running well, they can put together 15-play drives, moving the ball while controlling the clock, just like Cal Poly did in on the opening drive of last week’s 70-17 loss at Eastern Washington. The Mustangs drove the length of the field in 18 plays but a false start on the goal line resulted in a field goal, then two fumbles that EWU returned for touchdowns sparked the Eagles’ avalanche.
But when in rhythm, the methodical offensive attack grinds a defense down. There are some things that defenders can do to counter the triple option, but because of the matchup math, when it’s going well, it’s very difficult to stop.
To have a chance, defenders have to be extremely disciplined and not get caught up in all the fancy fakes and motion around the line of scrimmage.
“I can’t say much, but this week you just really have to focus on assignment football,” Montana senior linebacker Josh Buss said. “You gotta read your keys with your eyes, and trust your eyes, and just play disciplined. … That’s what this week of practice is for, is getting those keys right and getting that discipline trained, so you can play at 100 percent full speed, without making too many errors.”
The other thing that can submarine a triple-option offense is simply letting it be too much of a good thing.
It’s hard to stop Poly from moving the ball, but 15-play drives open up a lot of opportunity for mistakes. The Mustangs fumbled four times last week against Eastern Washington and got blown out despite rushing for 378 yards. Even a holding penalty can kill a drive when an offense is so pointedly designed to get four yards a carry, every time.
“The thing that some people are doing that’s a little bit unique is people are trying to do what Eastern did,” Walsh said. “They’re saying, let’s see them go 15 plays without making a mistake.”
On the other hand, one of the advantages of the triple option is that it’s designed to be run with any personnel, but the Mustangs happen to have players who perfectly fit the scheme.
The first line of attack is Protheroe, the dive fullback. He’s the base of the offense, doing exactly what he did in the clip above — getting the ball and going right into the teeth of the defense.
He was an All-American in 2016, rushing for 1,334 yards in 11 games before getting hurt last year.
He’s come back as strong as ever, running for 228 and then 176 yards in the last two weeks.
“[Saying that you have to stop the fullback is] somewhat cliché, when you play an option team,” Hauck said. “Coaches, that’s always the first thing they say, but in regard to these guys, you have to stop that, because that’s probably their best player. So, he’s been good, we have a high regard for him and his abilities, and we have to try to get a handle on him.”
Khaleel Jenkins is the quarterback, and despite having a couple of those fumbles last week, he’s also dangerous. The senior has 69 and 70 yards in the last two games.
Buzzing around those two are an assortment of options for the pitch. J’uan Campbell and Broc Mortensen have joined Protheroe and Jenkins with over 100 rushing yards already this year.
Add it all up, and the Mustangs will certainly be a unique challenge for Montana’s defense this week.
“The beauty of the offense for them is they’ve got a book on what they like against certain fronts and certain structures, and they can always get to it,” Hauck said. “They work all year on it, and they have one thing they like. If you stop that, they’ll have answers.”
Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
