(12-03-2019 08:46 PM)GE and MTS Wrote:  Did Georgia Southern return to the triple option? I saw a comment mention it earlier but it was my recollection that they moved away from it not long after joining FBS. But that coincided with a downturn which saw their coach fired so maybe they went back to their roots afterwards.

It’s a very complex story. Firstly, it matters how you would define the Triple Option. Georgia Southern fans are very particular about Option-based offenses. Most of our fans would tell you that we stopped running the triple option in 2013 when Jeff Monken left to coach at Army. In 2014, our first year in the FBS, we transitioned from a triple option under center to a spread option out of the shotgun and started passing the ball from 2-3 times a game to about 8-10 times a game. We were very successful under this system and were only able to hold onto Fritz for two seasons before he was scooped up by Tulane. In 2016, we made a grave mistake and hired a defensive coordinator no one had ever heard of to be our head coach. I won’t even say his name because if fills me with dread. He hadn’t a clue what to do with an offense let alone run a triple option which is demanded at Georgia Southern. He promised our offense would remain option based when he was first hired, but on the field, it looked nothing like it. We started to pass almost 40% of the time and you could tell by our recruiting that we were transitioning away from the option. After bowl ineligibility for a second straight year was confirmed, he was fired in the middle of the season. The interim coach Chad Lunsford has been with our program for about a decade at this point and had worked under Monken, Fritz, and that douche canoe. He was hired as full time head coach the next season and hired offensive coordinator Bob Debesse from UNM who developed the spread option offense that Willie Fritz used. We went from 2-10 in 2017 to 10-3 last season after returning to the spread option.

Long story short, no we don’t run the triple option attack that Georgia Southern is known for, but we do still run an option based scheme that’s 90% rushing.