my explanation of the Utah option

I posted this on the delphi forums youth football coaching forum:


On most coaching sites, they just call it the Utah option.

As an Aggie, I'm all too familiar with Meyer's offense. I followed him when he was at Bowling Green, and he was #2 on my wishlist to replace RC Slocum (behind Fran).
After we beat Utah in the second game of '03, I was telling Utah fans what a phenomenal coach they had, and how he was going to do great things for their program.

Since it was early on in their offense, they made a lot of mistakes in the first half, and we had a 21-0 lead going into halftime. We won the game, 28-26, stopping an attempt at a two-point conversion inches from the goal line.

------O--O-O-O-O-O---------O
---------------------O--O---
-------------O----------------
---------------O--------------

Here is a perfect example: trips right, flanker left, QB shotgun and tailback one yd back and to his right. Middle slot receiver goes in motion inside at the snap, flows inbetween the gap created by the QB and the TB as he runs left, and QB hands off to the middle receiver (H-back in their terminology, but basically a modern day wingback) as he goes left, QB bootlegs right as tailback moves out at the snap, establishing the proper pitch relationship. QB and TB have clear sailing down right side, b/c the other two receivers to that side have gone downfield, taking the DBs with them.
Now, it was perfectly set up, but the H-back fumbled the ball, A&M recovered, and went in on the next series to score. Still, you could see the creativity there, the innovation. It was just a matter of execution and it all coming together.
There is also a play where the H-back comes underneath for a possible shovel pass to go inside as the QB and TB go outside in the veer; that is another version they have of the triple option.