ESPN College Football

Posted by ESPN.com's Heather Dinich

During his 11 years as a defensive assistant at the Air Force Academy, Wake Forest coach Jim Grobe became a seasoned veteran in defending the triple option.

	Mitch Stringer/Icon SMI
	Eric Kettani has gained an average of 5.3 yards per carry this season.

That's because for 11 years, he practiced against it every day.

His Demon Deacons haven't had that luxury.

Wake Forest will face this old-school offense for only the second time this season at 11 a.m. on Saturday against Navy in the inaugural EagleBank Bowl.

The first time didn't go so well. Wake Forest turned the ball over six times and lost 24-17 on Sept. 27. Navy fullback Eric Kettani rushed for a career-high 175 yards.

"When you get to see it once a year or twice a year, it's almost like stealing," Grobe said. "You've got two or three days and no matter what the coaches know, can you get the kids to understand that stuff in a matter of two or three days, and the answer is no. There's no way to do it. It's almost like you're in a boxing match but one guy is wearing boxing gloves and the other guy isn't. It's just a really tough thing to prepare for. Our issue getting ready for Navy is speed of the game.

"Because we've faced it a couple of times, we've gotten to the point now where our players understand what we would like for them to do, and it looks pretty good against the scout team, but once the bowl is kicked off Saturday morning at 11 o'clock, the speed of the game is what makes it so hard."

Navy will run the triple option twice as fast as Wake Forest's scout team has run it. The Midshipmen racked up 292 yards in the first meeting, and are first in the nation in rushing offense at 298 yards per game.

"You just hope as the game goes on, you can catch up and get a little better," Grobe said. "But what they do as the game goes on, they do a little better job reading you. Now the quarterback sees what you're doing and he gets better."

It's hardly as if Navy will be facing an inviting defense. The Demon Deacons are 17th in the nation in scoring defense, 21st in rushing defense, and 19th in total defense. But this offense has a tendency to neutralize even standout defensive players like Alphonso Smith and Aaron Curry. Wake's strength this season, though, has been its veteran defense.

"We've got old guys and now we're playing them for the third time in a year and a half," said Wake Forest defensive coordinator Brad Lambert. "That helps, no question. The more you see it, the better you get at it. That's why it's important for us to come out early and execute on defense. Hopefully seeing them the second time, that will help us."

This game will be different in that Navy quarterback Kaipo-Noa Kaheaku-Enhada, who suffered a preseason hamstring injury and reaggravated it in the first half of the game against Wake Forest, is finally healthy. He has only played in five of the Mids' 12 games this season, and in only two full games, but Lambert said the offense is significantly better with Kaheaku-Enhada in the game.

"It's not even close," Lambert said. "He just executes their offense so well. ... They just don't miss many reads and they execute well. That's a huge problem for us. ... Now he's full speed and they're better than they were. That should make it a really good game. Hopefully our guys are better at executing than we were the last time."

What Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo and Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson do so well is execute the play-action passes. They catch teams overcrowding the run so they're able to come off play fakes, throw the ball deep and hit home runs.

"It's a nightmare," Grobe said. "There's not a coach in the country that plays against Georgia Tech or Navy that feels comfortable because you don't get a chance to work on it until you play it."

Wake Forest happens to have the fortune -- or misfortune -- of playing it twice.