College Football Film Room: Breaking down 3 unique plays

2. Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets- Counter Option

I’ll preface that I love the Georgia Tech Flexbone triple option. I love what Paul Johnson does with it and how he makes his adjustments. The Jackets ran for over 500 yards on Tennessee in a losing effort. Georgia Tech has high academic standards and while it’s not quite West Point or Annapolis they’re at a disadvantage in recruiting and it makes sense to run the triple option there.

The base veer option has the B-Back (Fullback) run a dive right behind the center. The quarterback reads the defensive end. If he comes inside against the dive, the quarterback pulls the ball and runs the option with the A-Back (Wingback) and reads the linebacker (normally) to determine if he will pitch to the A-Back or keep the ball.

The next read depends on whether or not the linebacker attacks the “pitch man” (Wingback) or freezes in his stance. If he does, the quarterback keeps. If the linebacker attacks the quarterback then he pitches to the wingback. I explain the basics of the veer option below:

Below, we’re looking at the counter to the Volunteers defensive alignment. The Vols started using six men on the line and it hurt the Jackets base triple option game. So Paul Johnson’s idea was to use his counter option to block the defensive lineman that’s down, influence the first linebacker to come inside, while getting lead blockers in the B-Back (Fullback) and play side A-Back (Wing).

The back side A-Back goes in motion and is the “pitch man.” The quarterback now reads the most outside linebacker on the line. When he hit the pitch man, the quarterback kept and ran for a first down.

The Jackets ran for 535 yards with 249 coming from TaQuon Marshall and his five touchdowns in a 42-41 loss. Up next is a more modern play, we’ll take a look at the inside zone read with an arc block from the H-Back from Jalen Hurts and the Crimson Tide.