NCAA 14 Triple Option Guide
How to run the Triple Option in NCAA 14
The triple option isn't a very beginner friendly offense on NCAA 14, but if you know what you're doing you can create an explosive rushing attack with it. You can also instead nickel and dime defenses all the way down the field while you eat up entire quarters. This can help make up for large talent discrepancies, as this offense does not require highly skilled players to run. The scheme also keeps your defense off of the field., which goes a long way when you're first starting a dynasty.
I personally mix up the tempo in my attack, depending on my team's strengths (or lack thereof) and weaknesses. As a disclaimer, I rarely play against human opponents but I previously used Jarrod21's Black Sliders and now use Fang's BBQ Chicken sliders (with Deerwhisper's AI mod) in my dynasties which are both challenging, high skill level slider sets. This approach has mostly brought me great offensive success in my files. Also, I will use lots of [letter] gap terminology. Here's a picture of what the gaps look like so that you'll understand what I'm talking about.
Personnel & Formation Subs
Personnel is very important to running this offense to it's fullest in NCAA 14. What you absolutely need:
At least one QB with 80+ speed, ideally two. If you're pushing it, high to mid 70s can work but is less effective. Anything lower is a no-go unless you're decimated by injury. The faster, the better. In this offense, your QBs are usually your leading rushers and need to make timely decisions. They will also take lots of hits, so having some depth in case of an injury is recommended.
You need four RBs with solid overalls, 70+ or so range. You want to put one of those RBs at fullback on the depth chart. In an option offense, as shown on the chart below, you have two wingbacks who line up outside of your tackles and you have one fullback in the backfield. You want your fullback to be fairly short and stocky in stature and have a nice trucking stat. Your wingbacks should be your faster, shifty players because usually they will be receiving pitches and outside runs. High speed allows for these players to reach the edge quicker.
TEs are useless if you leave them at TE. This isn't necessary but as a general rule of thumb, put your good blocking TEs at WR. Sometimes I put my TEs at wing back in some looks if they have enough speed because they can help out with your blocking. If you're trying to mix passing into your option offense you may want to make sure these TEs have good receiving stats as well or you can just leave your receivers there but it comes at the cost of perimeter blocking on your run plays.
You want your OL to be smaller and nimble with good agility and speed so that they can get up to the 2nd level quicker and meet LBs in the rushing lanes. While it is not necessary, having linemen who can haul ass in the open field and quickly meet linebackers in gaps is a big plus.
Though this is the case for any offense, formation subs are very important. Look at your players stats and play to their strengths. In my current Duke file, I have a TE with 80 speed and an absurdly good 84 run blocking stat. As such, in the Wishbone I sub him in as my fullback and run behind him. I also have a wingbone set where I put him at wingback and try to run the option to his side with him serving as a lead blocker. Occasionally I even shift him around to his native TE spot if the situation allows for it.
To piggyback off the last part, I wouldn't bother trying to mix in passing sets when you're first starting out. Personally, it distracted me from optimizing my option attack and often lead to less efficiency with my runs which are ultimately the lifeblood of your offense. Focus on running a pure option attack first and foremost and getting all the basics down. Once you get it and have a qb who's worth throwing with you can start to mix that in. If I don't have a talented QB, I usually don't bother with much throwing other than the bare minimum.
Using 2 QBs is the most optimal way to run this. In fact, I even use three sometimes. Even if you don't actively use three QBs on the field, it's good to have perhaps even 4 qbs for depth reasons. You should try and get two QBs and sub them in and out depending on formation. The QB touches the ball a great deal in this offense and if you're only using 1 their stamina will deplete significantly as the game goes on. Obviously, having less speed in an option offense is not optimal. The Army Split formation is good to throw out of, so in formation subs I usually put my better passer in on that formation and the Wishbone. In contrast, I usually have my main runner in on the Flexbone and Wingbone formations. Onto the Playbook setup.
