Bucknell keeping its options open

It seems that once a year, when Penn plays Bucknell, the Quakers' defense dusts off its playbooks in preparation for the dreaded Bison option offense.

Every day after practice, you start to hear coaches and players refamiliarizing themselves with the jargon associated with this confusing and unorthodox style of play.

"You have three days to prepare and you never see it again," Penn coach Al Bagnoli said.

The advantage to running the offense is that it forces opposing defenses to act counterintuitively.

Bucknell, as well as other programs such as Rice, Air Force and Georgia Southern, often fakes several actions before actually moving the ball.

Due to this style of play, defenders are often left wondering whether the play they see developing in front of them is genuine or a fake.

"It is difficult because you want to jump at what you think you see," Penn defensive back Duvol Thompson said.

This style of offense places enormous pressure on the quarterback, who is forced to make split-second decisions on when to hand off, pass or run.

In Bucknell's triple option scheme, Bison quarterback Daris Wilson has the choice to do one of three things as the play unfolds -- hand the ball to his fullback, pitch it to his slotback or keep it and run.

It is the quarterback's job to read the defense during the play and choose the appropriate course of action.

More often than not, Wilson chooses to run. He is his team's leading rusher, running for over 90 yards per game.

He is able to gain so many yards on the ground by faking handoffs to his teammates. This throws opposing defenses out of alignment and opens up space for Wilson to run through.

However, other times Wilson will hand the ball off for success. Bucknell's other backs are averaging a combined 162 yards rushing per game.

The one thing he rarely does is pass the ball. Wilson is averaging under 10 passing attempts per game.

"It's a lot of smoke and mirrors, but when it comes down to it, they run the ball 90-95 percent of the time," Penn defensive back Bryan Arguello said.

One would think that it would be easy to defend against a defense that kept running the ball, but Arguello says that it's just the opposite.

"They run, they run, they run and that one play where they trick you they send it deep for a touchdown," he said. "As much as they're trying to confuse you, it's all about setting up that big play."

There are several essential things that Penn must do to prevent that big play.

First, the Quakers have to vary their defensive looks against Wilson. If they don't, it will be easier for the Bucknell quarterback to make those split-second decisions.

"If you give them a stagnant look, they'll give you some plays that will really carve you up," Bagnoli said. "So we just have got to keep moving it around, make sure he stays off balance ... and hopefully create a little confusion and slow the kid down."

Defenders also have to concentrate more on defending their assigned players and less on defending the play. If they decide to go after the running back heading toward the line and ignore their assigned player, they will often get burned.

"It's strictly assignment-based defense and that's contrary to a lot of things you do on defense," Bagnoli said. "Here you have got to be very, very disciplined and very assignment conscious."

"You've got to understand who your key [player] is, your responsibility is to your key," Thompson said. "It is difficult because you want to jump at what you think you see but you've got to trust what your coaches tell you."

So if this offense is so difficult to defend, why doesn't every team run it?

One reason is that not every team has a quarterback who can handle the pressures and complexities.

Also, the option tends to minimize the talents of other key positions like wide receiver. Arguello was quick to note that a player like Penn All-Ivy receiver Dan Castles would be a waste in such a system.

While most teams have several option sets, only a few schools, such as Bucknell, devote their entire offense to the option.

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