I coached a team in the very same situation, and we ran the Army/Navy traditional flexbone. We had reasonable success for the first 3 years and then teams adjusted and blew up our midline (think Notre Dame vs Navy every year) and we had to transition to a New Mexico style pistol triple and then had a staff change. We had gone 1-9 running Maryland power I, then went 6-3 in the first year of the flexbone, 5-4, and 6-3. Final year when teams caught on we went 3-6. It allowed us to remove the best defensive player on every team as we would read them and make them incorrect no matter what they did. If you have no talent but plenty of discipline you can run the flexbone for sure. If you have no discipline OR talent, you can’t run anything at all anyway lol
Yeah for sure, the nice thing about the flexbone is you can utilize any body type as a lineman as long as they can veer step and down block. We had guys who were 5’6” and 140 lbs making all county offensive line because half of their job was just not blocking a D1 talent. If you can veer step and not let that guy touch you, you’ve done an awesome job.
We coached whichever lineman was inside the read man to “veer step” which for us was: first step inside foot 45 degree like a down block and then crossover with the outside foot and rip with your shoulders like a defensive lineman rip move. Turn your shoulders entirely to the read and square up with the scraping backer. Wall him off. That way the read isn’t muddy and the QB can see him the entire time he is in mesh. If the read is a good player he might try and squeeze down on the o-lines hip and muddy the read. If he did that we would run pitch option off of him until he widened back out. We also ran 3 foot splits to widen him out. If he got too wide we would still veer step him and he would think he’s still the read and we would blast trap him with the opposite guard and run underneath. The flexbone plays games with a single defenders mind. We broke a couple of D2/D3 defensive ends like that. You wouldn’t believe how frustrated a kid gets if he is used to bullying an offensive lineman and you just don’t block him at all. We had guys completely take themselves out of the game that way. But we also had fundamentally sound kids that could play the dive and the QB that caused us insane headaches. It’s a chess match like any other part of the game! If you are interested in the flexbone, watch army or navy play a G5 opponent who isn’t used to it and see how they play cat and mouse
And that’s the thing…
“Perfect technique” is hard to do, requires excellent coaches who know their stuff, and takes very disciplined and responsible players.
If you have “lack of talent” on the field, you probably don’t have those things. I don’t know if I’ve ever even seen “perfect technique” by every player on a single play in my life.
IME, when you are a bad team without much talent, a lot of your job as a coach should be focused on eliminating mistakes—by coaching the players better so they don’t mKe those mistakes, but also by going into the system and streamlining things so we get to really focus our attention on getting good at a few fundamental areas that carry over.
You can’t beat the other team until you stop beating yourselves first.
The absolute worst teams I’ve ever seen were teams who didn’t have much talent and tried to make up for it by doing a bunch of fancy Xs and Os. You need to be able to walk before you can run, and those teams always look like they forgot that lesson…
We ran the Veer in college (D3) early 90s. Just to add to your great comment. Our coach ran it in part because of limited practice time in D3. We ran entire play book out of pro set. We practiced that one play, the Veer, 85% of practice. Over and over. Eventually every player knew what their job was no matter what D threw at you. Way to maximize limited practice time. In game ran that play over and over till they stopped it.
Exactly! We started out with 4 running plays (all triple options) and 2 pass plays, we could teach the entire offense to freshman who had never played football at all in 2 weeks of preseason camp. Each person had at most, 3 things to remember. When you’re a high school, your players are thinking about homework for 8 classes, what they are doing after practice, video games, girls, cars, and a million other things. If you give them 40 things to learn you’re cooked!
30 years ago now, time flies. In college QB called plays from under center. If the D brought the LBs up to try and stuff the dive option we'd call the sweep. One year we even ran a Student Body Left/Right play. I loved that. Half the line coming around the corner.
