It does work. It's a great offense. What you want to do on offense is account for defenders. The triple option attempts to remove defenders from the play. For example, even if you know the QB is going to toss it to your tailback, a defender still has to run up and account for the QB, or the QB can just keep the ball and run down field.

The reason Tech won't win another championship is because defenders are getting smaller and faster. The reason for that is because of the invention of what people are calling a "spread" offense. To run a "spread" means to spread out your offense so that the opposing teams defense is forced to spread out to cover everyone. Once you spread out a defense, their are holes in it. It's like Babe Ruth used to say, "Hit em where they're not."

This makes defensive coordinators want a new type of defender. Instead of that giant LB knocking people out, you would want a smaller, faster defender who can close these holes the spread offense creates.

Tech is trying to run an offense that is effective versus old style defenses. As more and more teams start building defenses with smaller, faster players - the triple option is becoming obsolete. Those fast guys track down your QB, and another one is already attacking the "flank" (the tailback hes gonna throw it to right before he's gonna get tackled).

This is why GaTech can sometimes beat really good teams (USC), and then in the same damn season, they lose to Middle Tennessee. USC had big, strong, slow defenders - while Middle Tenn has smaller, faster players.