Here are my statistics after one full season running the Spread-I Triple Option offense. I finished the season 14-0, winning both the Sun Belt and National Championship Game.
Team Stats
767 Rushes for 6006 yards, 76 TD (54.8 rush attempts per game for 429 yards per game)
48 of 65 Passing for 642 yards (4.65 pass attempts per game), 6 TD, 1 INT (the INT was the final pass of the year, an end of half hail mary in the national championship).
Obviously I led the nation in rushing and was dead last in passing. I had a 92-8% run-pass ratio.
Individual Stats
Passing
Chris Harris - 46 of 62 (74%) for 613 yards, 6 TD, 1 INT
Team - 2 of 3 for 29 yards
The majority of those passes were screens, in the Sun Belt Championship Game vs bluejay, I completed 10 of 11 passes, all 10 were bubble screens. 9 to my starting slotback.
Rushing
Chris Harris (QB) - 181 rush attempts for 1770 yards (9.7ypc), 22 TD (both Army school records)
Egbezien Obiomon (SB) - 194 rush attempts for 1694 yards (8.7ypc), 19 TD
Marcelino Christie (HB) - 94 rush attempts for 674 yards (7.1ypc), 8 TD*****
Kelly Grant (FB) - 114 rush attempts for 663 yards (5.8ypc), 11 TD
Lawrence Price (FB) - 78 rush attempts for 490 yards (6.2ypc), 5 TD
Louis Napoles (HB) - 66 rush attempts for 412 yards (6.2ypc), 6 TD
Christian Reed (SB) - 14 rush attempts for 119 yards (8.5ypc), 3 TD
James Parrish (HB) - 7 rush attempts for 57 yards (8.1), 1 TD
Mike Richards and Gene Thomas (QB) - 17 combined rushes for 96 yards, 1 TD
Receiving
Egbezien Obiomon (SB) - 20 receptions for 193 yards, 3 TD
Lawrence Price (FB) - 4 receptions for 44 yards
Jeff Ejekam (WR) - 4 receptions for 49 yards
Mike Powell (TE) - 4 receptions for 56 yards, TD
Sam Butler (TE) - 4 receptions for 62 yards
Alex Carter (TE) - 3 receptions for 56 yards
Christian Reed (SB) - 2 receptions for 56 yards
Jermaine Adams (WR) - 2 receptions for 73 yards
Kelly Grant (FB) - 2 receptions for 33 yards, TD
Marcelino Christie (HB) - 2 receptions for 20 yards, TD
=========================================
To explain the positions a bit, my team has 4 very good TEs (all Sophomores) and I distributed all 4 across the WR and Wing TE positions. Powell is my best blocking TE, and he played the wing role because of it and also played an on the line TE in my various singleback gun sets. Butler and Carter were my WR/TE hybrids. They were on the field in almost every formation. Ejekam, my lone WR, was on the field as a solo side WR in formations like Wing Offset Wk, Trio 4WR, etc with the idea that I could isolate him and throw slants and screens to him as necessary. He is also a solid blocker.
Obiomon was my slotback, lining up in the slot in every formation either via formation sub or HB Slot package sub. I never flipped formations to make sure my subs and packages didn't get screwed, so I only ran certain formations on the left hash and certain formations on the right hash, etc. Christie was my diveback, lining up in the backfield. Honestly, he was the best player in my offense because he could block enough to be effective in jet and was a devastating downhill runner. But (the *****) he was hurt in Week 6 and missed the remainder of the regular season, only coming back in the National Championship. I tried to play my 3rd string HB, Napoles, there but didn't like it and ended up playing my two Fullbacks, Price and Grant, as downhill divebacks which more or less turned it into a Gun Flexbone offense.
I also formation subbed those two Fullbacks in various formations. When Christie went down, I subbed Grant into Normal Flex Wing to lead block for my Jet series. I also had him subbed into the backfield in Spread Offset, with my two slotbacks in the slot and two TE out wide, mainly to run Trap and check to bubble.
