In this formation, the normal tight-end is almost exclusively a blocker, while the H-back is primarily a pass receiver. Theyre zone read systems that rely heavily on triple options. Now the QB can give, keep and run or keep and throw, with the third option being another pass option. Kickoff formations are usually in a straight line, with ten players (nine if a placeholder is used on the kickoff) lined up across the field several yards behind the ball. The dive back attacks the C-gap or outside the tackle, rather than the guard or B-gap. The '46' refers not to any lineman/linebacker orientation but was the jersey number of hard hitting strong safety Doug Plank, the player Buddy Ryan first used in this role at Chicago. Now, what if you were told that many of the college offenses you see on TV today are also running the triple option? The slot-backs are moved out wider, into more twin/slot receiver looks, with the QB in a VERY short shotgun snap, usually about 2.5 yards, three at most. 2k followers Football Drills . The Double Wing is widely used at the youth level, becoming more popular at the high school level and has been used at the college level by The quarterback in this formation (called at the time a "single-wing tailback"), like today's shotgun QB, received the snap on the fly. The WR1 lines up to the left and the WR2 lines up to the right. Unlike other formations, the extra safety is not referred to as a quarterback or halfback (except in Canadian football), to avoid confusion with the offensive positions of the same names, but rather simply as a defensive back or a safety. Flexbone Offense Football Coaching Guide (Includes Images) Shotgun, Trips left (3 wide receivers on the same side) Shotgun, Max Protect (Full back in to provide additional protection to quarterback) . This formation sacrifices some size (of linemen) for speed (of linebackers), but coaches choosing to utilize this formation as their base defense typically choose larger players in the front 7 to make up for the shortage of size. More extreme defensive formations have been used when a coach feels that his team is at a particular disadvantage due to the opponent's offensive tactics or poor personnel match-ups. They may choose to attempt to block the punt, or drop back to block for the receiver. Ken Hatfield ran it at Clemson and Rice after. interior line and LBs for dive, DE for qb and OLB for pitch man or switch if its double dive. Under center is favorable when you want to hide the ball more and get your RB's coming downhill in the run game. This formation is most often used on obvious passing downs in the NFL and college football though some teams use it more often, such as Texas Tech University and the New England Patriots in their record-setting 2007 season. The quarterback lines up about five yards behind the center, in order to allow a better view of the defense and more time to get a pass off. Hurricane Gun Option Offense - Football - Championship Productions It then was an important formation up to the T formation era. The 335 removes a lineman to the nickelback. I highly recommend following his YouTube channel if you are a fan of any kind of spread offense! The 52 defense consists of five defensive linemen, two linebackers, and four defensive backs (two corners, two safeties). Wishbone Option Offense. The advantage is that while 4 players still usually rush the line, the quarterback can be less sure of which of the 4 linebackers will join the 3 linemen. Heres whats really amazing about running triple option from the zone readit works just like inside veer. Here is the offense that everyone in big time college football seems to be running right now. The power spread offense is designed to be very simple to run and install. The two backs line up either in a line (hence the name of the formation since it looks like a letter I) or with the fullback "offset" to either side. The 44 defense consists of four defensive linemen, four linebackers, and three defensive backs (one safety, two corners). The Run n Shoot is a very pass heavy, downfield, four wide receiver offense that developed in the 1960s, and for decades, was a major offensive threat in college and the NFL. ", The 5-3 defense consists of five defensive linemen, three linebackers, and three defensive backs (one safety, two corners). It is used exclusively as a change of pace due to its inherent limitations, namely that the tackles cannot receive forward passes or advance downfield despite their positioning, and that the diminished interior line makes the quarterback vulnerable to a quickly-arriving pass rush. In colleges, this defensive front has remained viable for a much longer period of time, because colleges, historically, have run a lot more than the NFL. Since that time, Tim Murphy, Steve Calande, Jack Greggory, Robert McAdams, and several other coaches have further developed the offense and coaching materials thereof. HuskerBLM said: Off Season "I wonder": The Wishbone and I Formation Option offenses. On a shovel triple option, the back that receivers the forward shovel pass is the first read. Paul Brown was such a meticulous coach that if you gave him something he'd never seen before, he became flustered. This was probably the latest of the three veer-type plays to develop, and is definitely the most nuanced. The second is by converting the ends of a wide tackle six to safeties (the defensive ends of a wide tackle six already have pass defense responsibilities). This link shows all sorts of schemes from Johnsons system. The ball carrier makes this decision by reading a specific defender