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The Citadel didn’t beat Alabama on Saturday Youth Isaiah Oliver Jersey , or even come that close to it. Nobody else will this year, either. But this FCS team from South Carolina put up a better fight for longer than anyone else has so far, taking the No. 1 Tide to halftime at 10-10. Bama didn’t score at all until 12 minutes had passed. In the whole first half, the Tide only got four drives. One was a three-and-out. One was a two-and-out with a fumble. Even Bama’s TD drive required eight plays and 4:23 of clock time, an eternity by its standards. While there was never any risk of a loss, The Citadel legitimately made Bama look un-Bama-like. I can think of a large handful of SEC teams — hello, Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi State, Vanderbilt, and Missouri, at least — that should have been taking some notes. The Citadel, a military college kind of like Army, Navy, and Air Force*, runs the same triple-option offense those schools run. That system — the flexbone, with two slotbacks and a fullback lined up behind the QB — yielded a 45-yard touchdown run Stitched Tony Gonzalez Jersey , the longest Alabama had given up in three years. The Citadel’s version of the flexbone produced 4.6 yards per carry for the day. The Bulldogs only threw two passes and completed neither, but their 4.4 yards per snap were the sixth-best out of 11 teams to play Alabama this year. The Citadel got more yards per play against Bama than Louisville, Ole Miss, Mizzou, LSU, or Mississippi State did. That’s incredible, given that the Citadel a) is an FCS team, b) is a service academy that can’t even recruit top FCS talent, and c) doesn’t offer a credible threat to pass the ball. Bama knew a lot about what was coming every play, and the Tide still couldn’t totally stop it. *A big difference between The Citadel and the FBS service academies is that students there aren’t required to join the military after graduating, though many do. A big similarity is that most football recruits don’t have any interest in going to either type of school. The triple option has two obvious, equalizing benefits: It runs clock. Almost every play is a run, and a lot of the runs are handoffs straight back into the line, which often takes the out-of-bounds line out of play. Defenses aren’t used to it. In FBS, only the service academies, Georgia Tech, and Georgia Southern run a true flexbone. While a lot of schools now dabble in similar concepts out of the shotgun Youth Tony Gonzalez Jersey , coaches of real triple-option teams will tell you that some of their biggest preparation challenges come when they’re facing other triple-option squads. The Citadel had the ball for more than 19 minutes in the first half. On that long touchdown run above, maybe you noticed Bama cornerback Saivion Smith (No. 4, a really good cornerback whose position coach is Nick Saban) looking confused and getting put on skates while the eventual touchdown-scorer looped around him and started off to the races. And this is the second time in seven years that a team Bama should beat by a zillion kept things interesting by using the triple. In 2011, Georgia Southern (then still an FCS power) ran 39 times for 302 yards against the Tide, staying within 10 at halftime and exasperating Saban, who said years later: That Bama team did indeed win a national championship. But Georgia Southern put up a preposterous 7.4 yards per play, three yards better than any other team the Tide played. The Citadel tried to replicate that and did a solid job, especially in the first half. “We were just seeing a lot of movement, kind of window dressing,” Bama starting free safety Deionte Thompson said. “We kind of got our eyes out in the wrong place at times and just did not fill our gaps. They did a good job with window dressing and got our eyes in the wrong place. When our eyes are on the wrong place, they made big plays.” Bama linebacker Mack Wilson added: Bama hasn’t played any other flexbone teams in this span. It did dominate FCS Charleston Southern, which runs a modified shotgun triple option, in 2015. The teams that play the Tide every year should be paying attention. Every team in the conference is going to be out-talented every time it plays Bama. No one is saying all of those teams must immediately adopt the flexbone. I’d say Auburn should for next week, except LSU tried to quickly install triple-option plays after seeing what GaSo did to Bama in 2011. LSU then got 2.1 yards per play in a title-game loss to Bama. When you go flexbone, you pay a recruiting price. Talented quarterbacks and receivers probably won’t want to play in that scheme. Certain types of offensive linemen, ones who are heavy and specialize in pass-blocking, won’t be options for you Stitched Deion Sanders Jersey , either. Teams like LSU, Auburn, and Georgia would never do that just to have a unique look for Bama. But the majority of the Tide’s competition will never even get close to their talent level. If one of the SEC schools that isn’t a recruiting power wanted to be different and take a chance, it could do a lot worse than the bone. It’s not like Mississippi State, for instance, would be sacrificing much of a passing game. But it might at least give Saban an unpleasant week.DT Justin Zimmer back with Falcons on practice squad The Atlanta Falcons have brought back a recently-cut defensive lineman to the practice squad. So, it’s in with DT Justin Zimmer, out with DB Taveze Calhoun. Zimmer flashed his athletic potential and motor in the preseason and earned a spot on the 53-man roster to supplant the depth on the defensive line. Though, that was pre-injury bug, and being on the back end of the roster can tend to get you waived from time to time. Once DT Grady Jarrett went down, the team needed a more prototypical presence on the interior, which is why they signed DT Michael Bennett. Having Zimmer back allows him to go right back in to the team’s developmental program, which is a plus with Terrell McClain on a one-year deal and Jack Crawford’s contract expiring after 2019. It’s clear they like Zimmer and his potential, so maybe he can be groomed for a larger role down the road. The team could certainly use him one day. Calhoun wasn’t here long, so well wishes to him wherever he goes. Welcome back, Zimmer. Perhaps we’ll see him on the active roster again before the end of the year.