Fall practice is well underway in Annapolis, with the Mids hoping to lay the foundation for their first winning season since 2019. To achieve that goal, they will have to answer an enduring question: do you have to run the triple option to win at a service academy?

Conventional wisdom says yes, and history doesn't put up much of an argument. It has been over 40 years since a service academy was a consistent winner running any other kind of offense, and those George Welsh Navy teams were better known for their defenses. Since then, the only football success experienced at Navy, Army, or Air Force has come from teams running option offenses.

Still, while I am as staunch a believer in the triple option as you'll find anywhere, I've never believed it's the only way to skin the service academy cat.

Most of the conventional wisdom concerning option offenses is nonsense. It's labeled a "gimmick" offense; a "high-school offense" that can't stack up against the speed of top-level defenses. The same people claiming a triple option offense is a must at service academies also say that such an offense couldn't work elsewhere. But isn't that contradictory? How can the triple option falter against fast and strong defenses elsewhere in college football while simultaneously being the only way service academies can compete against faster and stronger defenses? It makes no sense. The triple option's broader viability was proven at Georgia Tech; as it turns out, sound, fundamental football works anywhere.

Enter Drew Cronic and the Wing-T. For head coach Brian Newberry, Cronic's offense checks all the boxes for a service academy offense.

"The formula for success here, from an offensive perspective, is to be able to run the football," said Newberry. "First and foremost, we want to be a team that wins the time of possession. We want to be a team that limits the opposing offense's possessions, and obviously take care of the football and play great defense. We've got to establish the run game from the inside out."

For over 70 years, that's exactly what the Wing-T has done.

The Wing-T may be the most enduring offense in the game's history. Dave Nelson is credited with developing it at Maine in 1950. He brought it to Delaware the following year, where it would remain the offense for the next five decades under Nelson and his successor, Tubby Raymond. While Raymond and Delaware are the names most often associated with the offense, it spread quickly through the football world. Iowa and LSU shared the 1958 national championship; both ran the Wing-T. Notre Dame won a national championship in 1973 with it. The following season, Penn State finished #7 in the country with a win in the Cotton Bowl running the Wing-T. The Kansas City Chiefs ran the Wing-T in the late '70s. High schools nationwide win district, region, and state championships using the offense every year. Elements of the offense can be found in playbooks across college football and the NFL.

Of course, schemes don't lead teams. Coaches do, and in Cronic, Navy has a coach who has put up incredible numbers. At NAIA Reinhardt, Cronic's offense averaged 51.1 points per game and 550 yards per game in 2016. The following year, he led a Furman offense that averaged 34 points per game and advanced to the second round of the FCS playoffs. As the head coach of Mercer, he led his program to its first top-25 finish and first playoff appearance. Cronic's offenses have been successful at every stop.

Reproducing that success at Navy is no guarantee, though. As a program, Navy faces an uphill battle in recruiting. Reinhardt and Furman don't have the same hurdles to jump compared to their conference peers the way the Naval Academy does recruiting against the likes of Memphis and USF. That creates certain demands on any offense the Midshipmen utilize. It helps to be unique. As Paul Johnson used to say, you aren't going to beat Notre Dame running the same offense but with players Notre Dame didn't want. If you can't be better, you had better be different. Newberry agrees.

"That's the formula for winning football here," he said. "We know that. We know we've got to be unique and different in what we do, and that's going to be an equalizer for us."

Cronic echoed that sentiment when asked why he felt his offense would succeed at a service academy.

"I think because it's unique. I think it's different," he said. "We want to make people have to defend everything you can think of, but still not overwhelm our kids with a bunch of stuff. So a lot of shifting, a lot of motions, a lot of movement, a lot of formations, but still being good at the basic things."

But just being different isn't enough. In Annapolis, the offense's ability to execute truly makes the difference between winning and losing.

"We tell our kids all the time what we do is important. The scheme stuff, the Xs and Os, are important. But how we do it is the most important thing," said Newberry.

Navy is a developmental program. The program rarely recruits raw talent to step in and contribute right away, as other schools can. It also doesn't accept players from the transfer portal. Instead, the most successful Navy teams are senior-laden, full of players who have been trained to do one job for four years.

This is the real reason why option offenses have prevailed at service academies. Yes, it's sound football based on numbers and blocking angles. Yes, the Mids have been tutored by the best in the business. However, scheme and playcalling were secondary to player development. In an option offense, players are repeatedly drilled on the same plays until they can't get it wrong. The proficiency gained through this process helps Navy players play faster and make fewer mistakes, which is also why Navy is usually one of the least penalized teams in the country.

Does the Wing-T lend itself to the same kind of player development? I believe it does. The Wing-T is proper series football. Plays are grouped based on their blocking scheme and backfield motion. One identical look yields multiple plays, so practicing one means getting reps on every play in the series. That lends itself to the same kind of repetition that Navy got when running an option-based offense.

"We're trying to get our basics in there and then build off that," said Cronic. "That's very systematic. The kids feel like they understand how plays are grouped together, how different schemes are grouped together, and then the passing game off of that. You just want to be a team that has answers. If defenses take certain things away, you got answers to that."

Still, there is a learning curve, particularly along the offensive line. While the spread option and the Wing-T are both run-first offenses, they accomplish their goals differently. Option offenses are about hitting quickly and creating running lanes by making it an 11 vs. 9 game. The Wing-T, on the other hand, is all about using misdirection to slow down the defense.

"Wing-T football is a lot about running bellies, running power sweeps, running naked bootlegs, and just keeping the defense to where they're having to think one more time. Making them think," said Cronic.

Misdirection means plays that develop more slowly than your average fullback dive. With the ball in the backfield longer, the offensive line has to adapt.

"In the run game, you're still coming off the football," said offensive line coach Jay Guillermo. "We're still firing off the ball, we're still going to play violent, but just not as forward leaning. We're going to use our hands a little bit more. We're going to drive people up rather than down. Just subtle changes that make a big difference."

Cronic is also not shy about throwing the ball, which has obvious implications for the offensive line.

"We're going to have to throw the ball," said Cronic. "I like to throw the football, I'm not going to lie. I like to do it a little bit. And I've always felt like, over the years, with what we've done in our system, when we've been able to be pretty efficient in the passing game, we've been a problem for people."

"It starts with stance," said Guillermo. "Their stance is a little bit more balanced. We're not an air raid football team, but we're going to have to get into some drop-back pass situations."

While the new offense has a learning curve, the Mids should still be able to leverage some of what they already know.

"I think what I've done over the years can hybrid up with that traditional option offense very easily, so we can really morph it into what the kids do well," said Cronic.

Indeed, many casual fans may not spot the differences since the Wing-T is still a run-first offense that utilizes formations similar to those Navy has used for years.

"There's going to be some things that look like academy-type things, things they've always done, which they've always had a lot of success doing. And there'll be some different things too, but hopefully, it'll be hard preparation. It'll be different."