Can LSU stop the option?

• By RANDY ROSETTA
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Dec 31, 2008 - UPDATED: 5:58 a.m.

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ATLANTA — Whether it’s the first game of the season, the handful along the way against bitter rivals or the last time a team will strap on helmets and take the field together, every football game boils down to matchups.

Can your best players line up and beat the best players from the other team man-to-man, play-after-play more often and more convincingly for 60 minutes?

In that sense, tonight’s Chick-fil-A Bowl between LSU (7-5) and 14th-ranked Georgia Tech (9-3) won’t be much different than the previous 12 games the teams have played this season or the last three bowl outings the Tigers have turned in under coach Les Miles.

What’s different is the matchups facing LSU’s defense.

Georgia Tech’s triple-option offense is a hybrid of the wishbone from the 1960s and ’70s and the spread offenses in vogue now.
And the stakes, motivation and sense of urgency are intertwined and packaged differently for LSU as well.

Instead of putting a crescendo on a stellar season like they have the last three years, the Tigers are relegated to tacking something positive onto a season that spiraled out of control in November.

Whether LSU can dig deep enough to find the necessary motivation to play well will be nearly as important as how well the Tigers slow down the Yellow Jackets proficient offense, making this season finale intriguing.

“It’s real important for us to come out and play with energy and intensity because we want to finish this season a lot better than we’ve played the last few games,” LSU linebacker Darry Beckwith said. “If we do that and play good fundamental defense the way we’ve been coached, we’ll be OK.”

Those fundamentals boil down to what LSU coaches deem “assignment football.”

Each member of the defense has a specific role depending on the formation and is expected to take care of that job and not stray from the script.

Tech’s triple option is based on the quarterback either handing off to the fullback, pitching to one of the two halfbacks or keeping the ball and ducking into whatever space he finds along the line of scrimmage.

Defensive tackles have to clog up the middle to defend the dive, defensive ends and cornerbacks have to combine for resistance against the pitch and the safeties are left to clean up anything that gets beyond those two waves.

Oklahoma rode a similar offense to national dominance in the 1970s and ’80s and Air Force and Navy — under current Yellow Jackets coach Paul Johnson — have succeeded with it at the mid-major level.