The passing game is what sells tickets. There’s no doubt about that. However, some college football teams love to channel the past and revive the option to dominate the ground game. If you’re the type of player in College Football 26 who loves to dominate the clock by moving the ball on the ground, you should consider running the old-school option.
We’re not talking about the newer, more popular RPO here. That gives you an option to either run or pass. The classic option allows you to keep the ball with the quarterback or pitch it to the back in the backfield. If you play a team that can’t defend it, you can rack up yards. But first, you have to know what to do.
Classic Option Versus RPO
The RPO is a play that offers both passing and running options. It requires a quick read at the line of scrimmage by the quarterback. You’re watching the read player, and depending on what that player does, you’ll either quickly hit the receiver or hand off to the running back.
The classic option has no throwing option. You’re out to own the ground game all the way. In the popular speed option play, the ball carrier will be either the quarterback or the running back. The read focus is on the player closing on the quarterback. If he plays conservatively, focusing on the running back, he should keep the ball and take off. If he’s aggressive in closing to the quarterback, pitch it to the running back, and you might be off to the races.
The triple option adds a handoff alternative at the beginning of the play. If you keep it, it becomes equivalent to the speed option.
How To Run The Option
In the playbook, select “Play Type” and scroll down to select “Option”. There will be several option plays to choose from in College Football 26, such as the speed option, triple option, counter option, and more.
If you have a handoff option, doing nothing after snapping the ball will automatically hand the ball off to the running back. To keep the ball with the quarterback, hold down the A button on Xbox and the X button on PlayStation.
Then, run with the quarterback on the path in the play art. As you read the defense, you might keep the ball, deke or spin and pick up a chunk of yards. However, if you want to pitch it to the back, you’ll need to press LB on Xbox and L1 on PlayStation.
The Best Teams To Run The Option With
Option teams are typically not filled with speed and skill at the receiver position. They also have quarterbacks with good QB awareness and some decent to good speed. Option teams typically want to dominate time of possession and will gain most of their yards on the ground.
Air Force, Army, and Navy are all decent picks for running the option. Minnesota and UCLA have great playbooks for option offense. Also, look for teams with highly rated running backs and quarterbacks. A couple of examples include Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech.