The offense itself was deadly and equally effective against users as it was vs the CPU. I was really worried about how I'd be able to attack users who inevitably went to aggressive option defense to stop me, I figured I'd have to go to the air to beat that, but it turns out I didn't. Over 14 games, I averaged 4.65 pass attempts per game. My max pass attempts in a game was 11, which came in the Sun Belt Championship. After an incompletion on a 3rd down slant pass, I completed all 10 of my passes, every single one of which was a bubble screen. Of the 48 completed pass attempts on the season, I bet 30 were screens (20 bubble screens to Obiomon, 5 bubbles to my other backs, 4 now screens to the WR). That's my constraint. If you leave him uncovered to load the box, I'm throwing it out there every time.
Of the rest, I threw quite a bit of pop passes to my FB/Wing TE out of the backfield off of Motion Option. Slot F Wing Motion Option Pass became one of my go to red zone plays vs users, with the wing FB hot routed to a seam. You get a corner route with that TE and then a seam pop pass trailing him. I also took to creating Y Corner in Spread Flex Motion Option Pass. I also ran a ton of shovel passes, but not as much vs users as I did vs the CPU. I did run 6 shovel passes, all 6 pass attempts in the game, against Toctsx. Shovel gets dicey so didn't want to risk it vs users.
For the most part, I stuck to my base inside zone, read, triple base. Using a bunch of motion option left and right and audibling my slot into the backfield off and on using my Split Offset/Split Y Offset audibles. Those audibles especially were deadly vs users because if you don't cover him, I can just throw to him real quick. If you do, I can audible him into the backfield and run option with numbers. In situations where I was getting a ton of aggressive option defense, I took to running a TON of Counter. Ever since I figured out that motioning the wing/H across the formation to arc block the safety on two back offset counter was a devastating play, I used the hell out of it to take advantage of aggressive option defense. I still ran a ton of option and was content just handing it off, but then I'd break out counter and it would go for monster gains.
After one full season, I'm going to go through the playbook and just start ripping out the stuff that I didn't run and really slim down the playbook as much as possible. I would love to get it down to 200 plays, but that may be tough just because of the number of formations. Will update the playbook once that is done. Ironically, the offense is so balanced in terms of who carries the ball that none of my offensive players won awards.
All things considered, this was incredibly enjoyable. I've always wanted to run a Gun Triple offense but never really got around to it. Finally have a situation where I can run it and it has been money so far.
Well, second full season is in the books in the Spread-I Triple Option. The second was just as successful as the first, finishing 13-1 and winning the Sun Belt and National Championship for the second consecutive year.
Team Stats
(Last season in parentheses)
642 rushes for 5153 yards, 66 TD (45.9 rush attempts per game for 368.1 yards per game)
(767 Rushes for 6006 yards, 76 TD, 54.8 rush attempts per game for 429 yards per game last season)
161 of 201 (80%) passing for 2023 yards, 13 TD, 7 INT.
(48 of 65 (74%) passing for 642 yards, 6 TD, 1 INT last season)
844 total plays (60.2 per game) for 7176 total yards with a 76-24% run-pass ratio.
(832 (59.4 per game) for 6648 total yards with a 92-8% run-pass ratio last year)
So I ran almost the exact same number of plays in total but for a little over 500 more yards. I also threw more, obviously.
Individual Stats
Passing
Chris Harris - 147 of 185 (79%) for 1823 yards, 11 TD, 7 INT
Mike Richards - 14 of 16 (87%) for 200 yards, 2 TD, 0 INT
Rushing
Kelly Grant (FB) - 244 rush attempts for 1782 yards (7.3ypc), 23 TD (both are Army school records set last year)
Chris Harris (QB) - 190 rush attempts for 1606 yards (8.4ypc), 24 TD
Marcelino Christie (SB) - 118 rush attempts for 1218 yards (10.3ypc), 12 TD
Lawrence Price (FB) - 62 rushes for 336 yards (5.4ypc), 4 TD
4 others had carries totaling less than 100 yards.
Receiving
Marcelino Christie (SB) - 54 receptions for 612 yards, 1 TD
Alex Carter (TE) - 25 receptions for 443 yards, 2 TD
Kelly Grant (FB) - 19 receptions for 193 yards, 0 TD
Sam Butler (TE) - 18 receptions for 259 yards, 4 TD
Jeff Ejekam (WR) - 17 receptions for 274 yards, 3 TD
Mike Powell (TE) - 11 receptions for 111 yards, 2 TD
Lawrence Price (FB) - 10 receptions for 85 yards, 1 TD
Brian Woodward (SB) - 6 receptions for 27 yards
Jermaine Adams (WR) - 1 reception for 19 yards
147 pancake blocks as a team
=========================================
Comparing and contrasting the quoted post from last season with this current season, it is interesting to see how things changed. It is still a run heavy option offense with TEs across the various WR and TE/H-Back positions, all 4 TE returned as did both FB. My lone WR played some and had some carries here and there, but not many.
