Hot Option-on-Option Action....

Once Navy stood alone, now 3 FBS schools run the Triple Option....

Tomorrow at 2:30 CBS will televise the 110th meeting between The United States Military Academy (Army) & The United States Naval Academy (Navy).  The significance of this game is far too enormous for us to even try to encompass here.  Suffice it to say it defines College Football, rivalry, & much of Americana in a way little else does.  We can't wait.

As we grew up, we really had little rooting interest in this game; it was simply fun to watch as much for the pomp & circumstance as for the football.  After all, we weren't alive in the glory days of Joe Bellino, Roger Staubach, Doc Blanchard & Pete Dawkins.  All that changed for us two years ago when Paul Johnson brought his triple option from Navy to the Flats.  After Tech, Navy is the first team we root for.  Just watch the game tomorrow.  The Mids run the option almost to perfection.  Clean, crisp execution.  And Ivin Jasper & Ken Niumatalolo have done a great job continuing the Triple Option tradition at Navy.  

But tomorrow adds a new wrinkle into the equation: Army, under new head coach Rich Ellerson, now runs the triple option.  So this will be the first game I can ever remember featuring two teams both running the Triple!  Ellerson came from Cal Poly, an FCS school, where he had great success with the TO.  What many people don't know is that Ellerson & CPJ were on the Hawaii staff together; Ellerson as defensive coordinator while CPJ was the offensive coordinator.  Ellerson went on to coach the famed "Desert Swarm" defense at Arizona before ending up at West Point.  Says a lot about an offense when a defensive coach with that resume adopts it as his own.

The Godfather of the Triple Option has a little advice for Embry Peeples:

"you better watch that game tomorrow!"

"That goes for all of you out there..."

So as the college football season winds down, sit back, relax, & do what CPJ will be doing tomorrow: taking in some hot Option-On-Option action.  And in honor of The Admiral:

Go Navy, Beat Army!