TCY: Option Settings?
 

I've just taken over a pretty dreadful Nebraska team in the 2020's. Looking at our offensive players, it appears that our best bet for now is to run an option-heavy offense. I haven't done this in quite some time though, and can't recall how this works. A few questions:

1. Is the "percentage of overall carries by position" tied to the "Use Of Option Running Plays?" In other words, if I have the option set to 99, the QB set to 25, the FB set to 25, and the RB set to 50, will the QB choose to pitch about 50% of the time?

2. Does the "percentage of overall carries by position" need to be set very high? Do I have to do this so that the QB starts the play as the ball carrier and then determines whether or not to hand to the FB or pitch to the tail?

I guess that covers it.

This should be pretty fun and challenging. The 'Huskers have a losing record against every other Big 12 team (including 0-13 against Texas). Colorado, Texas and Baylor are all in the preseason Top 10, and two other B12N schools are in the top 40 (Iowa State--13, Kansas--33). I'm starting with 63 Prestige, a 91-190 overall record, and a team that has finished in last or tied for last in the Big 12 North in 14 of the last 16 seasons. They haven't been to a bowl in 22 years. For that matter, they've only had one winning season in the last 21 years.

I'm pretty sure that the use of option plays is separate from the run settings by position. I really have no idea how TCY handles option plays actually, but I'm managing a run heavy power I offense in my current career with a liberal use of option plays. Out of 50 carries a game, my quarterback seems to get 10-20 (with a quarterback with a high scramble rating). Unfortunately, I can't look at my settings until I get home this afternoon.

I would never set it at 99... I mostly set it at 25-35 for option & 10 for the QB carries, but it depends on how well he can run the ball. It get my him about 7-10 carries per game and about 30-40 yards maybe even a couple of TD's. Another thing to mention is, running the ball has a lot to do with your OL, but especially your Center, he has to be very good at run blocking or nothing will work.

Another thing I have figured out was how the exclusively run the QB but I'll mention that in a new thread... Check it out...

Late

Why not just mention it here?

I was always of the understanding that an option play would ONLY be run if the QB was selected to run the ball. So if you had option high and QB run at 50%, then he would probably option at or a little less than 50%, sometimes holding on and sometimes pitching.

I could be wrong, but I thought this was adressed awhile back by Jim or someone else and this was the consensus. I run a flexbone offense most of the time, and sometimes go from option to passing out of it season to season based on personel.

Hmmmm...

I might just have to run some tests..

Quick Tests:

I Formation
Running 99% across the board
Option Runs 99%
----------------

QB Runs 0%, RB Runs 100%
Finesse Runs 0%

QB Runs (Season): 10 (+12 sacks)
RB Runs (Season): 587
WR Runs (Season): 5
"Option" Runs: 65
QB Run Percent: 1.6%
Option Run Percent: 10.8%

QB Runs 50%, RB Runs 50%
Finesse Runs 0%
QB Runs (Season): 150 (+16 sacks)
RB Runs (Season): 397
WR Runs (Season): 18
"Option" Runs: 71
QB Run Percent: 26.5%
Option Run Percent: 12.5%

QB Runs 100%, RB Runs 0%
Finesse Runs 0%
QB Runs (Season): 497 (+10 sacks)
RB Runs (Season): 0
WR Runs (Season): 34
"Option" Runs: 57
QB Run Percent: 93.5%
Option Run Percent: 11.4%

"Option" Runs are judged by grepping the game logs for 'ran the option play'. I didn't track pitching/keeping.

From this, looks like the QB/RB/WR run percentage has no bearing on how often the option is run.

Celeval:

You are the man. Thanks!

--Ben

Re: TCY: Option Settings?
 

If I recall, wasn't that mostly because the game put an inordinate amount of importance on academics? I seem to remember routinely getting shot down on Top 100 prospects because my academic programs weren't among the tops in the nation...

Is it disturbing to anyone else that despite the fact the option setting was set to 99% they still only ran the option about 11% of the time?

Somewhat. I'd like to know how often Oklahoma ran the option in their option-running heyday years in the 70's and 80's. To me, that would constitute a "99" option setting. My GUESS would be that they ran it 25% of the time, but that is just a guess.

yeah, but shouldn't 100 mean 100 in TCY?

Finesse Runs...

QB Runs 0%, RB Runs 100%
Finesse Runs 99%
QB Runs (Season): 24 (+13 sacks)
RB Runs (Season): 534
WR Runs (Season): 10
"Option" Runs: 68
QB Run Percent: 4.2%
Option Run Percent: 11.9%

QB Runs 50%, RB Runs 50%
Finesse Runs 99%
QB Runs (Season): 140 (+10 sacks)
RB Runs (Season): 433
WR Runs (Season): 16
"Option" Runs: 65
QB Run Percent: 23.7%
Option Run Percent: 11.0%

QB Runs 100%, RB Runs 0%
Finesse Runs 99%
QB Runs (Season): 463 (+15 sacks)
RB Runs (Season): 0
WR Runs (Season): 27
"Option" Runs: 63
QB Run Percent: 94.5%
Option Run Percent: 12.9%

Not when it is explained thusly in the TCY help file:

The Option %, like a few others, is in comparison to the "Typical" team - "Average" is 50, and the value is based off of that, IIRC.