What changed is slotback/diveback. Last year's slotback was my second leading rusher and leading receiver but he graduated. His replacement at slotback was the diveback from last year, who spent much of last year injured. I have zero tailback depth here so he was the only option. Had I thought it through, I would have moved the top WR to HB and played him as the slotback but I didn't and I can't have a WR there because it messes up the in-formation audibles. That left my two fullbacks to carry the load as dive back.
Initially, Price was the main diveback because he's the more athletic of the two but Kelly Grant took over after a few games and was unbelievably good (see video above). He was just a battering ram of a diveback which is exactly what I'm looking for. The diveback in this offense really is the fullback/B-Back of a typical flexbone option offense. He's 77 OVR, just 80 SPD but 85 BTK and 80 TRK make him a monster. As the season went on, he was getting 20+ carries a game just with pure handoffs on trap, counter trap and belly plays. I actually went away from option as the season went on just so I could hand him the ball.
I actually think playing fullbacks at diveback was the best thing that could happen. It meant positive yards on every play, even if I was stopped, they were falling forward. More importantly, it just forced me to throw more. I threw more screens, more quicks, more shots down field off of PA. I knew I couldn't outrun teams with option so had to be more power/play action/screen.
Last year was inside zone, inside zone read and inside zone triple as almost the entirety of the offense be it one back, two back or motion option. This year, the offense was mainly split zone, trap and counter. I still ran plenty of option obviously since my QB had 190 carries and over 1600 yards but it was more power run to set up option rather than just option option option option. This season reminded me a lot more of the old Nebraska teams running zone and traps and counters and then gashing you with an assorted option play here and there than it did the option flexbone teams the offense was based on. This might be the first time I have ever had 3 1000+ yard rushers.
Not sure what I'll do next season, the QB and slotback both graduate. I have two soon to be Senior QBs that should be fine, not as athletic but not a big drop off either but HB/slotback is a problem because I have none. Christie graduates and the next best HB is 72 OVR and 84 SPD so he isn't much for a slotback. The rest are 67 OVR or lower, including a 67 OVR true freshman WR who got moved to HB specifically to play slotback. He was okay this year in limited time, but not sure who else can play there. I don't know what recruiting will give me (I have 0 XP so can't scout) but maybe someone there can step in, otherwise I'm going to need some help from training.
My initial idea was to move a WR to HB so I didn't have to worry about a WR messing up my in-formation audibles, but my top two WR also graduate and that leaves me with just 4 WR total, none of whom have ever played and none are particularly athletic.
The good news is, both fullbacks return as does a 72 OVR true freshman fullback I recruited last year who is honestly more athletic and a better blocker than the other two. Also, all 4 TEs return (3 will be Seniors) plus I have a 67 OVR TE redshirting who is going to be a great H-Back blocker some day. I lose 3 of 5 OL, but I have decent enough replacements.
The issue here is the slotback role. In Year 1, it was my most vital and most used position between carries and receptions. In Year 2, I started to phase it out a little in favor of more power running but he still rushed for over 1000 yards and was my leading receiver with nearly double the amount of receptions as the next guy. Without a legit dual threat at slotback, the offense loses a little luster. I don't necessarily need him to carry the ball, but without it a lot of what I do goes out the window.
I like the idea of playing the true freshman former WR turned HB at slotback, he will be 97 SPD next year and has good catch and carry ratings but he has no agility, acceleration or run ratings to speak of so he's straight line only. I have a really good true freshman WR who actually redshirted this season that might fill the role, but he's my top WR by far next year and would like him to stick there.
In the event I can't really fill the slotback role with someone I like, there is a chance I may either switch back to some Pistol to focus more on being power run or just run a hybrid version of my Osborne offense with Grant playing I-Back. My recruiting is garbage because I can't scout anyone, but I did sign the #8 HB. I have yet to scout him, but he's 71 OVR as of now so maybe he turns out to be serviceable. If not, I may just be hammering away with a fullback 30 times a game next year.