Mailbag: NCAA rule change makes triple-option offense a harder go

Thanks again for the wonderful articles, Chris. I especially enjoyed the mailbag article as you could sense the deep frustration of the writer. But I don’t think the triple option is the answer. Didn’t the NCAA change the rule on outside the tackle box and downfield blocking below the waist? Kinda hard to run the triple option if you can’t cut block. I think Army even moved away from it.

Also like the writer of the mailbag proposal, I have already moved on from CTE. I put together quite a staff in my mind (Tom Herman as HC, Hagans as QB/OC, Poindexter as Safeties/DC, and Pete Lembo as Assoc HC/Special Teams). And if Herman scares you, then maybe Jason Candle from Toledo.

The problem? I agree with you that CTE gets two more years. However, I don’t think the OL can be fixed in two years. Ideally, you recruit or transfer-portal 3-4 linemen every year. Unless you have a 4- and 5-star studs, that means redshirting every OL class member that comes in. Hopefully, by their redshirt sophomore year, they are ready to be on the two-deep and get some on-field action. Be nice to have an OL with redshirt juniors and seniors, wouldn’t it?

Alan L.

---

I hadn’t seen anything about that rule change (mainly because we don’t cover anybody that runs the triple option) until this email made me look on Google, and, yep, the rule changes impacting cut blocking are making it hard for teams to run the triple option.

It looks like Jeff Monken was saying in the preseason that they were moving to speed option, which is what Liberty runs (pretty well: Liberty had 401 yards on the ground in its game this week).

But, yes, speed option is different than triple option. I’d think it would still give us an advantage, because we’d be able to recruit a different kind of QB than you have to recruit for the other offenses out there (pro-style, West Coast, spread, Air Raid), and for me, in terms of aesthetics, I’d much rather watch a team with a QB in the gun and three or four receivers spreading the field to create running lanes than whatever it is that Tony Elliott and Des Kitchings are trying to do now.

I assume, in the meantime, that we’re stuck with the current HC (though I expect he will be told after the season to make significant staff changes) for at least another year or two.

Maybe by then, Marques Hagans has enough on his resume from his time in Happy Valley to come back as our HC.

This is my grand scheme. If only I had the resources to make it happen …