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Option is part of Petrino's upbringing Sunday, Jun 15, 2008 By Harry King FAYETTEVILLE - On this day, the timing is right for the revelation that offensive innovator Bobby Petrino is a triple option man. It's in his genes. Bob Petrino Sr. ran it at Carroll College in Helena, Mont., and quarterback Bobby was still in elementary school when he started reading the defensive end before deciding whether to pitch or keep. Before junking those season-ticket forms, know that the Arkansas coach does things a little different these days and that it is his passing game that is steeped in the option. "The only difference is you're reading people downfield and you're throwing the fall forward instead of backwards, but it's still a lot of numbers games," he said in an interview. "There are a lot of philosophies from it that carry over." He was matter-of-fact when asked if he was truly reading the option as a pre-teen. "Certainly," he said. Both Bobby and younger brother Paul were option quarterbacks for their father, and their teams won seven Frontier Conference championships in eight years. "One of the philosophies behind the option was that you can win games when you might not have the best material and the best talent because you're able to move the ball by reading and making decisions as opposed to just being able to blow people off," he said. Carroll College did not have the best players, he said. But Bob Sr. won 163 games in 26 years at the school. There is some triple option in all old coaches, the Arkansas coach said. He mentioned the success of triple option teams Navy and Air Force and said he was interested in how former Navy coach Paul Johnson would do at Georgia Tech. Johnson, 45-29 in six years at Navy, says the Midshipmen played more than 30 schools from Bowl Championship Series conferences. "If it worked at Navy, why wouldn't it work here?" he said. Johnson might have to go with freshman Reggie Ball at quarterback; Petrino has Casey Dick, a senior in eligibility, but a freshman in the offense. The whole offense starts with Dick. With Darren McFadden and Felix Jones in the backfield last year, his obligations were minimal. Sometimes he left the field so McFadden could take the snap. Caretaker was the oft-used description. "We asked the quarterbacks to do more than what had been asked in the past," offensive coordinator Paul Petrino told Hawgs Illustrated. "He's gotta play quarterback and run the show, run the offense, do what we're coaching him to do," Bobby Petrino said. "He's got to make decisions on the field based on what we've asked him to do." In other words, Dick will have total control. "My philosophy on being the quarterback is you're the guy who's running the show," the head coach said. "How we want to get in and out of the huddle, how we want to operate at the line of scrimmage, getting out of a bad play, getting into a good play, staying with a good play, understanding the defenses." Dick knows the onus is on him to make the proper decisions and that his conclusions must be rooted in hours of study of film and the playbook. He'll put in the time that is necessary and he'll probably throw 140 more passes this year than he did when he completed 150-of-262 in 2007. Just don't mention that picking the proper receiver is an option thing. ------- Harry King is sports columnist for Stephens Media's Arkansas News Bureau. His e-mail address is hking@arkansasnews.com. |
