How will Memphis slow Navy’s option?

The Memphis defense thought it was ready.

In spring ball last year, the Tigers dedicated periods of practice to defending the triple-option offense. In the week leading up to their game against Navy, they practiced without a ball to help players hone in on their assignments.

Then they gave up 374 rushing yards in a 45-20 loss, their first in more than a calendar year.

It was tough to stomach. But it was also a learning experience.

“You have to do your job every play,” defensive lineman Ernest Suttles said. “Because if you don’t, they will hit you.”

So this week, as Memphis (5-1, 2-0 American Athletic Conference) once again prepares to face Navy’s patented triple-option attack, there is some comfort in knowing what to expect. The Midshipmen are humming along like they always do, averaging 262.4 rushing yards per game this season, but the Tigers are now fully aware of the type of speed, precision and discipline that they will en-

counter Saturday at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium.

“You can’t hop out of your gap,” redshirt senior defensive lineman Donald Pennington said. “That was one of our biggest disappointments: Players getting out of their gaps, not having the right eyes, not shedding a chop block correctly. It’d make bigger gaps or seams they can run into.”

Coach Mike Norvell said that Navy’s offense is so difficult to stop, in part, because it is so rare. He compared it to the spread offense when it was first popularized in the college game more than a decade ago.

To help the Tigers further acclimate to it, Norvell said, they spent parts of the last seven practices of spring ball defending the triple-option, in addition to parts of fall camp.

“It’s going to come down to execution. It’s going to come down to physicality. We know that,” Norvell said. “You can have all the keys and all the reads and everything in the right place, but if you’re not physical, you’re not winning this game.”

Navy (4-1, 3-0 AAC) currently ranks 13th in the Football Bowl Subdivision in rushing yards. Over the past 14 years, it has never finished lower than sixth. While the offense may look the same year after year, coach Ken Niumatalolo said it is constantly evolving as opposing teams come up with new ways to try and stop them.

“We have a library of stuff,” he said on a conference call Monday. “When things happen that hurt us, this profession is really a copycat profession, so other people try it. So we try to get answers for problems that we have.”

Memphis defensive coordinator Chris Ball has some familiarity with Navy’s scheme, having helped gameplan against it in the 2012 Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl when he was an assistant coach at Arizona State. The Midshipmen racked up 313 rushing yards in that game, but the Sun Devils won, 62-28.

Ball said there will be a few things Memphis will do schematically to slow down the triple-option, but it will ultimately come down to discipline and physicality.

“There’s a toughness aspect to it,” Ball said. “If it’s a quarterback, dive or pitch, we’ve got to be physical at the point of attack and be able to tackle the guy back. If they fall forward, get a 4yard gain, that’s a good gain for them. That’s what they want.”

Perhaps the biggest challenge of playing Navy, Suttles said, is resisting the urge to leave your assignment in order to make a play on the ball. Defenders are always taught to attack the ball carrier or pursue the ball, and there’s immediate gratitude in that. It’s a lot more difficult to chase the slotback, over and over and over again, when he never has the ball.

Memphis struggled last year. But this year, Suttles believes the experience will help.

“That was the first time we’d seen a triple-option team. So you go in there with a certain mindset that doesn’t work for that type of offense,” Suttles said. “The fact that some of us have played them, and we have a better understanding, I think it should play a huge impact in how we play this Saturday.”