North Bend coach Rick Taylor loves to keep defences guessing.

That’s what attracts him to the triple-option offense, which he’s implementing this season for the Bulldogs, who have run a wing-T offense under former coach Bill Masei for eight years. What’s emerging for North Bend this year is a combination of the two.

“The two toughest offenses in high school football are the option and the wing-T,” said Taylor, who came to North Bend after helming Douglas for years. “We’re looking at a merger of those two.”

The blocking schemes for a wing-T and triple-option setup are similar at the line, so the veteran offensive line for the Bulldogs has made an easy transition into the new offense.

That’s the easy part.

In a wing-T, three backs line up behind the quarterback. One of them is going to get the ball. It’s an offense that relies on speed and deception to gain yards, and many coaches at the high school level have had great success with it, including Masei.

The triple-option adds the threat of the quarterback keeping the ball. At each snap, the quarterback has the choice of handing off to the fullback up the middle, rolling out himself or tossing the ball to the running back. Taylor’s hope is that the new setup will become second-nature for the squad.

“It’s a pretty simple offense,” said senior North Bend fullback Shane Halford. “It’s basically the same as what we’ve been running (under Bill Masei), except now the quarterback can keep the ball.”

“It just takes time to learn it,” added offensive lineman Philip Boateng. “We’re getting something new.”

Execution is key for the triple option — there are several points in a play where everything can fall apart to disastrous effect behind the line of scrimmage — so Taylor set about running the team through endless repetitions in various formations.

“It’s a new flavor,” said senior Bulldog offensive lineman Brandon Huber. “At first it was hard, but now we’re getting it.”

Taylor started the team training on handoffs and pitches from the very first day, getting as many plays in as he possibly could. He ran three-man weaves endlessly.

By last week he spent much of practice running through all the options of the new offense.

In fact, the team spent so much time working on the new offense leading up to its zero-week game that Taylor and some teammates felt like the squad’s conditioning suffered when it played Marshfield in the season-opening Civil War game last Friday.

“I really think our condition was lacking, because we’ve had to spend so much time working on the new offense,” said Taylor after the 31-9 loss at Vic Adams Field in North Bend.

The Bulldogs’ quarterback, senior Tyler Goode, admitted outright he thought the team was tired by the end of the game, which led to a 16-0 fourth quarter for Marshfield.

“We just ran out of gas,” he said.

But Taylor believes the work will eventually pay off, as it did during his 16 years of head coaching prior to coming to North Bend. The hope is the split second of uncertainty the option gives to defences will open up holes for Halford up the middle and give time for Tyler Goode and running backs Cody Harden, Cameron Seiger and Jake Lucero to turn the outside corner.

And, of course, changing up offenses after a program has spent years running a scheme can have the immediate advantage of surprise. And once the basics of the new offense are coming easily to the Bulldogs, the team will likely start getting sneaky.

“North Bend’s never run this before,” said Bulldog offensive lineman Pete Chaney. “We got a few tricks up our sleeves to keep ‘em surprised.”

Even with all the work the team has put in on executing the new triple-option offense, there were still plenty of mistakes for North Bend in the season opener. A bobbled pitch in the game’s opening play led to a Marshfield touchdown, and the Bulldogs would go on to fumble the ball five times in the game.

“We just need to work harder in practice, get our pitches down, work on ball control,” said Chaney.

“It’s a new offense,” added Goode. “We need to learn everything.”

Taylor knows the offense will take some time to click.

“It takes a lot of work to make it work,” said Taylor, adding he thinks his team will eventually get the new system down. “These guys are working hard.”