The Arkansas State University football team held a rare meeting Sunday night.
Sunday's gathering was unlike ASU's typical Sunday night film sessions, get-togethers called to assess the Red Wolves' performance from the day before and to introduce themselves to their upcoming opponent's game film and tendencies.
ASU will begin Sun Belt Conference play at 5 p.m. Saturday at Georgia Southern, a clock-guzzling team in charge of a true Triple-Option offense -- something that's nearly impossible to replicate in practice and is forcing ASU defensive coordinator Joe Cauthen plenty stress.
"It's causing lots of less sleep and a lot of study time, for sure," Cauthen said Monday.
The Red Wolves' scout team -- a group that's instructed to run basic offense (post routes, curl routes, etc.) -- held an extra meeting and walk-through tutorial Sunday to soak in the intricacies of GSU's Triple-Option offense.
To prepare for the Triple-Option, the Red Wolves must first learn it. And they know they won't be able to exactly duplicate it.
"You can't simulate it well enough," ASU Coach Blake Anderson said. "Our scout team will not be able to run Triple-Option football like they can run it."
Georgia Southern (2-1) has held the ball for more than half of all three games. With counters and misdirections involved in a Triple-Option offense, the Eagles ran for more than 300 yards in each of their first two games -- victories against South Carolina State and UMass -- before mustering 80 yards on 43 attempts against then-No. 2 Clemson two weeks ago, GSU's most recent game.
The Eagles are averaging more than 50 carries per game (51.6) and have eaten up more than 31 minutes of game clock in each of their three games. They can chew up field and ease into the red zone, where they rarely falter.
Georgia Southern, which has earned nearly 5 yards per carry, is 10 for 11 inside the red zone (nine touchdowns).
"They're good at it," Anderson said. "And they're built for power. You've got to have great discipline. You've got to have somebody for the dive, somebody for the quarterback, somebody for the pitch and then play the play actually off of it. It's not something that you see every week. You just don't see true Triple-Option football very often."
Should the Triple-Option continue to drive GSU on Saturday at Allen E. Paulson Stadium in Statesboro, Ga., ASU's defense will meet the most run-heavy offense it has seen this season.
"They present a lot of problems to you," Cauthen said. "It's very difficult to key in on what they're actually doing with all the different [looks] and so forth that they give the backfield. Everybody knows about the quarterback, how electric he is."
Redshirt sophomore quarterback Shai Werts leads all Eagles with 256 rushing yards and 5 touchdowns, more than a third of GSU's 733 yards this season. Werts has attempted just 24 passes all season.
Saturday is all about the Triple-Option.
"It's dangerous," Cauthen said. "They're very good at running it."
Sports on 09/25/2018