and the actions they make. The seventh defensive back is often an extra safety, and this defense is used in extreme passing situations (such as to defend against a Hail Mary pass). Therefore, the deployment and tactics of defensive players are bound only by the imagination of the play designer and the line of scrimmage. On offense, the formation must include at least seven players on the line of scrimmage, including a center to start the play by snapping the ball. Designate a larger, more bruising back to execute all the dives to the left and right, while mirroring the two halfbacks, that way the defense could not determine which side of the formation the offense was more likely to run to. A modern example of the "pro-set" can be seen in the Florida State University offense, which favors a Split Backs formation. The other players that are not on the line of scrimmage can either act as tight ends or wide receivers. While Army, Navy, Air . The extra corner is often called a nickelback. The Split-T was an offense operating out of a T backfield, where the line splits were very wide, usually around three feet. Youth Football Wishbone Offense The Wishbone offense is common in youth football, I see this O a few times each year. How To Run The Triple Option Offense Like New Mexico This has disrupted the timing of some defenses with the way the quarterback hands the ball off to the halfback. THEYRE THE SAME PLAY! The Eagles named their version the "Herman Edwards" play after their cornerback who scored the winning touchdown on the above fateful play. The wildcat formation is similar to run-oriented formations used during the early days of football, but it had not been seen in the NFL for many years until the Miami Dolphins employed it during the 2008 season with running backs Ricky Williams and Ronnie Brown. They are used primarily as running formations, often in goal line situations. Developed at Muskegon High School (MI), pronounced Muh-ski-gun, head coach Tony Annesse made his own adaptations to Paul Johnsons offense, leading Muskegon to multiple state titles. Such a pistol-wishbone fusion allows an offense to run an old-school option offense out of a base pistol set. As a result, it was considered a much better passing formation than running, as the premiere running formation was the single wing. In most defenses, this is a defensive end, but now always. 7 DC Pistol Base Formation 8 DC Pistol Formations 9 Motion in the DC Pistol 10 QB and FB Footwork in the GUN 11 Zone Plays 12 23 ZONE 13 23 ZONE vs. The Chicago Bears of the mid-1980s famously used defensive tackle William "The Refrigerator" Perry as a fullback in this formation. If the opposite team is a good passing team, outside linebackers are usually called on to defend slotbacks. The wishbone was developed in the 1960s by Emory Bellard, offensive coordinator at the University of Texas under head coach Darrell Royal. Or Georgia Southern in recent years? An option play in most football terminology is a play designed to be a run, where whoever takes the snap is making a post-read decision on giving the ball to one of two players. Think of it as a marriage between the split-back veer and the zone read. [24] Instead of the conventional grouping of all five ineligible offensive linemen in the middle of the formation, the Emory and Henry spreads the tackles out to the edge of the field along with two receivers or slotbacks, creating two groupings of three players near each sideline. It might look like a new-age offense, but its roots go back 40, 80, and even 100 years. Perhaps the most well-known of Markham's converts is Hugh Wyatt, who brought more Wing-T to the offense and a greater ability to market the offense. Today, Air Force still runs DeBerrys system, but they have evolved greatly into a multiple offense, running triple option plays from just about every formation imaginable. Today, Tony Annesse is the head coach at Ferris State University (MI), and he has since adapted his offense to more modern concepts that are popular in college football, like RPOs, which this article will get to shortly. The QB then reads the next defender out, and can either give or keep, or give or throw. This was once one of the most common formations used at all levels of football, though it has been superseded over the past decade or so by formations that put the quarterback in the shotgun formation. Inside the Clemson Offense: The Wishbone to the Inverted Wishbone This leaves the DE, and the next defender outside of the DE unblocked. DOUBLE WING OFFENSE PLAY CALLING The first part of the play call is the formation, we will primarily use TIGHT, OVER TIGHT, and LOOSE. These two changes made the backs' formation resemble a square (hence the "box") and made the formation less predictable, allowing offenses to run more easily to the "weak" side. Inverted Wishbone 38 Sweep Play - YouTube Please, Source Link: Secrets of the Split-T, Part 2, Georgia Tech Option Cut-ups. Along with zone read from spread sets, teams have also used power and veer schemes to run shovel options as well. 3 Must Have's for Your Shotgun Power RPO Scheme The play, triple option, can be run out of the spread option, the split back veer, the wishbone, the I formation and even today out of a shotgun spread. The San Francisco 49ers added the Pistol to their offense in 2012 after former Nevada quarterback Colin Kaepernick became the team's starter. FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION (OR IS IT?) - Sports Illustrated Diagram and description of the Maryland I at. Well, almost. The most common seven-man line