Army's Triple Option Nothing New for Tulane Defensive Staff

The triple option is a beast to defend, and it’s possibly the biggest challenge yet for the Tulane Green Wave as they get set to kick off American Conference play against the Army Black Knights this Saturday.

The height and size requirements at service academies have to meet the military body composition standards that West Point cadets must adhere to in order to graduate.

That means that their average offensive linemen is rarely over 300 pounds, and they have to run a college football offense completely different than other programs.

That’s where the triple option enters the field. And it can be very devastating to try to stop.

They won’t break for many explosive plays, but the Black Knights will wear down opposing defenses with 4-6 yard runs and eat up a clock. Army is highly disciplined, and so they can run the triple option correctly and effectively as opposed to most teams.

The Green Wave have a bit of experience in that regard. Their offense includes quite a bit of the Wing-T option, so practice reps against the Tulane offense are valuable for the defense.

They also have quite a bit of an edge on the coaching staff.

Bandits coach Nate Fuqua spent some time at Army in 2025 as the defensive line coach before leaving in the spring, but he also has experience from being the defensive coordinator at Wofford which runs the same type of scheme on offense.

Defensive assistant Bryan Whitehead was a defensive line assistant for Wofford in 2018 and coached their safety group in 2019.

Defensive line coach Eric McDaniel also spent a season in 2021 as the Black Knights’ defensive line coach.

Then there’s defensive coordinator Tayler Polk, who has a decent amount of experience facing Army.

Polk coached linebackers and was co-defensive coordinator with the Troy Trojans from 2022-23, where they posted a 2-0 record against the Black Knights.

The Green Wave played them in 2024 along with the Navy Midshipmen, and rematched against Army in 2025, making that four games for Polk against Army and five total against the two service academies in the last four seasons.

The last few years, the defense also had Dagan Bruno quarterbacking against them on scout team. With his involvement now on the offense, he’s spending less time with the scout team, but the triple option is still run by scout quarterbacks like Kade Scott, and the defense gets plenty of reps against the Wing-T option when playing the starters.

Two weeks isn’t enough time to topple the triple option. But when a staff was assembled with such lengthy experience against that system, that changes that timeline quite a bit.

Defensively, the Wave are in veteran hands this weekend.