When Georgia Southern won national titles in the 1980s, it was with the triple option. When it returned to I-AA glory in the 1990s, it was with the triple option. When Jeff Monken capped his career in Statesboro by upsetting Florida in 2013, it was with the triple option.
Like Army, Navy, and Georgia Tech, option football has become a staple for Georgia Southern. Things still operate out of the option under head coach Chad Lunsford, but it’s not your traditional triple option.
“This is a little different because it’s not under center, mid-line stuff,” Liberty head coach Hugh Freeze said of the Eagles’ offense. “That’s not who they are. It’s a little different, but the principles are still the same. You’ve got to stop the inside run, you’ve got to stop the quarterback, you’ve got to stop the pitch.”
This isn’t the first time Freeze has faced an option team in a bowl game. In the 2013 Music City Bowl, he led Ole Miss against Georgia Tech who ran the triple option under Paul Johnson. The Rebels came out with the win, 25-27, in that game.
“If you’re going to play a triple option team, the best time to play them are game one or in the bowl game,” said Freeze. “You don’t ever want to try to play them in the middle of the season where you have three practices to try and get ready for it.”
Liberty defensive coordinator Scott Symons agrees.
“We know it’s a big challenge,” Symons said of defending Georgia Southern. “They’re a good football team, option based offense. If you could pick any way to play an option school, I would pick a lot of time to prep, that’s been a positive for us, but they’re really good on offense.”
Symons and defensive line coach Josh Aldridge have had a lot of experience coaching against option offenses from their time coaching at Division II West Georgia. Symons was also on staff at Memphis and had a large part in the defensive game plan for Navy’s triple option.
“It’s definitely helped having worked at a place and then coached against it, but these guys are different than your traditional Navy where it’s the flexbone, triple option, under center,” said Symons. “Everything they do is really out of the gun or pistol. So the timing of it is a little bit different than the traditional old school option offenses. They are a little bit more multiple with it, a lot more personnel groupings than a typical option offense that will typically line up in one or two personnel sets.”
Georgia Southern ranks #8 in the country with 261.5 yards rushing per game. They are sandwiched between a couple of Liberty opponents, as Louisiana is 7th at 265.3 and Buffalo is 9th at 254.3 rushing yards per game. The Ragin’ Cajuns ran all over the Flames as they racked up 407 rushing yards in Liberty’s 35-14 loss at Louisiana. The following week against Buffalo, the Liberty defense held the Bulls to 206 rushing yards in the Flames’ 35-17 win.
The Eagles’ option attack is led by redshirt-junior Shai Werts. The 5’11”, 205 pound quarterback has rushed for 676 yards and 5 touchdowns this season while also completing 57-of-108 pass attempts for 704 yards and 9 touchdowns. He hasn’t thrown an interception in over two years, albeit on only 224 pass attempts over the past two seasons.
“He’s an option quarterback,” Symons said of Werts. “He’s really good. He’s the most dynamic quarterback we’ve seen. When you compare him to Virginia’s (Bryce Perkins), he’s got more quick-twitch as far as initial quickness. He’s the key to the whole offense like is typical with option offenses. He makes good decisions on his reads, tough to bring down, if you’re unsound on the back-end he will make you hurt throwing the ball too.”
The Flames do have some experience playing against option teams, doing so most recently at Army last year and dating back to their FCS and Big South days against Kennesaw State.
“Option football is discipline football,” he said. “I love playing against it because you can tell where you’re at as a program. We’ve been through highs and lows this year on defense, I think this will be a good way for us to have a chance to finish on a high note moving forward with the guys that we have.”
