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Its Navy and the only time we beat Navy is when they have a Heisman player. They have no Heisman this year so we are doomed. Navy is all-powerful with their outdated offense that we can't stop. They simply scare the Hades out of me. So assume the fetal position and start filling up the adult depends. We’re doomed.

We flat blew our load on UCF. We played way beyond our meager talent level and have nothing left. No fire in the belly and no desire to beat the Juggernaut Navy.

We still don’t have a QB. Hicks QB rating is only 138.42. If he were in the NFL he would only be the top rated QB in the League! We haven’t had a QB since Lance McIlhenny pitched to the great Craig James against Texas in 1980 and introduced the world to the Pony Express.

Our all Universe receivers can’t catch. They drop everything thrown to them. It’s a miracle Hicks has even one completion this year.

Defense sucks. The Nickel defense will not work this week. It’s the only D we have run this year that kind of worked. We can make a female cadet pulled out of the stands 30 minutes before kickoff to start at QB and turn her into a Heisman candidate as well as the TE for Navy in one game!

There will be weather in Annapolis. We can lose in sun weather, rainy weather, cold weather and gale force wind weather. In fact, we can lose in any weather to Navy. And since there will be weather, we will lose. Oh the despair!

Peruna hasn’t killed a Ram since the 30s. Don’t expect it to happen again this weekend.

Its Veteran’s/Senior day. Its like a double dose of doom. What genius agreed to play Navy on these two days all rolled into one? Talk about no Mojo for us!

HCCM is heading to A$M, Florida, Tennessee, LA Tech, NTSU, etc. Anywhere but SMU. How can our kids even walk knowing HCCM is gone in 3 weeks?

At least we will have one kind of SMU color on this week as we wear blue and gold in honor of our opponent.

All one can do is sing over and over the Navy Hymn as adapted by SMU fans

Eternal Father, strong to save,
Whose arm hath bound the restless wave,
Who bidd'st the mighty ocean deep
Its own appointed limits keep;
Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,
For those in PANIC on the sea!

Well at least now we have a chance

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On a more serious note... a good read from UGA site ... How to stop the triple option:

https://www.dawgsports.com/2008/11/24/668152/defending-the-triple-optio

What is a little mysterious is how you actually can stop the triple option. I propose that it can be done, assuming you first understand some basic realities. Now I'm not a football coach, but I play one on the internet. As such, I hope you'll enjoy this, my list of the six basic realities of defending the triple option:

1) It's just different from the beginning. The triple option is designed to take advantage of defenses by allowing the quarterback to make his reads during the play, not before. This has two important consequences. One is that you will rarely be in optimum position to stop the play. Because if you are, it means the opposing QB has failed to get the ball where it was supposed to be to take advantage of your location. Two, all of the presnap hoodoo in the world is basically useless. When you see Willie Martinez's defense standing stock still, don't be too surprised.

2) It will get its yards. An extension of the "rarely in optimum position rule" is that sometimes there's just not going to be anything you can do to stop this offense. It's designed to allow an astute quarterback, borrowing an old baseball axiom, to "run it where they ain't." Please do not hyperventilate when you see Dwyer and Roddy Jones break the occasional 15 yarder. The key is limiting the number of them. Holding Paul Johnson's offense under 200 rushing yards is a solid accomplishment. Keep telling yourself that.

3) It will put the ball on the ground. Especially with a young quarterback like Josh Nesbitt or Jaybo Shaw. The question is whether the defense can take advantage. North Carolina, Vrginia and Virginia Tech have each beaten the Yellow Jackets this season. Each forced three turnovers. I doubt seriously that this is a coincidence.

4) Blitzing it is a bad, bad idea. The first instinct of fans seeing a team defend the option is that you should attack. This is usually the worst thing you can do. Why? Because blitzing puts you upfield and out of position. Remember, the option is calculated to roll downhill fast and force defenders to make decisions on the fly. There's no quarterback scrambling aimlessly in the pocket. The offense will get to your personnel plenty fast enough. Blitz-heavy gameplans against the triple option mean that eventually somebody's gonna run right past their assignment. And when you're playing one-on-one assignment football, that means a touchdown. Remember this, ye acolytes of the "Willie Martinez never blitzes" faith. This is the one time we actually want Willie to dial it back.

5) The "A" and "B" gaps generally decide the ballgame. The first read the quarterback makes on most triple option running plays is whether or not to give the bal to his "A" back right up the middle on the option's version of the fullback dive. If everything went according to Hoyle in this offense, that play would be the offense. The line would drive the defensive tackles back and they would grind the opposition to a fine powder 5 yards at a time.

The only reason for the ball to ever move laterally in this offense is for the inside gaps to be unavailable. Flushing things outside allows a fast defense to catch up to the option, and it creates the need for the QB to pitch the ball, and potentially put it on the ground (see number 3 above). This means that Geno Atkins, Kade Weston, Deangelo Tyson, Corvey Irvin and Brandon Wood will be the most important guys on the field Saturday. I'm not saying that's a good or a bad thing. Just an existential reality to which you should accustom yourself. They will spend the day tackling the fullback on the dive whether he has the ball or not, and preventing Tech's mobile offensive line from getting back to the linebackers. Watching this personnel group in the early going should give you a decent idea of how this edition of Clean Old Fashioned Hate is going to go.

6) First down is the most important of all. If a decent triple option offense has 3rd and 4 or less, they will convert on a generous percentage of attempts. See Reality Number 2, above. The key to stopping this offense is to limit it to short gains on 1st down then play solid assignments on 2nd and 3rd. The triple option, like all offenses, will generally have trouble converting 3rd and 6 or longer. With the triple option you have the added problem that there's a limited passing arsenal. The goal should be to get them to 3rd and 7, give up 4 on the play, then get the heck off the field. Like so many other things in life, this is much more easily said than done.

Ummm..well, in stopping the option he refers to the necessity of having a "fast defense". Oh my!

Arkpony wrote:Ummm..well, in stopping the option he refers to the necessity of having a "fast defense". Oh my!

therein lies our problem

I was behind two cars yesterday, that had Navy bumper stickers. That has to be a sign....a bad one, we are doomed again!

I am a Marine (Semper Fi!) and the Marines are part of the Navy and wasn’t all that good in football so that is a good sign, isn’t it?

Arkpony wrote:I am a Marine (Semper Fi!) and the Marines are part of the Navy and wasn’t all that good in football so that is a good sign, isn’t it?

Only if you are QB and even then it might be tough with our LB play.

Good write up. The key is just to tackle everybody, plug your gaps. It's not sexy, nothing fancy, just stand your ground - I like our chances if we force things outside to be honest. It's the INSIDE of our defense I worry about. Guys like Gentry, Gary, Williams, Biggurs, Pono are going to have to play out of their minds. Do that and I like our chances. Stop them for little to no gains on 1st and 2nd downs over 50% of the time and we need to score a lot. Do that and we squeak out a win. Have to just stay disciplined and focused.

If you want to really panic, realize when our corners and safeties support Navy has a wide open passing game. They almost came back against Temple with a second string QB and everyone knowing they had to pass. I do not know if I can even watch this one.

We need to move on and start the hand-wringing for Memphis.