ATLANTA -- It looks like a quaint offense until you get gouged for a 39-yard run. It looks quaint until the fullback, called a B-back, blasts through the middle of your defense for 33 yards. It looks quaint until the third option, a 6-foot, 230-pound creature called an A-back lights you up for 23 yards.
|
|
| Josh Nesbitt runs the Georgia Tech to perfection vs. Virginia Tech. (AP) |
By the way, did anybody ever stop the triple-option? Didn't it just go away? Just asking.
Georgia Tech, and its quaint offense of the '70s, beat No. 4 Virginia Tech on Saturday 28-23, and the national bias against the Jackets should be in a backpedal.
Shouldn't it be a cool thing that Georgia Tech completed one pass and beat a top 5 team?
This business of the triple-option has to grow on you. You have to see it up close, look at the ingenious adjustments and consider the 220-pound running backs busting up through your defense. It is not a bunch of midgets hiding under cups that are moved around quickly. It is real athletes making real plays.
Josh Nesbitt is a 217-pound junior quarterback with nerve and savvy and he carved up Virginia Tech for 122 yards rushing. Jonathan Dwyer, who is 220 pounds, had 82 yards. Anthony Allen, who is 230 pounds, had 59 yards.
It is not 6-foot-3 quarterbacks throwing darts downfield to 6-foot-3 receivers. It is not first-round tailbacks taking a pitch. It's football, just a different brand.
Georgia Tech rushed for 309 yards Saturday and perhaps Virginia Tech wasn't really the No. 4 team in the country, but it would be intriguing to see the Yellow Jackets matched up with somebody like Oklahoma, Texas or Florida now that this thing is rolling.
Sure, coach Paul Johnson's offense was routed in a bowl loss to LSU last New Year's Eve and the trumpets blared that the triple option was a fraud in big-boy football. The Tigers, who are of the powerhouse Southeastern Conference, exposed the offense -- except three Tech turnovers also played a part in that lopsided loss.
There was the 33-17 loss to Miami this season, but the Georgia Tech defense was atrocious and made the Yellow Jackets play with one hand behind its back.
The win Saturday, which should push No. 19 Georgia Tech closer to the top 10, offers some validation. The offense doesn't always click but, more times than not, it is putting its foot on your windpipe.
• Georiga Tech 28, Virginia Tech 23
Asked if there is some bias against the Tech offense, Nesbitt said, "I think so, yes."
Asked the same question, center Sean Bedford said, "I don't know if it's bias. We're just different."
The offense is so upside down with how football is played these days that the best quarterback in the ACC, Nesbitt, completed one pass Saturday. He did his best work with his feet after Virginia Tech was determined to take away Dwyer, the fullback by crashing down the ends.
Urban Meyer, a close friend of Johnson's, endured the same ridicule at Florida for one season until he won a national championship with his spread option. Maybe that's what it will take for the triple option to be exported around the country and become stylish again, a bunch of big wins.
We could be a little bit snarky about the ACC and degrade Tech's win. The only undefeated team in the conference is -- Virginia. Yes, the team that lost to William & Mary and Southern Miss. is 2-0 in the ACC.
We could add that Virginia Tech's defense has one NFL-caliber starter, free safety Kam Chancellor, and maybe there are better defenses out there. Cody Grimm, an outside linebacker, is going to be a heck of a special teams' guy in the NFL, but there are not a lot of stars.
That ridicule doesn't work. Georgia Tech (6-1) can play. I wrote earlier in the season, following a narrow win over Clemson, that the Yellow Jackets looked like they had accidentally wandered into the top 15.
Now, they look legitimate, like they could go 11-1, play for the ACC title and land in the BCS. Wouldn't it be some game, two of the biggest offensive geniuses in college football, Cincinnati's Brian Kelly and Tech's Johnson, dueling in the Orange Bowl?
Georgia Tech will be forever defined by its offense because it is so unusual, but the Yellow Jackets have some other redeeming qualities.
Derrick Morgan, for one. Tech's defensive end cost Virginia Tech left tackle Ed Wang some money in the upset. Wang is held in high regard by NFL scouts, and Morgan cut a path around the Hokies star.
Also consider the Yellow Jackets have six scholarship seniors. This is Johnson's second season here. He's just getting started.
So give the Georgia Tech offense a few attaboys, and quit with the background checks. After 13 seasons as a head coach running this offense, Johnson keeps it around for only one reason.
It works.
