So, the I formation teams (still by far the majority) would have been even more familiar with it---right?
The I/pro set teams facing the teams I mentioned in bowl games would have been very good teams with a month to prep and yet they still couldn't stop em----hmmm?
Yes, and they were comparatively.
Have you even bothered to actually analyze that stats over many games or are you simply hanging your hat on anecdotal success of previous wishbone teams and a few smarmy hmmms?
As has been belabored through this thread, prep time is a factor, not the only factor. And even that is not under debate, it is whether we get a relative advantage with little prep time because we are relatively unique that we lose when a DC can prepare specifically for us. Relative, again, is the key term.
Success of highly talented wishbone teams four decades ago does little to prove anything. Those teams, with that talent, would have likely been successful against anyone running any type of offense. You can't make a conclusion unless they were sufficiently unique that teams did not face teams like them much during the season ( but they did ) AND if you can show that they did just as well in those bowls as in the regular season. If they were good enough they could still win even if they had an extra advantage.
So, my point is those teams you reference 1) were not as unique relatively as wishbones and veers were as popular as the traditional spread is today, 2) were so talented that they could win even if they had such a prep time advantage during the regular season, which I contend they did not have anyway.
Again, you are mistaking the contention of prep time being a partial factor with the idea that extra prep time is a reliable way to completely stop an option attack. No one has made that contention, at least not here. All that "blueprint for stopping the option" crap comes from ignorant message board fans of other teams.
The real "blueprint" if we are executing is sound fundamentals and talented defense, but that works against any offense. Of course, if we are having trouble with fumbles another blueprint is to simply give up the shorter gains and wait for us to beat ourselves. But that is also true against any big play offense with ball security issues.