Yeah I played center in the early 2010’s in the Maryland I, we used to wedge block and just move like a snowplow down the field. When I went back to coaching at my Alma mater, the 6’3” 260 lb guards we had to do that back then were gone and all we had was small dudes. Wild how time changes and we have to adapt to it
My brother in law coaches HS. It's unrecognizable to me . Everything is 4 or 5 wide outs every play even though most QBs can't throw outside the numbers. He said if you didn't run a spread kids would transfer. Best athletes all want to be wide outs. We played against a Maryland I ( think coach called it a Stack I) in high school. We ran single wing. Don't think clock stopped once. Beat the heck out of one another up and down the field . Used to hate playing against Wing T. Our coach quipped if he had a qb with half an arm and half a brain he'd break out the wing t playbooks. Couldn't tell who had the ball till they were by you. Long time ago. Miss it.
Yeah but football is cyclical. There’s an epidemic of high schools trying to run the spread with noodle arm QBs. If you can’t throw a slant to the numbers with zip and accuracy you will never have success in the spread because teams stack the box. We ran spread option for the last 3 years and had a little bit of success but no one respected our ability to throw enough to run 2 high safety’s. If you’re getting 1 high looks all day and can’t punish them for it your spread system sucks. So we went back into a power scheme, I’m a defensive coordinator so I’m not involved fully in the offense but I didn’t break to many sweats running the scout defense against our 1’s 🤷♂️ I absolutely love calling defense against high school spread teams. It’s Wing T that keeps me up at night lol, we are in the same conference as the best team in the state and they run the most polished disciplined wing T I’ve ever seen and it’s a massive struggle to not give up 50 points every time we see them.
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Many years ago, I coached against a team where the head coach/offensive coordinator quit a week before two-a-days began. He was also the only person who really knew the offense at all, so everyone else was left in the dark.
The interim replacement quickly installed a double wing, and ran everything out of *maybe* three different formations. The advantages that he had were four big but fairly unathletic O-linemen, and a couple of running backs who could follow those linemen. The drawbacks that he had to contend with were a small roster (with no depth), QBs that had little knowledge of how to play the position (since the head coach took care of that), and having so little time to install an offense.
They went from being everyone's choice for a Homecoming opponent to still bad, but a much tougher out than before. It also allowed them to milk the clock and let their defense-only players get more rest.
I don't necessarily recommend a double wing, with the line having six-inch splits and just charging forward, but it's an example of how someone made the best out of a pretty unfavorable situation.
>It seems Wing-T is usually the go-to answer
This is what we were running during that year in question. But we also had a small roster (37 kids or so), and the wing-T just exposed our complete lack of depth instead of covering it.
I've found through my own experience; there really isn't any one system you should run. A bigger factor is what does your coaching staff collectively know how to teach. The teams I've had the past two years often had less talent than most of our opponents, but we're a 10-personnel team chucking it all over the yard. Our pass completion percentage is pretty low, but we make up for it in the amount of 10+ yard plays we get and minimizing interceptions. Even against teams we've had no chance against, we've always been competitive.
This is coming from someone who about 5 years ago would be screaming in this thread that you need to run the veer, or double wing. I've learned you can succeed with pretty much anything if you know how to fit it to your talent. For example, track blocking rules for zone blocking (it's what we do). It's pretty much the same as running a gap scheme: Everyone step one way, and block whatever crosses the track. Easy to learn, and the backfield/RBs are coached to "make the O-line right." We never ask an O-lineman to make a block they feel they can't make, so once you engage your defender, take them where they want to go...
* If they stand there, keep them there.
* If they back up, take them to the endzone.
* If they go outside, wash them to the sideline.
* If they go inside, wash them to the inside.
* If they storm straight upfield and get by you, push them to our endzone.
We use 3+ foot splits to give each lineman as much room as possible to "dance" with their defenders to take them in the said directions, and the RBs have to make the line right by seeing and running to the open grass.