defenses were the 7-2-2 defense and the 7-1-2-1 defense. Because it is generally more difficult to establish a rushing attack using only the shotgun, most NFL teams save the shotgun for obvious passing situations such as 3rd and long or when they are losing and must try to score quickly. This defense (combined with poor weather conditions) did slow the Patriot's passing game, but proved ineffective against the run, and the Patriots won the game. It can be run with two tight ends, one tight end and one wide receiver, or two wide receivers. Paul Johnsons flexbone evolved differently than DeBerrys at Air Force. Two tight ends line up on the same side as the flanker. The Shotgun alignment of the Quarterback adds a level of complexity along with the deeper TB and Spread alignments with passing concepts. This is also the offense that Paul Johnson used to build Georgia Southern into a I-AA powerhouse in the late 90s, and ever since then, Georgia Southern has gone back and forth between this system with changes in coaching staffs. . When you hear the words triple option, what comes to your mind? This offense was originated with Chris Ault at the University of Nevada, Reno. The fourth back is most commonly employed as an extra wide receiver. "The I" consists of two backs lined up behind the quarterback, with the back closest to the quarterback being called the fullback and the back behind the fullback called the running back, tailback, or I-back. If you were in shot gun, you were a mad scientist. Counter or trap play : This teaches linemen how to down block and pull. Chicago rode this defense into a 151 season in 1985, culminating in a 4610 win over New England in Super Bowl XX. Nov. 7, 2012. October 08, 2018. [31][32] It grew in importance as the 1940s progressed, as it was more effective versus the T than the other standard defense of the time, the 62. T Formation; Full House, Split T, Power T; 30+ T Formations In the wishbone there are three running backs, two halfbacks and a fullback. In its earliest incarnation, it also used a loophole in the high school rulebook that allowed players wearing any uniform number to play at either an ineligible or eligible position, further increasing defensive confusion and allowing for more flexibility among players changing positions between plays. There are no restrictions on the arrangement of defensive players, and, as such, the number of defensive players on the line of scrimmage varies by formation. It's similar to the triple option philosophy of the wishbone offense that dominated college football in 1970s and '80s with eight national championships combined by Texas, Oklahoma and Alabama. The DT's are the only down lineman. Also called the "umbrella" defense or "3-deep". Two unblocked defenders that are read by the QB, or a designated player, who will then determine if the ball will be handed off on the called run (option 1) or redistributed to one of two other players (options 2 and 3). The position was usually filled by a powerful runner who carried the "dive" element of a triple-option rushing attack and played a featured role in the way an offense attempted to move the chains. Formations with many defensive backs positioned far from the line of scrimmage are susceptible to running plays and short passes. If you can make that quick read all five of these get to the 2nd level QUICK and rarely result in negative plays. The Nickel defense originated as an innovation of Philadelphia Eagles defensive coach Jerry Williams in 1960 as a measure to defend star tight end Mike Ditka of the Chicago Bears. [41] The other feature of the 46 was the placement of both "outside" linebackers on the same side of the formation, with the defensive line shifted the opposite way with the weak defensive end about 1 to 2 yards outside the weak offensive tackle. Double Wing Offense: uses two wingbacks to set up power runs and misdirection plays. The Seattle Seahawks under Mike Holmgren also favored this type of formation with the tight end usually being replaced with a third wide receiver. The United States Air Force Academy (aka Air Force), the United States Naval Academy (Navy) and Georgia Tech are among the few NCAA FBS teams that commonly use the wishbone and its variations. The Shotgun formation, originally called the Lonesome Quarterback, was an invention by Pop Ivy while coaching in the CFL, although Red Hickey, coach of the San Francisco 49ers is credited with bringing it to the NFL in 1960 and renaming it the Shotgun. Darrell Royal, Texas Coach Who Pioneered Wishbone Offense, Dies at 88 Now, rather than having a pitch back coming from behind the QB, put that pitch back as a wide receiver out by the sidelines, to the outside of that second unblocked defender. On zone, the back is reading the blocks, and is making a read as to which direction to take the ball. When this offense formed at Hawaii, the formation was already there, but Hawaii was running the Run n Shoot. In obvious onside kick formations, more players are moved to the front of the formation, usually top wide receivers and other players who are good at recovering and catching loose balls; this formation is known as the "hands team". It's a combination of wishbone power, wing-t blocking, spread concepts, and pistol formations all in to one. Markham ran very few plays, but blocked them according to defensive fronts and tendencies. They proudly claimed the name of this variation, the ski-gun.. The New Orleans Saints. The LB's have hook zones. Whether you're seeing the Wishbone, Spread, I-Formation or Flex Bone Option, this is the perfect front to stop