The Inevitable Harding Triple Option Attack

The D2 playoffs kicked off last week and we finally got our eyes on Harding, and they didn’t disappoint. True to form, the Bisons leaned into their flexbone identity and hammered out 70 rush attempts for 429 yards. That’s not a typo. Seventy. Two formations. No secrets. Just straight-up violence in the run game. In this article, we’re diving into how Harding’s triple option machine isn’t just effective. It’s inevitable.

Midline

The Bisons ran midline a handful of different ways, making subtle tweaks to handle how the Bearcats were playing their fronts. Nothing drastic. Just smart, calculated adjustments.

Keep in mind, we don’t have the end zone angle, so we’re doing our best to piece together the defensive alignment from the sideline view. But even from that angle it’s clear. Harding knows exactly who they’re reading, who their keys are, and where the ball needs to hit.

To start, the Bisons align in a tackle-over look with the tight end set weak. Keep that in mind as we walk through this read. From the sideline view, the Bearcats appear to be in a four-down front with two linebackers walked up on the edges. It’s tough to nail down the exact alignment of the play side defensive tackle, but he’s either in a 2 or 2i. Either way, he’s in position to be down blocked by the guard.

The tight end handles the edge linebacker with an out block. The read key is the defensive end, who is squeezing hard down the line. The play side wing or “slot” inserts on the linebacker sitting at seven yards depth, who we’ll call the “adjuster.” The backside wing wraps around looking for the safety or the next available threat.

Here they add the pitch phase to the midline. It starts with a quick return motion from the wing before the snap. This time, the tackle arcs to the adjuster instead of blocking the edge linebacker. The dive read stays on the defensive end, and now the pitch read comes off that outside linebacker. The motioning wing works his way to the play side safety, and just like that, the Bisons are off to the races.

I’m not sure how everyone coaches this scenario, but we used to teach our quarterback that if he misses the dive read, he should turn and follow him through the gap. That feels like what’s happening here. In all fairness, I have no idea how Harding teaches it, but the QB tucks in right behind the mesh and finds space where the dive would’ve hit.

This was one of the few times they ran midline to the strong side on Saturday. It was also one of the rare looks with the tight end aligned strong. Both the tackle and tight end arc to account for the edge linebacker and the corner. Once again, the play side wing inserts on the adjuster, and the backside wing wraps to the safety. Same rules, just flipped.

The Bisons throw one more small wrinkle into the midline game by motioning opposite the direction they want to run it. Once again, the tackle arcs to the outside linebacker and the receiver handles the corner. The pitch looks predetermined here. It happens quickly, without much indication of a true read key.