Knights face Navy’s option
Tulane to provide test of unbeaten Bulls’ true strength.
Few people have a better appreciation for option football than Central Florida coach Scott Frost.
Frost ran a version of option football under the direction of his father at Wood River High in Nebraska. Larry Frost, a career high school head coach, taught his son the basics of reading defenses and deciding where to go with the football.
Frost went on to become the starting quarterback at Nebraska in a different type of option system for coach Tom Osborne. “I love option football. I lived it,” Frost said. “It’s just a skill.”
Frost and the 20th-ranked Knights (5-0, 3-0 American Athletic Conference) will get a firsthand look at one of the nation’s finest option teams, Navy, today.
Navy (5-1, 3-1) owns the nation’s top rushing offense, led by quarterback Zach Abey. STATE GAMES No.16USF(6-0,3-0)atTulane(3-3,1-1),7p.m.,ESPN2 No.20UCF(5-0,3-0)atNavy(5-1,3-1),3:30p.m.,CBSSN Bethune-Cookman(3-3,2-1)vs.N.C.A&T(7-0,4-0),1p.m. FAMU (2-5, 1-3) at Hampton (4-0, 3-0), 2 p.m.
“I feel like option quarterbacks are kind of like giant pandas, they only exist in zoos and military academies now,” Frost said.
Abey ranks fourth in the Football Bowl Subdivision with 1,016 rushing yards and second with 12 rushing touchdowns. The 6-foot-2, 212pound junior has run for 100 yards or more in seven straight games, tied for the school record.
The Knights’ nonconference contest against Georgia Tech on Sept. 16 was supposed to serve as somewhat of a primer for Navy. The game, however, was canceled because of Hurricane Irma. “It would have given us a chance to get a good look at the option and go against a team that’s really good at doing it,” Frost said. “On the flip side, Navy would have seen our approach to trying to stop it then gameplanned accordingly.”
USF at Tulane: It’s a little tricky to tell if 16th-ranked, unbeaten South Florida is getting too much credit, or not enough.
A visit today to Tulane, where the Green Wave has not lost this season, should provide more clarity.
The Bulls (6-0, 3-0 American) have rolled past all six of their opponents this season by two or more touchdowns, and have won each of their past three games by 30 or more. That start has given them the nation’s longest active winning streak at 11 games.
First-year coach Charlie Strong, who is chasing a conference championship just one season after being run out of Texas, suggested this week that South Florida’s potential remains unrealized.
“We have yet to put together a complete game on offense, a complete game on defense and a complete game in the kicking game,” Strong said. “So, how good can we be?”
But then there’s the unflattering reality about South Florida’s schedule. The five teams the Bulls have beaten from the top-tier Football Bowl Subdivision — San Jose State, Illinois, Temple, East Carolina and Cincinnati — are 9-26 combined. The other victory came against Stony Brook of the second-tier Football Championship Subdivision.
If Tulane coach Willie Fritz has similar questions about USF’s strength of schedule, he wasn’t about to discuss before playing the Bulls. The Green Wave (3-3, 1-1), which was upset at Florida International last week, cannot afford to take anyone lightly.
“We’ve got a really tough opponent coming up,” Fritz said. “It’s going to be a tremendous challenge for us.”
But maybe less so at home, where Tulane upended a solid Army squad and scored 62 points against Tulsa.