Understanding Paul Johnson's Offense

Triple trouble

Plenty of options for Navy team with nation's best ground game

By Brent Schrotenboer
STAFF WRITER

December 22, 2005

To better understand the concepts behind the Navy football team's top-ranked rushing offense, a newspaper reporter recently asked Navy head coach Paul Johnson how many plays were in his team's playbook.

Johnson, 48, might have told him – if he had one.

"We don't have a playbook," Johnson said. "I found that if you have playbooks, they end up on eBay and everywhere else."

NANCEE E. LEWIS / Union-Tribune Navy's Lamar Owens hands off - or does he? - to fullback Adam Ballard. Actually, Owens kept the ball.

Johnson instead said he gives his players empty notebooks and lets them write down plays in their terms. In tonight's 7:30 San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl game against Colorado State, the game plan won't even take up more than a few sheets: Navy probably won't use more than five or six different plays, Johnson said.

It's all part of a system that's so simple, it's complicated – at least for opposing defenses. Conceptually, the offense builds around one basic play – the triple option, a system unto itself that's worked so well that New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick called it "one of the best running offenses of the last decade."

Before Johnson's arrival, for example, Navy had gone 1-20 in its two previous seasons. Today, despite returning the fewest starters in the nation (six) from last year, the Midshipmen will make a school-record third straight bowl appearance in front of a paid crowd of approximately 40,000 at Qualcomm Stadium. Navy never has finished below third in the nation in rushing under Johnson. This year, the Midshipmen (7-4) rank first nationally, averaging 305.2 rushing yards per game.

"We probably run the same play over 3,000 times, and our whole offense is based off of one play," fullback Adam Ballard said. "We rep it every day, so we know what's going on."

Triple threat

It starts with the name: triple option. Some have called it the "flexbone." Quarterback Lamar Owens said the team calls it "the spread." Just don't call it the wishbone. Reporters and other coaches often have made that mistake.

"And that drives Coach crazy," Navy athletics spokesman Scott Strasemeier said. "It's nowhere close to what the wishbone is."

That's because the wishbone has three backs in the backfield; the triple option has one, with a slotback (or "A-back") lined up next to and behind the tackle on each side of the five-man offensive line.

After the quarterback gets the ball on the snap, he has three basic options in one direction or another: (1) keep it, (2) give it to the fullback or (3) flick it to a slot back.

On any play, any of those players could get the ball, forcing the opposing defense to stick to those four players at all times (the QB, fullback and two slotbacks), plus the single receivers lined up wide on each side.

On paper, the triple option's formation resembles a spread-out run-and-shoot passing offense. With the right personnel – a strong-armed quarterback and fast receivers – Navy could run that offense out of it and pass for a "zillion yards," Johnson said.

"In fact, this could possibly be the best passing offense ever," he said. "Because when you run the option, it limits what (defenses) can do coverage-wise, and you can get all kinds of one-on-one matchups (against the defense downfield)."

At Navy, though, Johnson doesn't have the luxury of getting premium athletes, a fact of life for all service academy football programs.

So he's tailored it around what he's got: smaller but able-bodied players with good grades in the classroom.

As a result, Navy runs the ball on 81.6 percent of its plays and has built a package of multiple plays around the triple option, including run-and-shoot passing and misdirection plays.

No other team in the country has an offense like it, either, though Air Force runs some – but not nearly as much – triple option. If there's one team in the country that most resembles Navy's offense from a conceptual standpoint, it might be Texas Tech. Ironically, the Red Raiders' spread offense throws the ball on 66 percent of its plays and leads the nation in passing yards.

"They run it all the time, and we throw it a lot, but in my mind that's sort of where the differences end," Texas Tech head coach Mike Leach said. "It's about distribution of the ball. They make sure everybody touches the ball, and the quarterback makes good decisions about who gets the ball. Philosophically, I think we're incredibly similar."

Defending it

The distribution principle is what makes Navy's offense so difficult to defend. Because the quarterback has three options on every play (four including the pass), the opposing defense is forced to play disciplined assignments, where certain defenders are assigned to certain potential ball carriers.

This effectively takes away the possibility of a blitz, because if a defense blitzed (sending multiple players into the offensive backfield), all the quarterback would have to do is quickly flick the ball away. The recipient of the pitch would be up the field before the blitzing defenders could turn around to run after him.

"If the defense doesn't pick up one of the guys, it's going to be a big gain," said Ballard, who has rushed for 360 yards in his last two games, his first career starts. "When they miss assignments, that's what happens."

Making matters worse for opposing defenses, Navy uses lots of moving parts.

"So sometimes it's hard to know who's got the ball," Johnson said.

Therein lies the ultimate task tonight for CSU – finding the ball. The Rams' rushing defense ranked 104th out of 117 Division I-A teams this year with 200.6 rushing yards allowed per game.

CSU head coach Sonny Lubick said this week his team would try to play "laterally across the scrimmage."

"Navy is going to go triple option nearly 70 percent of the game," Lubick said. "We're really going to have to be geared up to stop them. You might stop them five plays in a row, but all of the sudden, they get the pitch out there and they get a 60-yard play."

In general, teams that have been successful against Navy's offense have been bigger, faster and more disciplined.

"Some teams can play assignment football pretty well," said Owens, the QB whose job entails deciding if, when and where to pitch the ball on the triple option. "Sometimes if guys are bigger than us or faster than us, it kind of neutralizes things."

To keep the offense up to speed, Johnson has refined it through the years, dating to his days as an assistant coach at Division I-AA Georgia Southern. The Eagles won two national titles when Johnson was offensive coordinator (1985-86) and two when he was head coach (1999-2000).

After more success for the system at Navy, it's a wonder nobody else tries to copycat the style.

"I think there's a couple of reasons: One, I don't think they understand it," Johnson said. "I think they see it and hear 'option' and think that's 3 yards and a cloud of dust, which couldn't be further from the truth."

If only they knew how simple it is.

Without a hard-copy playbook, "We keep the plays in our heads," Owens said. "It's easier to remember."