A Look At Notre Dame Defensive Coordinator Al Golden's Triple Option History

Irish Breakdown takes a look at how Notre Dame defensive coordinator Al Golden's teams fared against the triple option offense in his time as head coach at Temple and Miami

It’s Navy week. For Notre Dame there is always a Navy week. Notre Dame and Navy met every year on the football field from 1927 through 2019. The only thing that could halt the nation’s longest running intersectional rivalry was a global pandemic in 2020.

The two programs renewed their acquaintance last year at Notre Dame Stadium and the series shifts to Baltimore’s M&T Bank Stadium this year before heading to Dublin, Ireland next season (where the 2020 game would have been played).

Navy is a one-off experience because of its uniquely antiquated Wing-T, triple option offense. Notre Dame began devoting sporadic moments of prep time on the option sprinkled throughout the season during Brian Kelly’s tenure and they have done so in Marcus Freeman’s first season.

Last fall, Freeman's defense held Navy to just 166 rushing yards in a 34-6 victory.

The Fighting Irish spent some time working on the option during fall camp and reintroduced it a little bit during the bye week. This week is all about Navy prep and then after Saturday that part of the defensive play book can be stashed again for several months.

Marcus Freeman prepped the Irish for the option as defensive coordinator last year and now the baton is passed to Al Golden, who spent the past six years coaching in the NFL, where the triple option is as extinct as the dinosaur. But Freeman discovered part of Golden’s college past that will come in handy this week.

"When he was at Temple, they faced Navy and then when he was at Miami, they faced Georgia Tech,” Freeman explained of Golden’s option exposure. "So, (he) had some really good ideas and watched some film of different things they did defensively to give us a new way to defend the triple option. So, we’ll enhance. Obviously, there’s some things we did last year that we had some success with. And there’s a lot of good enhancements I think the defense will have because of his expertise in defending the triple option.”

Former Navy head coach Paul Johnson took the triple option with him to Georgia Tech while he was head coach of the Yellow Jackets from 2008-2018. Golden faced those teams five times when he was the Miami Hurricanes’ head coach, sporting a 4-1 record against Johnson and his option offense.

Golden already had four previous experiences against Navy’s option as head coach at Temple from 2006-2009. The first two were against Johnson before he left for Georgia Tech.

Golden’s first Temple team lost to Navy in 2006, giving up 420 rushing yards in the process. He lost his next two games against the Midshipmen in 2007 and 2008, before winning in 2009, which was his last season as the Owls’ head coach.

That 2006-2009 stretch was at the peak of eight straight seasons in which Navy won at least eight games. Interestingly, Golden’s lone win in 2009 was against a Navy team that won 10 games for just the second time in program history.

Golden’s Owls got incrementally better each season against the Midshipmen ground game, after allowing the 420 yards in 2006 they gave up 361 the following season, then 293 and finally 227 yards in the 2009 win.

Against Georgia Tech as Miami’s head coach in 2011, Golden’s Hurricanes won 24-7 while holding the Yellow Jackets to 124 rushing yards on 48 carries. Miami won again in 2012 and 2013, allowing 287 and 335 yards in those respective games.

Johnson’s Yellow Jackets beat Golden’s Hurricanes in 2014, rushing for 318 yards. GT fullback Zach Laskey led the way with 133 yards on 29 carries. Miami won 38-21 in 2015 in Golden’s final season as Miami head coach. Georgia Tech ran for 314 yards, but trailed 31-7 going into the fourth quarter before scoring 14 points on two touchdown drives that totaled 135 yards in the game’s final frame. 

Golden's experience against the triple option coupled with what Freeman learned a season ago should prove beneficial as the Irish go into this matchup looking for their fourth straight win.

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