Playbook
The Army playbook is good enough for this endeavor and I'd suggest using it at first to get your feet wet. That said, the Audibles are quite important and I would highly recommend editing them before you enter a game. My personal audible setup recommendation for a pure option attack would be..
For my first audible, I recommend Triple Option Cntr. This play is one of the foundations of your offense. In my experience, the handoff to the full back on the normal option plays is very slow and you rarely gain anything even if you make the correct read. The Cntr play includes a much faster handoff animation and the fullback also gets more forward momentum. This benefits players with high truck ratings especially since they're already falling forward; NCAA 14 is a game based on physics, so if you're in a 3rd and short situation and they leave the fullback open it's an automatic first down.
The next is Midline Option, the butter to the bread of your offense. This play is extremely powerful; I'd almost go as far as calling it broken. For this reason, you want to keep it in reserve whenever you can as your get out of jail free card. It shreds 3-4 nickel/dime formations such as the Okie front; if you see one of those and audible into this it's a free first down almost every time. As an aside, these first two audibles here are the most important ones. You can change the others if you aren't having a good time with them, but these two plays are essential.
Next is Speed Sweep but don't be fooled; you don't want to run this like the playart tells you to! If you try going all the way outside of the tackles like it suggests, you won't be gaining very many yards. This play is instead more useful as a run that attacks the B gap between your guard and tackle. If you see space in that gap, you can usually pick up solid yardage by audibling into this play.
Rollout Smash is the best passing play in the Army playbook in my opinion. This play almost always sees the corner route get open against man coverage. Not only that, but the rollout animation seems to improve your QBs accuracy which is odd. I audible the B receiver onto a drag route and the X receiver onto a slant route as contingency for if the corner route doesn't get open. This makes the play incredibly powerful because if you end up running this against zone, the corne will get open against cover 2. If it's cover 3, the drag route will get open underneath. If the drag isn't open, take off and run! You can pick up good yardage by running the ball thanks to the rollout. A strong play that destroys man coverage and fairs decently against zone as well.
As an aside, Flexbone Normal should be your base formation. The reason you should pick Normal over the others is because you can freely audible or decide to flip the play due to an unfavorable amount of defenders in the box or someone sitting on the pitch on one side. There will be no players moving around which makes it so that the defense can't really tell where the play is going, as well as the fact that you can snap the ball immediately after audibling.
Diagnosing a Defense
Now that we've got the initial setup covered, we can move on to some in-game action. I'll start off with the basics. You need to know how to read a defense pre-snap. Thankfully the game helps you out a lot with this. Upon coming up to the line, you want to hold RT and look for an R and a P among the defensive front as shown below. R stands for Read and it's the most important of the two. It means that this is the player who's assigned to read the FB and QB exchange. As you snap the football, you need to be staring at this player and watching for his feet to chop and for him to stop running. If he does chop his feet and come to a halt you want to hold A and give it to your back. If he doesn't stop and instead crashes inside on the FB, have the QB pull the ball.
That is the most important part of running an option play. But there's also a P. What does that mean? P stands for Pitch. This is the defender who is assigned to watch the pitch man; usually your wingback. Reading a pitch man is fairly self explanatory; if he crashes on the QB, pitch it. If he stays with the WB, keep it. The timing window for this is a lot more forgiving than the read man, so just don't make stupid decisions and you'll be fine. If a defender is kind of in between your QB and your WB and you cant tell which way he's going to go, keep the ball. Even if he crashes on your QB you will likely gain at least something thanks to the space he's given you, and you won't risk a turnover. If you see the Pitch man directly beside the Read man, you have to audible. This is because if the Read man doesn't crash on your FB, the play will almost assuredly end in failure. Your options are to give it to your FB and take a minimal gain/potential loss of yards thanks to the 5 or more defenders who are on the line, to tackle for loss with your QB, or to pitch the ball and likely turn the ball over. Here's an example of the sort of alignment I'm talking about;
If you see this audible out of your play and either call an option to another side. On this specific play, I audible into a speed sweep that attacks the empty B gap. This is ultimately what the Triple Option is all about; identifying the defensive front and attacking it play after play.