^^^^^^ Yeah, what he said.

Sorry I have come late into the discussion. I too have found that the percentage the option is run isn't affected by who gets the carries. In fact I have seen a large ammount of option runs to the WR in my games!

Anyway, to up the percentage I think you need to change the finesse runs. All of Celeval's runs were finesse runs 0% and I am pretty sure the game counts the option as a finesse run along with draws(etc). The option percentage then is how many of those finesse runs are the option. Just my feeling no study behind it.

Excellent work, by the way, Celeval.

Yea that is kind of what I was getting at. If you set your running percentage to 99% and then your option percentage to 99% you should probably be running the option around 95% of the time.

Although I did notice that Celeval had his finesse runs at 0%. For some reason thought Jim had said in the past that an option run was a finese run. Is that not correct?

Edit: I also obviously posted this before I saw Celeval run the test with 99% finesse.

Never mind. Celeval beat me too it. Doesn't look I was right though.

Celeval if you were interested in running more tests it would be interesting to see if you drop the option to 50 if your option plays dropped to about 6.5% or so on average.

Flexbone
QB Runs 0%, RB Runs 100%
Finesse Runs 0%
QB Runs (Season): 16 (+6 sacks)
RB Runs (Season): 609
WR Runs (Season): 5
"Option" Runs: 119
QB Run Percent: 2.5%
Option Run Percent: 18.9%

QB Runs 50%, RB Runs 50%
Finesse Runs 0%
QB Runs (Season): 171 (+5 sacks)
RB Runs (Season): 453
WR Runs (Season): 9
"Option" Runs: 126
QB Run Percent: 27.0%
Option Run Percent: 19.9%

QB Runs 100%, RB Runs 0%
Finesse Runs 0%
QB Runs (Season): 617 (+8 sacks)
RB Runs (Season): 0
WR Runs (Season): 10
"Option" Runs: 137
QB Run Percent: 98.4%
Option Run Percent: 22.2%

Better results there - the Flexbone seems to add another 6-7% on (compared to the I-Formation).

FYI, since there are more people watching this then I expected:

- These are all replays of the same season/personnal
- Coaches control everything except Game Plan
- I've tossed out any major injury-riddled seasons
- QB has a scramble rating of 74 (last season in Flex: 602 carries, 2675 yards, 12 TD)

OPTION@50% (Flexbone)
QB Runs 100%, RB Runs 0%
Finesse Runs 0%
QB Runs (Season): 611 (+3 sacks)
RB Runs (Season): 0
WR Runs (Season): 12
"Option" Runs: 74
QB Run Percent: 98%
Option Run Percent: 11.8%

good stuff, I wonder if the wishbone would add another 6-7 to put it around that 25% SkyDog was talking about.

So, yes, Option at 50 seems to half it. I'm going to try wishbone as well, since that's logically the other big option formation.

For what it's worth:

Here is the offense I'm running right now and the results in the past two games.

Power I Formation
Option 93
RB 39%
FB 10%
QB 41%
WR 10%

98 carries
25 option plays
31 by the quarterbacks (6 sacks)
63 by the running backs
4 by the fullback

Wishbone
----------------

QB Runs 0%, RB Runs 100%
Finesse Runs 0%
QB Runs (Season): 15 (+12 sacks)
RB Runs (Season): 620
WR Runs (Season): 4
"Option" Runs: 227
QB Run Percent: 2.3%
Option Run Percent: 35.5%

QB Runs 50%, RB Runs 50%
Finesse Runs 0%
QB Runs (Season): 156 (+7 sacks)
RB Runs (Season): 416
WR Runs (Season): 8
"Option" Runs: 220
QB Run Percent: 26.8%
Option Run Percent: 37.9%

QB Runs 100%, RB Runs 0%
Finesse Runs 0%
QB Runs (Season): 584 (+10 sacks)
RB Runs (Season): 0
WR Runs (Season): 4
"Option" Runs: 237
QB Run Percent: 99.3%
Option Run Percent: 40.3%


There are the big Option Run numbers.

Bleah. My numbers are somewhat off, since, idiot that I am, I'm counting option runs by the opponent as well. Although that's not nearly up where ours are, and shouldn't affect more than a few percent.

Kevin

Wishbone
QB Runs 40%, RB Runs 30%, FB Runs 30%
Finesse Runs 0%
QB Runs (Season): 125 (+13 sacks)
RB Runs (Season): 373
FB Runs (Season): 124
WR Runs (Season): 3
"Option" Runs: 254
QB Run Percent: 20%
Option Run Percent: 40.6%

Okay, I'm done for now. But I think it's a pretty straightforward draw that the option run is /mostly/ independent of QB Runs, and does depend on choice of formation.

Kevin

Thanks Celeval. I never thought I'd find a Strategy topic in this board anymore ;) !

Thanks for your work Kev!

--Ben