Options for option key for Red Wolves

JONESBORO -- Arkansas State senior linebacker Xavier Woodson-Luster said the key to slowing Georgia Southern's triple-option offense is sound tackling. Defensive back Cody Brown said it's communication on the back end of the defense.

ASU coaches have said both have been an issue at times this season.

But ASU is hoping an extended break following a home loss to Central Arkansas provided plenty of time to ready for what is likely the Red Wolves' most sizable defensive test in the Sun Belt Conference. In their first trip to Centennial Bank Stadium on Wednesday night, the Eagles will bring one of college football's best rushing offenses, which ranks fourth nationally with 317.8 rushing yards per game.

Georgia Southern's triple option -- once a normalcy in college football but now regarded as an oddity -- has ASU's full attention.

"Reading keys and preparation is the key to success in general," Woodson-Luster said. "But against this team, it's just playing your part. Don't try to do anything extra. Because as soon as you try to do something extra, it's a touchdown."

The unfamiliarity is the toughest part about the preparation, players and coaches said this week.

Woodson-Luster said ASU saw option principles in victories over Louisiana-Lafayette and Appalachian State last season. But neither team was as dedicated to it as the Eagles. The offense isn't just what it currently uses, but a part of Georgia Southern's program identity, one it used to win six NCAA Football Championship Subdivision national championships and then to go 19-8 since moving to the Football Bowl Championship Subdivision in 2014.

It's so much a part of the Eagles' success that when Coach Tyson Summers, who has a defensive background, was hired as its new coach, there was no thought to trying anything different.

"We're at a place where tradition matters, where running the ball matters," Summers said at Sun Belt media day this summer. "We're not going to do something just for the sake of going in a different direction."

So how does ASU slow it down? The first step, defensive coordinator Joe Cauthen said, is trying to replicate it.

The extended time between games helped ASU, he said, because designing a scout team offense that can run the system effectively for the defense isn't easy. Cauthen and his defensive staff chose the players who would run the system -- redshirt wide receiver Chauncey Mason has imitated Georgia Southern's quarterbacks -- then gave graduate assistants Brandon Joiner and Matt Ellerbrock and quality control coach Derrick Haney the responsibility of running it.

"Those guys will watch more film than they have watched all year," Cauthen said.

The hopeful end result is an ASU defense up to what might be its toughest task this season. The Eagles are adamant in their system, which calls for up to six players to run the ball.

The Eagles shuffle in two quarterbacks -- Kevin Ellison and Favian Upshaw -- who can keep the ball or pitch it in an instant to any one of three running backs who average 4.0 yards per carry or more. Led by Upshaw, who averages 63.5 rushing yards per game, Wesley Fields, Matt Breida and Ellison each average at 56.8 yards per game.

For an ASU defense that is allowing 239.3 rushing yards per game, keeping them contained comes down to trust.

"It just plays with your eye discipline and your amount of focus and your attention to detail," said Brown, who was an option quarterback and running back in high school. "You have to rely on the man next to you to do their job, and make sure you do yours."

Sports on 10/04/2016