those offenses. Darrell Royal, a folksy former all-American player who became one of college football's most acclaimed and innovative coaches, leading the University of Texas Longhorns to three . PDF Copy of DC Pistol - Playbook Exchange Eight players on the receiving team must be lined up in the 15-yard "set up zone" measured from the receiving team's restraining line 10 yards from the ball. The quarterback can receive the snap and choose to throw a forward pass to the center or turn and throw a pass or lateral to a back opposite the field from him and the center. A special offensive formation is used at the end of a game, when a team has a lead and simply needs to run out the clock to win the game. Texas' iconic Wishbone offense, at 50, still influential in college Youth Football Pistol Formation Offense Play Series Diagrams [43] The differences between the Oklahoma 5-2 and the 3-4 are largely semantics. In this set, the third safety would be referred to as a "weak safety" (WS) and allows two position safeties at the mid-level with a third safety deep. Both guards, both tackles, a tight end, and a receiver line up on the line of scrimmage. A kick returner will usually remain back in the event of an unexpected deep kick in this situation. Breaking numerous state records everywhere Markham coached (and even setting the national high school scoring record) the "Markham Rule" was put into place to keep his team from winning by too many points. This base defense consists of four defensive linemen, three linebackers, and four defensive backs (two safeties, two corners). Instead of having four linemen and six linebackers (as the name may suggest), it is actually a 44 set using 43 personnel. A formation similar to the Flexbone, though much older, is known as the "Delaware Wing-T" was created by longtime University of Delaware coach and NCAA Rules Committee chairman David M. Nelson, and perfected by his successor Tubby Raymond. . Now youre leaving the third defender outside (or behind) of the DE unblocked. The outside veer is pretty similar to the Split-T option play. Two other I formation variations include the Maryland I and the Power I. Like the wishbone, the flexbone formation is commonly used to run the triple option. What we are seeing is an application of option and triple option football to a more diverse running and passing game. The Wishbone, Wing-T and Veer offenses of yesteryear were the golden age of the fullback. The wishbone is a common formation for the triple option offense in which the quarterback decides after the snap whether to hand the ball to the fullback for a run up the middle, pitch the ball to a running back on the outside, or keep the ball and run it himself. Often times, the options are to give the ball to one player, keep it themselves, or get the ball to the third player. . Two Linebackers are 3 yards off the ball behind the DT's. Along with this split back approach, these teams would also at times use a tight-end or fullback in an H-back, or sniffer back alignment, which is in front of the QB offset to the left or right. 4 Formations Your Offense Should Be Using - Joe Daniel Football In the original 43, defensive tackles would line up opposite the offensive guards, and defensive ends on the outside shoulders of the offensive tackles. Also known as the "ace" or "singleback" formation, the single set back formation consists of one running back lined up about five yards behind the quarterback. Here are three diagrams of I-Formation, strong side right (that is, with the tight end lining up to the right, typical for a right-handed quarterback). PDF DOUBLE WING OFFENSE - GEOCITIES.ws The previous RPOs were against 2-high safeties, because that defensive coordinators like to emulate Nick Saban's defense just like offensive coordinators like to emulate Gus Malzahn's offense. Most recently the 6-1 Defense saw an appearance in Super Bowl LIII, where the New England Patriots used it to pressure the high-powering Los Angeles Rams. One style is like the one just described: Read the DE, then the next defender out for hand off, QB run, or pass. The eighth defensive back in this case is usually a wide receiver from the offense. Defense consisting of seven (quarter) or eight (half dollar) defensive backs. Run-Pass Options are what this article will focus on, since they emulate the triple option philosophy most closely. Defense is based on two standard formations, the 6-2-3, and the 5-3-3. While these teams relied on more double options, like midline, freeze, dive, belly, down, and lead option, triple options existed as well. Or Bob Davie at New Mexico? Veer schemes typically have linemen with their weight far forward, and lunging out, almost on all fours to block the defense, using mostly shoulders to block or pin defenders. To summarize a triple option, it is any play that features a designed run, with the intention of making a post-snap decision as to who gets the ball between three players. In this variation of the 34, known also as the "34 eagle", the nose guard is removed from play and in his place is an extra linebacker, who lines up on the line where the nose guard would be, sometimes slightly behind where the nose guard would be. Though first used as a base defense by the New York Giants in 1956, plenty of teams experimented with it during the 1950s, and thus there are multiple claimed inventors of this defense. This formation utilizes three running backs (a fullback and two halfbacks) and got its name from backfield alignment. Into the 80s, Air Force head coach Fisher DeBerry was looking for a way to make his Wishbone offense more flexible. One of the major setbacks of the wishbone is that there are only two players, the two ends, who could be immediate deep passing threats. It allows defenses more flexibility in man to man coverages and zone blitzes. This was the primary defense in football, at all levels, during the single wing era (the 1930s), combining enough passing defense to handle the passing attacks of the day along with the ability to handle the power running games of the times. April 2021 Table of Contents. The shotgun offense became a staple of many college football offenses beginning in the 1990s. At New Mexico with Bob Davie, and at Georgia Southern (After Paul Johnson went to Navy), they maintained the full house/four-back offensive style the flexbone and wishbone. 