Now that we've talked about the Triple Option itself, what about the other plays? In a triple option offense, the namesake play isn't ran as often as you'd think. The offense is based upon on the triple option to make the defense have to respect it, but a good deal of your plays will be more designed runs. Arguably the best play in your playbook is the Midline Option. This play is incredibly effective if you use it right and can pick up large chunks of yardage. If you see significant space in the A gap, audible into a midline. Do not overlook the midline, I rarely see how effective this play is discussed online.
The downside is that the play can be trickier to master, though the rewards are well worth it. Sometimes when you are running the midline, the defensive tackle will become the read man instead of the usual DE. This makes the window to read him much smaller and it also usually results in less yardage. However, if a DE has the R over his head, the play will usually gain yardage. At least 5 yards or so, often times more. This is the case regardless of how the defensive front is aligned unless they have more men in the box towards the direction you're running in. In which case you should flip the play. Be weary of becoming too predictable however. If you audible into this play whenever there's space in the A gap a human player will notice and adjust to it. Hell, the CPU will notice it and adjust to it somewhat. Use this when you need to use it in crucial situations. Don't rely on it because your offense will be shut down if you do.
Every other play in the playbook isn't particularly special. This offense is about fundamentals, not abusing cheese plays. If you're running triple option and midline over and over again, you're doing it wrong. Even if this works against default Heisman AI, it won't work on challenging sliders or humans. Instead of spamming the midline over and over, if you see space in the interior you could instead audible into a FB wedge to diversify.
As a general rule of thumb, avoid running to areas with lots of congestion. As stated earlier, always avoid running to the side of the field that has more men in the box. If you are lined up against an 8 man box and 5 of them are to the right, your run should go to the left. If you see a safety dropping down to blitz on one side, go the other way. Blitzing safeties usually creates an odd player distribution which has the same effect as running against a loaded box.
Wingback/Speed Sweeps can be effective if there is space in the B and C gap. I mostly use these against 3-4 Bear fronts (pic below).
Wingback Tosses/Power Tosses are the same story. I mostly use these against Bear Fronts as well. With Sweeps I usually go between the B and C gaps, with Tosses I usually go outside of the C gap. Speed is very much needed for a toss play more so than a sweep play. These plays should pick up good yardage against these fronts.
Wingback Misdirection is best used if you have a backside DE (pictured below) lined up outside of the hash marks without LB help behind him. This play can be kind of janky and have your players flub the handoff in the backfield. Especially if you switch directions at the line of scrimmage, so I don't use it that much but it's still good to know when to use it and when not to.
FB dives in all formations are best used if the DL is more spread out than usual and there's space to run through. If the DL crashes when you audible into it you may want to audible back out and try something else. If you see this it means the AI is going to get instant blocksheds and stuff the play.
Midline options shred defenses if there's space in the A gap. If you see a defensive front that leaves space in the middle you usually want to run this play.Be weary of running it too often though as you ideally want to save this for crucial late game usages.
Triple Option is a generally safe playcall if you aren't sure how to attack a specific front. Look for wherever the least meat along a DL is and run it that way. Never run this play when there's a pitch man directly beside a read man. If you're playing against a human you need to keep your eye on who he's usering and run it the opposite direction. A good user can shut this play down so you need to know how to attack other parts of the field and to not get reliant on this play.
Speed options are a bit challenging. I use the Speed Option out of the wish bone as essentially a QB sneak in short yardage situations. These plays are effective against bear fronts but I typically run tosses and sweeps instead and mix this in sparingly. This is because this play doesn't seem to gain as many yards and things can easily go wrong if you pitch.
