By Will Vandervort

CLEMSON — Saturday’s Georgia Tech game may be the first time Brent Venables has had to figure out how to stop Paul Johnson’s triple-option attack, but it’s not the first time he has faced the triple option.

In fact, it was two years ago when he was at Oklahoma when he was asked to shutdown Air Force’s option, which he said was just as big of a task as this week’s encounter with the Yellow Jackets.

“We won,” Venables said smiling.

But they did not win by much. Oklahoma won the game 27-24, but the Falcons rushed for 351 yards on 63 carries that afternoon in Norman, Okla., nearly rallying in the fourth quarter after trailing 27-10 through three quarters.

“It’s like all option teams, you have to hold them to one score in the first half,” Venables said. “I think they had 10 points halfway through the fourth quarter and then you give them a couple of possessions and you have three or four three-and-outs and turn the ball over and mess around and then they taste blood and have you on your heels.

“We were fortunate to beat them because they were a good football team.”

Venables saw Air Force several times as the defensive coordinator for the Sooners, while also playing Rice, who was a triple-option team under former Clemson head coach Ken Hatfield for years. Venables said each one of those encounters were tough because it’s not something his players see all the time.

Though he is familiar with the triple-option, Venables knows he will see a little bit different version from Georgia Tech when the two kick off the football at 3:30 p.m. Saturday afternoon in Death Valley.

“There are intricacies to each system,” Clemson’s defensive coordinator said. “The gest of it is this, they are going to play possession football and if you make mistakes, they will capitalize on them on both sides. They thrive on them and they become incredibly difficult to beat if you give them the football on additional possessions.

“There whole deal is to possess the football and grid it out. They want to force you to start panicking and do things that are out of your comfort zone.”

Georgia Tech (2-3, 1-2 ACC) wants defenses to be very precise in what they do. It helps them to neutralize any of the athletic ability the defense has. This year, it is allowing the Yellow Jackets to lead the ACC, again, and rank third in the nation at 329.4 rushing yards per game.

Georgia Tech also ranks fourth in the ACC in scoring at 39.2 points per game.

“I feel like this is going to be a great challenge for us,” linebacker Stephone Anthony said. “It’s assignment football this week. I feel like being able to stay disciplined and just get the guys to feel like they do not have to do too much or too less is the key.

“Just do their job and get to the football this week.”

That’s easier said than done. Anthony played a few snaps in last year’s loss to Georgia Tech in Atlanta, a game in which Tech rushed for 383 yards on 67 carries. He said the biggest adjustment of their triple-option is how fast they run it.

“It is coming at you one hundred miles an hour,” the sophomore said. “It’s like trying to find the football—dive, pitch and quarterback—it’s all coming at you. The speed is so fast. Linemen can cut at you at the second level in college rather than what you saw in high school so that makes it that much difficult.

“You have to stay on your feet. If you are not on your feet, you can’t make plays.”

And if you can’t make plays then there is no way to stop the option offense, and that’s something Venables is very aware of.

“It’s a big challenge,” he said. “They are really good. They lead the universe in rushing so they do a terrific job.”