Before I get to Va Tech...

In the wake of Nebraska's loss to Texas Tech on Saturday, many fans have simply had it with Shawn Watson and his West Coast Offense. I told a friend of mine yesterday that as long as Watson is here, there is always going to be a remnant of Bill Callahan surrounding the program. Pelini is the head man as he'll stay for a long time. He's got the defense going in the right direction but he's got Callahan's imprint all over the offense. There was some thought in the wake of Pelini's hiring that Tom Osborne wanted to fix the defense first and then perhaps switch to some type of spread (we know he's a fan of Urban Meyer's offense). Maybe that will still happen-who knows? It won't be with Shawn Watson as coordinator because Watson knows one thing and that's the dink and dunk West Coast Offense. I do know this much-Tom Osborne watches Paul Johnson's offense. He commented on it at the end of last season in an Omaha World Herald article.

Those questioning the Nebraska offense have inevitably brought up the question about what should be done about it? Some have suggested and brought up the idea that Nebraska run Paul Johnson's offense. Just as the stupidity of certain Nebraska fans was on display when PJ's name was brought up during the coaching search, there are the handful of asshats who equate the flexbone with Frank Solich and the three yards and a cloud of dust. Peruse the message boards and you're sure to find the one clown of a fan who thinks he knows far more about Paul Johnson's system than he really does-vehemently opposed to that dreaded old option because it won't work against a fast Miami team. So for the regular readers of this blog, I apologize in advance for the "Pre-School" lesson I'm about to put you through. Consider it a basic review to clear up the misnomers that foolish Nebraska fans say about the "option" of Navy and Georgia Tech.

1.) Paul Johnson's offense is called the flexbone, not the triple option. It is, contrary to popular belief, a spread offense, much like Urban Meyer, Rich Rodriguez and Mike Leach run. PJ simply lines the QB under center instead of out of the shot gun. And he runs the ball, while Texas Tech passes the ball.

Dan Mullen, former assistant at Utah and Florida under Meyer and now head coach at Miss State, used to exchange ideas with PJ. There's a lot more similarities between what Florida and Georgia Tech do than most casual observers would ever understand.

2.) As stated, the flexbone system that Paul Johnson has developed is predicated on creating running lanes and getting players in space. That's why it's called a spread offense.

3.) The "triple option" is simply a a set of plays that Georgia Tech runs from their base offense. Sometimes they run triple option. Sometimes they run midline option. Sometimes they use the pitch game. Sometimes they line up in trips WR formations. Despite what Bob Davie and every other nonsensical television commentator says, calling it a triple option is highly inaccurate.

4.) It doesn't matter what offense you run-there are going to be highs and lows. Anyone can stop Paul Johnson's offense if GT doesn't execute and the other team dominates the line of scrimmage or GT turns the ball over. Florida's offense has been slowed down significantly in the last two weeks against LSU and Arkansas. The bottom line is, Paul Johnson's offense is an offense that works more often than it doesn't. It's not inconsistent and you know pretty much what you're going to get every week-in other words the offense at GT now knows exactly who they are. I even saw a moronic post yesterday on a Nebraska board that referred to Georgia Tech's loss to Miami earlier this year as proof that it doesn't work (seriously). Nevermind that the year before, Georgia Tech rushed for 472 yards on that same Miami defense or that they just ran for 309 yards on a pretty good Va Tech defense. Paul Johnson is running his offense with spare parts on the offensive line and he's barely scratching the surface on the final product. Don't believe me? Wait until next year when his redshirt offensive linemen hit the field.

In the meantime, those idiot NU fans that say "oh noes those 4 and 5 star wide receivers will never come here with that type of offense" will continue to rant and rave about why we should never run Paul Johnson's offense here. They bought into the recruiting garbage that Callahan sold them and they never looked back. They would have been the same jacklegs that would have criticized Tom Osborne offering a scholarship to Matt Davison. They're probably the same mouth breathers that said Paul Johnson's offense would never work in big time college football. And by the way-you don't have to hire Paul Johnson. But you could hire someone off his coaching tree and cure the ills.

Here's an article from ESPN from a few months ago that helps clear up some of the misconceptions:

http://espn.go.com/blog/ncfnation/post/_/id/4896/georgia-tech-s-johnson-explains-spread-option-offense

And Birddog explains it better than I ever could in this blog post from a few years ago. Enjoy!

http://thebirddog.wordpress.com/2007/07/30/five-myths-of-paul-johnsons-offense/