The Wishbone formation is most useful in late-game situations where you're trying to pound a team into submission late in the game. If you've mostly been running out of other formations, starting to pound the team with the Wishbone can be very effective late in the game. If you've been attacking the edges, the defensive line will have often spread itself out to hold the perimeter. In the audible menu, the "run" play defaults to a sweep play that attacks the C gap with your left running back. For playbook creation, the HB iso play is a solid run to your right running back that can gain good yards up the middle. Speed option is a great way to run a QB sneak if you don't want to lineup in a goalline formation as well.
Decision Making
A big aspect of triple option offense is remaining disciplined and not making mistakes. If you get stuffed on first down, don't come back to the line the next play and lock yourself into a decision or playcall. Always observe the defense. And one more thing; be careful with pitches. If you're running a triple option and you've gained 5 yards don't pitch unless you're certain that you can make the pitch. A defender can easily come in-between and break it up and just like that the opposing team is set up on your 30. Below here I'll put a passage about reducing risks from Paul Johnson's writeup on the Option offense. You can read the full article here if you'd like. All of this applies in the game as well.
"The quarterback reduces the risks of executing an option play by adhering to several option rules. The option rules are part of the quarterback's option technique:
1. Always think hard end. Be mentally prepared for defensive pressure from the option man or secondary blitz.
2. When in doubt, don't. When the defensive reactions create any doubt in the decision-making process, keep the ball.
3. Don't pitch in the grasp. When in the grasp of a defender the play is over. Protect the ball.
4. Don't pitch blind. Look the pitch in. Make sure the tailback is in position to catch the pitch.
5. Never pitch off number two (except on options which are designed to option number two). When the ball is pitched off number two the option man can attack the tailback as he is about to catch the pitch. Pitching off number two is a turnover decision.
6. Get the ball pitched to the tailback. Pitch the ball when the defensive reactions allow the ball to be pitched. Don't keep the ball for a five to six yard gain when the tailback would have gained thirty yards if the ball was pitched.
7. Don't cutback. Run to the option alley on a keep to run away from the defense."
For a Triple Option team, turning the ball over is the worst thing you can do. If you do make a mistake and an opposing team scores quickly off the turnover you need to stay disciplined. This is a way that games can snowball out of control if you're new to the offense. This sort of ball is all about mental fortitude, you must stay composed and continue going through your reads. If your defense can't stop an opposing team's offense, consider going into chew clock mode. If I'm in a game where I am out-talented and know my defense can't get a stop, I will call plays designed to gain nothing so that I can run the clock for longer. If you try to play a shootout against teams with higher offensive firepower you will lose. When playing more talented teams, force them to roll around in the mud with you and dictate the pace. If you want to watch a masterclass in this in real life, watch the Oklahoma vs Army game from 2018. The last part of this guide will be dedicated to throwing the football.
Passing
You won't be throwing the ball much in a pure option attack, but passing the football is a good way of keeping the defense honest. If playing against a human and you are in a 2nd and 2 situation you can leave some bodies in to pass protect and try taking a shot.I would advise against throwing out of any of the -bone formations if you can help it. The best formation to throw out of in the Army playbook is the Army Split..
Outside of the already-covered Rollout Smash, Corner strike is a solid play. Your running backs both drop into the flats and you have two corner routes. Often times I audible my slot WR into a slant. This usually beats man coverage and can be good for a quick first down or two per game.
The rest of the passing plays are mostly self explanatory. Curl flats works well against man, I usually put the slot WR on a drag for this play. As I said earlier, most of the passes out of -bone formations don't work well but there is an exception. Screen passes can catch both defenses and humans off guard especially if they're sending the house at you. If you notice a defense getting aggressive to try and clog your runs, screen passes are a good idea. Since the Rocket Toss play in this game doesn't function correctly this is essentially your substitute for it.
Concluding Notes
That's my complete guide on how to run the Triple Option in NCAA 14. Try to start simple and become familiar with the basics of the offense. Once you've mastered these you can start adding wrinkles of your own into it. Remember to always play to your teams strengths. If you recruit a very talented player who seems to be miscast, add wrinkles designed around what they're good at. This is good general advice for any offense in this game. Wasting talent is no good!