I miss watching on a Saturday afternoon in the fall? The option. Not this RPO nonsense they run now where the quarterback stands there raeding a linebacker and throws a bubble screen for two yards. I mean the real option. The triple option. The wishbone. The veer. The kind of football where you lined up and the defense knew exactly what was coming and they still could not stop it because it was about execution, about discipline, about who wanted it more.
Back in the late 70s and early 80s when Coach Bryant had that wishbone rolling, there was nothing prettier in all of sports than watching our fullback take the dive fake, the quarterback mesh with the halfback, and then pull it and run the sideline with a convoy of blockers. That was football. That was Alabama football. We ran it down people's throats and they knew it and they could not do a thing about it. I remember the 1979 Sugar Bowl against Penn State when we won that national title. We did not throw the ball all over the yard. We lined up in that wishbone and we made them quit. That is how you win championships.
You watch these spread offenses now and it is all finesse and space and throwing the ball 45 times a game. The option taught you something about toughness. It taught you about reading keys and making split second decisions without a coach in your ear. When Major Ogilvie was running that option in the 1980 season, he was making reads that would make these modern quarterbacks' heads spin. And he did it without a portal to run to when things got hard.
I will never forget the 1993 season when we ran the option out of the I formation and David Palmer was taking those pitches and making people miss. That was football the way God intended it. Not this seven on seven stuff they run in 7v7 leagues all summer. Real option football where the fullback has to be a man and the quarterback has to be tough and the offensive line has to move as one unit. You do not see that anymore and it is a shame.
These kids today would not survive a week in the old wishbone. They would transfer before the first scrimmage.