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Georgia Tech vs. FSU 2012: Seminoles' hands full with triple option

After being gashed by the Florida running game, Florida State has to deal with a tough Yellow Jacket ground attack in the ACC Championship Game.

Geoff Burke

Georgia Tech's triple option offense presents problems for even the stoutest of run defenses.

With a unique system designed to punish defenses for any mental mistake, the Yellow Jackets are capable of putting up astronomical point totals through the ground, including a 68-point showing against North Carolina this season.

That's not great news for a Florida State Seminoles defense that got shredded to the tune of 244 yards by Florida last week. To make matters worse, they also lost senior defensive end Cornellius "Tank" Carradine, one of their best run-stuffers, for the season in that game (courtesy of the Florida Times-Union):

"We didn't have a good rushing defense [against the Gators]," admitted junior Bjoern Werner, the end opposite Carradine. "We're going to fix things up this week and prepare well against Georgia Tech, and hopefully have a good game."

The Seminoles, meanwhile, haven't faced Georgia Tech since 2009, so their players have little familiarity with the intricacies of the triple-option offense, and with only a one-week turnaround from the Florida game, little time to prepare.

At the same time, defensive coordinator Mark Stoops, who recently accepted the head coaching job at Kentucky, will have to prepare a defensive game-plan while having one foot out the door.

It's hardly an ideal scenario, but no one said winning an ACC title would be easy.

Photographs by cstreet.us, thelastminute, turtlemom nancy , fesek, kthypryn, justinwright, sue_elias, pointnshoot, and scrapstothefuture used in background montage under Creative Commons. Thank you.