I don't follow Southern closely. Do they use a shovel option, a shovel triple option, or something else?
There's no room for a speed option, a midline/iso play, or a classic belly play. The distance created by a shotgun snap means everything moves slower, more ground needs to be run to make a gain, and places huge demands on the blockers. The only thing I've seen that makes me think it isn't purely inferior to to a spread option under center is that extra room to the LoS allows a cute little play where the playside receivers don't block at all, but instead run a short route. The defender can either follow the receiver and open up the outside to the run, or they can attack the ball and leave a man open.
I would think that for Southern the problem there is that the scheme essentially requires all the tools you need to be a successful power run team, plus well executed option concepts. That's fine for Arizona, but seems a bit much to ask a college team.
Explanation because option terms seem to mean anything to different folks:
The shovel option to my understanding has a single unblocked defender, and the QB tends to run to the outside and the shovel pass goes to the inside if the unblocked defender bites on the QB to the outside.
The shovel triple (at least as played by Arizona) has the qb start in the gun, with a shovel man beside him a ways off anti-playside and a pitch man to the play side. There are two unblocked defenders, one near the line and one on the second level on the play side. If the shovel key turns outside, the QB makes the shovel pass to the inside, otherwise the QB attacks the pitch key to the play side. If the pitch key bites inside, the qb pitches, otherwise keeps.
Hopefully GSU wont talk to Kennesaw State head coach Brian Bohannon.
