They’re not making the post-grad military commitment that service academy cadets make. The four- and five-star quarterbacks of the world generally have NFL dreams. But they do have 290-pounders who are capable of making weight by graduation, along with running 1.5 miles in 10 minutes and 30 seconds. Well, service academies don’t have any of those anyway, because of graduation weight limits. This offense requires nimble linemen who can run, not 330-pounders. "I think the service academies are the most difficult places to recruit to in the nation," Monken told SB Nation in 2014. It’s become a bit easier for service academy standouts to play professionally, but there are no guarantees. The academic requirements are rigorous, and players need to be committed to post-graduate military service. It’s not easy to recruit football players to the service academies. Army and Navy have many good reasons for running the flexbone. The flexbone can be run out of well more than a dozen formations, and they’re hard to master. So is a document of principles Navy head coach Ken Niumatalolo laid out in a 2009 presentation. Brown’s explainer for Grantland is a read well worth your time. It also gets vastly more complicated than what’s outlined here.
If the DT charges after the quarterback or a hole opens up because of a block, the QB lets go of the ball, and the fullback runs ahead. The defensive tackle doesn’t have to be blocked, though he might be, depending on the play. While he’s doing that, the quarterback is “reading” the defensive tackle on the play side – left or right, depending on where the play is heading. The QB turns toward a charging fullback behind him and holds the ball into the FB’s stomach. Here’s how just the three basic options in the triple option work, though there are endless variations.ġ. In the base formation, when the quarterback takes the snap, he often has choices stacked on choices. The flexbone is an option offense through and through. Navy head coach Ken Niumatalolo was a Johnson assistant at Navy and Hawaii, as was Army head coach Jeff Monken at Hawaii, Georgia Southern, Navy, and Tech. Georgia Tech head coach Paul Johnson is most frequently credited as the system’s chief innovator, using it at Georgia Southern during a run that began in the 1980s and led to six FCS national titles for the school. This includes offensive linemen with wide splits between each, a quarterback under center, a fullback behind him, two receivers, and two speedy “slotbacks.” The slotbacks are sort of like running backs, sort of like traditional fullbacks, and sort of like receivers. (“Flex” is short for “flexibility.”) But since it reached the major college game in the the ‘80s, its most basic set has been this: And it’s spawned numerous spinoffs that have been used around the sport for years. It is a variation of an even older formation, the wishbone. The vast majority of the sport went away from the triple option since the 1980s, and even though most schools still use plenty of option concepts, Army and Navy are among the schools who’ve most kept it alive as a total offense. The teams are going to run at each other all afternoon, and whoever can out-fake, out-block, and out-sprint the other will win.Īrmy and Navy are two of a small handful of FBS programs that run the modern version of an offensive relic. The Black Knights and Midshipmen will rarely line up in the shotgun, and they might only throw a combined 10 or 20 times in 60 minutes. ET, CBS), you’ll see a brand of football that’s uncommon in today’s game.