I know that many of you PonyFans have at the least played a little high school football, or watched enough to understand what the option offense is. Watching the option play unfold from the stands, I’m sure that we have all yelled out, “tackle him, he’s right there!” or “hit the quarterback!”

While all these seem like a great idea and no-brainers for a defense, it’s not always as simple as that.

Adami says Serge Elizée and the rest of the SMU defensive tackles have to focus on the Navy fullbacks for the Ponies to be effective Saturday (photo by Travis Johnston).

Very few offensive coordinators still run the option. Everyone is in love with the run-and-gun, high-scoring offenses … and why not? It’s exciting and puts people in the stands. (Let’s not forget that college football is a business). However, the option offense allows a team to control the ball and the pace of the game. When run correctly, it can wear down a defense and cause them to make touchdown-costing mistakes.

So what do the Mustangs need to do Saturday to stop Navy?

My sophomore year at SMU, we played Navy in my first start as a defensive tackle. Our game plan was simple: stop their run game up the middle and force them to take the ball to the outside, because it’s a lot harder to run to the corners than it is to run straight north and south.

To do this myself and (defensive tackle) Lute Croy lined up in a “two technique.” That means that our bodies were lined up just a shade to the offensive guard’s inside. This enable us to naturally take away the inside give to the fullback. The quarterback would then have to pull the ball and run the option down the line, where hopefully a defensive end and linebacker would be waiting.

Also out of this alignment, the defensive tackles have the ability to stunt into different gaps. As a “two technique,” you are responsible for the A gap. By stunting and changing gap responsibilities with the linebackers, you are able to confuse the offense. In doing this, Lute and I were able to tally up 12 and 13 tackles, respectively. I know that because I teased him later him about it, for the rest of the year. Sadly, as many of you know, we did not end up winning the Navy game that year. Yes, Lute and I were able to stop the mid-line play, but the rest of the option hurt us all day.

In the game of football the offense has eleven players and the defense has eleven players. What is interesting about both of those numbers?

Got it yet? They’re odd. That means that you will always have more people on one side of the ball than the other. It’s simple math and that is what Navy counted on in 2002 and that’s what they will count on Saturday. The quarterback will simply look at the defense and determine where his advantage is. In order to counteract the obvious disadvantage of having one fewer player to take on a block, the defense has to maintain not only gap responsibility, but ball responsibility as well. What I mean by that is this: on every play, the defensive tackle knows that he is to tackle the fullback on the mid-line — that is his job.

Depending on the defense called, the defensive end or the linebacker will either attack or slow-play the quarterback — that is their job. The back-side defensive ends close down and the back-side linebackers help in pursuit — that is their job. If, at any time, any of these players fails to do his job, the option will exploit it and make positive yards again and again.

That is what is so difficult about this offense: the defense has to be perfect every play.

With that said, I have every confidence that June Jones and his staff will have our boys will be ready to play. These last two weeks have been rough — not only for the fans, but for the guys on the field.

I know from experience how much it hurts to work all week and be so close to victory to come up empty again and again. They are improving and playing harder. I’ll be the first one to tell you there is no such thing as a “moral victory,” but I have been proud of what I’ve seen the last two games. The Mustangs have gone in as the supreme underdogs and come out fighting.

Go Mustangs, and Beat Navy!