3 man roll if you have 2 corners 1 . [21] Historically, it was used to great success as a primary formation in the NFL by the Tom Landry-led Dallas Cowboys teams of the 1970s and the 1990s Buffalo Bills teams under Marv Levy, who used a variation known as the K-gun that relied on quarterback Jim Kelly. At Oregon, with Chip Kelly, their zone read offense relied on spread-heavy sets, creating lots of natural running lanes, and maintaining a constant four-vertical passing threat to a defense. It is important that your weakside end can squeeze down the veer releasing . Today, you can run triple options with a dive, keep, and pitch phase, or a dive, keep and pass, or a dive, pass and pass, or any other combination of the three. It is often used as a pass formation, because of the extra wide receivers. In 2011, the NFL instituted a rule requiring players other than the kicker to line up no more than 5 yards from the ball before the kick. The running back(s) and other receivers line up in the backfield close to the lineman. Others attribute the origins to Hugh Wyatt, a Double Wing coach (See Double Wing discussion below). The Notre Dame Box differed from the traditional single-wing in that the line was balanced and the halfback who normally played the "wing" in the single-wing was brought in more tightly, with the option of shifting out to the wing. The rest of the offense is far away near the sideline. The A-11 offense combines the Emory and Henry with the wildcat, in that either of the two backs in the backfield can receive the snap and act as quarterback. The split represented the wide line splits, and in later versions, the feature of moving one of the two tight-ends into a split-end alignment. PDF Gameplan - Playbook (PDF) - Brucey [10], The double wing, as a formation, is widely acknowledged to have been invented by Glenn "Pop" Warner in 1912. This link shows all sorts of schemes from Johnsons system. The second part of the play call is the motion, if any. Not surprisingly the T Formation was developed in the mid 1880s by the father of American football, Walter Camp at Yale. It is because of this that the secondary safety in a football defense is called a free safety rather than a weak safety. Schaughnessy moved Hirsch to the flanker position behind the right end. By 1950, five man lines were standard in the NFL, either the 5-3 or the 5-2 Eagle. If you can identify these two components, you have yourself a triple option play. His playbook will provide the following for coaches wishing to see how the offense works: Formations and tags. The formation featuring three running backs launched the Longhorns, Alabama and Oklahoma to greatness in the '70s, inspired the Air Raid and lives on in today's run-pass option attacks. The most common play out of the formation is a quick pass to a receiver on the outside which functions much like a wide receiver screen or, if defenders crowd the line of scrimmage, a quickly thrown streak route with the receiver attempting to run past them. 3. The pitch back is the third read. Most field goals feature nine offensive linemen (seven on the line, both ends in the tight end position, with two extra slightly off the line of scrimmage), a place holder who kneels 7 or 8 yards behind the line of scrimmage, and a kicker. It is occasionally referred to as the prevent defense because of its use in preventing desperation plays. The shotgun can distribute its 3 other backs and 2 ends any number of ways, but most commonly employs one running back, lined up next to the QB, one tight end and three wide receivers. To increase the passing threats to the defense, he flexed the bone and put the halfbacks outside of the tackles, toward the line of scrimmage. PDF doublewing-playbook Wingbone/flexbone triple option offense : r/NCAAFBseries - reddit NFL quarterbacks are not necessarily good runners, and are in any case too valuable to the offense to risk injury by regularly running with the football. WhatIf's Dynasty College Football Sim - The Ultimate Fantasy Football Games - Coach your favorite college team - Recruit players, set game plans and dominate [6][7][8] Second, one of the running backs is stationed outside the end, as a wingback (hence the alternate longer name, "single wingback formation"). [49][50][51] A variation is the 245, which is primarily run by teams that run the 34 defense. The confusing element is either the "5" techniques or the "8" techniques can rush or drop into the flats. This also allows the smaller halfbacks to hide behind the offensive line, causing opposing linebackers and pass-rushing defensive linemen to play more conservatively. Wishbone Offense - Andrew Ward | PDF | Teams - Scribd If we look at option plays with this kind of description, notice how there are no rules or limits as to how the ball is distributed.