University of North Carolina Athletics
One Thing to Watch: Georgia Tech
October 16, 2014 | Football
By Turner Walston
The dive, the keep, the pitch. The dive, the keep, the pitch. Georgia Tech's flex bone offense doesn't consist entirely of the triple option play, but it's the glue that holds everything together. The dive, the keep, the pitch.
In the week leading up to a game against Paul Johnson's Georgia Tech team, the talk of the defense is 'assignment football.' That means knowing and executing your own assignment and trusting your teammates to know theirs. Attempt to 'cheat' and help stop a perceived ballcarrier, and you do so at your own peril. The dive, the keep, the pitch.
On that triple option play, the Jackets' fullback, known as the 'B' back, dives toward the heart of a defense. The quarterback can give the ball off, or he can take it on an option play to the right or left with one of the Jackets' 'A' backs, who are often set just off the tackles. (For a good explanation of Johnson's offensive philosophy, watch this video from the man himself.
The multiple fronts and the multiple potential ball-carriers employed by Johnson and the Jackets make Georgia Tech a difficult team to prepare for. Often a team won't see another offense like it throughout the course of a season. “We're taking on a very good Georgia Tech team that totally makes you stop everything you're doing on defense and change to prepare for the triple-option attack,” Larry Fedora said at his Monday press conference.
Duke's David Cutcliffe had a bit of a back-and-forth with Johnson last week when Cutcliffe suggested that it was difficult for Johnson to recruit “high-end players” to play in the offense. While it's true that Calvin Johnson and Demaryius Thomas might not have chosen the Jackets under Johnson, Georgia Tech can still make you pay if you expect them not to pass. Three years ago in Atlanta, Stephen Hill caught six passes for 151 yards and a touchdown.
The key for the Tar Heels, cliche as it may sound, is to stay home and stick to their own assignments and make sound tackles. Georgia Tech will make a team tackle individually, as the threat of the pitch is constant. The Jackets present perhaps the toughest defensive task the Tar Heels will face all season.
The Tar Heel offense and defense worked well together last weekend at Notre Dame. The offense possessed the ball and moved the chains, and when well-rested, the defense got off the field and gave the team a chance. To beat Georgia Tech, the defense will have to maintain assignment defense and make things difficult for the Jackets.
“You're just going to have to fit your gap, do your job, and you can't worry about the guy next to you, just knowing that he's going to be able do his job,” nose tackle Ethan Farmer said of defending the Jackets. “Everybody on this defense knows that as a front we have our job to do, and I think if we do our job then we should be fine on Saturday.”
