A Little Something for The Xs and Os Junkies

For quite some time, I've thought that Navy's Paul Johnson may well be college football's best coach. He certainly showcased his coaching ability last weekend when he and his squad put it to my beloved and beleaguered Fighting Irish.

I don't know about you, but I love watching an Option offense like Navy's. It isn't always the most exciting offense, but it is the offense that, at the college level, has enabled more out-manned teams to compete over the years than any other I can think of. At the high school level, that honor has to go to the Double Wing, but in college, it's the Option, hands down.

With App State's win over Michigan, some may say that the Spread Option offense will supplant the traditional Option as the choice of undermanned squads, but I don't think so. The Spread Option runs on speed, and the teams that do it best are those with great athletes. App State was smaller than Michigan, but its backs and receivers were blazingly fast -- or at least faster than anything that the Wolverines could throw at them on defense.

In contrast, the traditional Option depends primarily on discipline -- guys consistently being in the right place at the right time -- and on the QB making the right reads. For some reason I've got a problem linking directly to this post, but if you click here and scroll down to the post entitled "Simple Complexity," you'll get the best analysis of Paul Johnson's offense that you'll ever see outside of a coaches clinic, complete with game footage from the Notre Dame v. Navy game. If you're an Xs and Os guy, this one is guaranteed to make your day.