Rice's option attack could give 'Dogs problems

By SYLAS WRIGHT

Rice University is one of the few Division I-A football programs to devote its entire offensive scheme to the triple option spread.

Option football, when executed at a high level, can baffle opposing defenses and dazzle fans. Many college teams run some type of option occasionally, but Rice, as well as Air Force and Navy, run it 100 percent of the time.

“It’s unusual,” Rice coach Ken Hatfield said about the triple option, “and that gives us an advantage. When teams play us, it’s the only time they see it.”

So what is the triple option spread?

It’s an offense in which the quarterback has three options once the ball is snapped. He can keep it himself, thus becoming another running back, or he can give it to the fullback or the slot back in motion from the other side.

Quick decision-making is required from the quarterback, as nothing is predetermined. Nobody knows where the ball will go, and that’s why the option is so difficult to defend, and execute.

“It’s all a matter of execution,” said Hatfield, who has run some form of the option each of his 11 years as head coach at Rice. “We’ve had success with it at times, and we’ve struggled with it. But it’s really not that difficult if you practice it a lot. You just have to have football savvy.”

Redshirt freshman Joel Armstrong has showed Hatfield enough football savvy to take over senior Greg Henderson’s job as starting quarterback. And running the option, he said, is right up his alley.

“I wanted to be a big part of the offense,” Armstrong said. “Here, the option allows me to do that.”

Armstrong said there are advantages and disadvantages of running the triple option. “It definitely keeps the defense from sleeping,” he said. “It can get risky at times, though. If you don’t take care of the ball, it can lead to turnovers.”

The option can also lead to vicious licks on the quarterback.

“It’s a lot more physical,” Arms-trong said of the rare offense, which is never used in the NFL because of the high quarterback risk factor. “The quarterback has to be pretty tough. We take a lot of hits. But it’s just the normal physical football.”

Rice has had decent success with the triple option against Fresno State the past several years but has failed to win. Last season the Bulldogs pulled off a 31-28 comeback victory in Fresno.

“This Rice game will be very tough for us,” Fresno State coach Pat Hill said in Monday’s press conference. “It always has been.”

The Bulldogs, fresh off a 42-0 skunking of Southern Methodist last Saturday in Fresno to end a three-game losing streak, will most likely need to win their final four games to earn a shot at a bowl game.

Fresno State plays in Houston Saturday, where Astroturf—a nearly obsolete artificial surface—serves as grass. Advantage Owls.

“It’s a different surface to play on,” Hill said. “It does help your speed, and we run fast. The one thing that helps [Rice] on the option is that it makes them very sure and quick cuts on that thing.”

Hill on Rice’s triple option: “I listen to people talk, and we’ve always played relatively well against the option.”

Hatfield said he doesn’t plan to change anything offensively for the matchup against Fresno State.

“They’re really good,” Hatfield said of the Bulldogs. “Excellent defense. But we’re not going to change our offense any, just like Fresno State is not going to change theirs. We’ll both try to execute what we do good.”

Hill thinks Hatfield and the Owls might have a little something in store, though.

“They had two weeks to prepare,” Hill said. “We’ll get something new. Everybody tries a little something different against us, and Rice will have something new also.”

And change, of the split-second nature, is what the triple spread option is all about—the quarterback reads the defense at the line of scrimmage, then has to make decisions based on how defenders react to him.

Former Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz, who now coaches at the University of South Carolina, once said the option offense “neutralizes talent.

“People cannot defend the option just because they’re athletic and because they’re just going to run down the ball carrier. They must play disciplined defense,” Holtz said.

Fresno State’s defense, it is safe to say, qualifies as athletic. Its discipline will be tested by Rice on Saturday.