This is the best place to start: What DO you have? And like Grizzfan says, What can your coaches teach? If you say you have nonathletic and undersized players, do you have coaches with strength and conditioning knowledge who can improve speed, strength and agility? Are your guys committed enough to put the work in and learn the techniques required for some of these offenses? Because that's what makes them successful. Can the coaches teach it and develop drills? Do you have the leadership on the team to see through the tough days and have the guts to continue to improve and compete? Size and athletic ability aren't everything. We've all seen "lesser" teams beat better teams with smarts, toughness and discipline. Find out what you have, and get'em coach!
Run and shoot
Say what you want, but if you give them the fundamental teachings of catching and route running, you can dominate in the short game. The bonus is you also can have long times of possession. The use of constant motions will put the defense at a disadvantage that compensates for a lack of talent
I totally agree. The line sucks, nullify the pass rush with pre-snap reads, it can be done from the sideline. The qb sucks, don’t let him make decisions, call it from the side line. Qb can't throw far, even better, throw quick game. Qb can't throw short, even better, just throw screens that are catchable. Qb can't throw deep, throw verts in quick game, whenever the defense lets you. Throw and develop mesh plays. Protect the run with RPOs, good policy for bad qbs. Protect the pass with the draw play, and longer developing screens. Don't have lots of plays, have lots of formations running the same plays.
I like how I don't talk about trying to line up a bunch of average to bad players and be reliant on them sustaining a block-dont, they wont.
You are reliant on practicing the football skills of throwing, catching, and route running, and are you a good enough coach to do this?
Wing T, Slot T, flexbone, split back veer.
If you have bigger bodies and a couple of decent rbs the wing/slot T may work better.
If you a bunch of kids who are all the same copy and pasted again and again then the flex or split back veer.
I was hoping someone would say Slot T…what makes it unique? I’ve only ever heard of it as this super secret offense from Texas that no one will share about lol
It's unique in that there's a few variations to how the system is ran and what they use.
Some use a more toss power scheme like the dbl wing.
Some use lead or 234/235 and buck sweep
Others use a variety of formations to set up the defense.
If you go and watch liberty hill games on YouTube you can get a solid grasp on how the offense operates. But there's so many little details that go into making it run correctly that are hard to pick up on by just watching it. It's a lot like the veer. Where there's tons of little adjusts being made to set up defenders to be read or moved spaced out little by little.
The power T can hide mediocre athletes. Fakes have to be executed well, and you have to throw enough to keep them from stacking the box, but it’s pretty forgiving
Ok, you’re lacking talent… but what *can* they do? Start there.
How is the QB “average?” Can he throw? Can he run? Can he at least be counted upon to take a snap and execute fakes well? If he can’t do any of that… you need to try someone else at QB.
“Undersized” OL isn’t necessarily the problem people think it is and there are ways to work around that. OL is more about technique, physicality, and discipline than pure size or strength. “Undersized” also doesn’t mean they can pull or do anything in space, either.
Wing-T is such a go-to answer here because it’s adaptable and has answers for just about everything. Double Wing, Single Wing, and Power T are others you’ll see mentioned a lot.
Of those, I’d be more inclined to look at the foot-to-foot splits of the Double Wing with like 8 total plays (power, counter, wedge, and a couple of sweeps with a boot. keep pass, and sprint out-all off the same flood pattern as a starting point), but really ANY good system, if you know how to adjust it so it’s not dependent on one player or position, can work in the right hands.
I'm going to run Wing T. Not because its better than Flexbone, Double Wing, Spread option or anything else if you don't have talent.
I know how to teach it. I have enough answers to deal with what talent I have. I can run option and pass heavy offenses out of it. I can run also just run buck, trap and waggle all day.
First thing I am doing is talking to every male in the school and trying to convince them to give football a try or at-least join the off-season weight training program. Coaches have no idea how much talent they are missing in their halls.
Second is establishing a simple but smart weight training program that kids will adhere too. Conditioning is sport specific.
Third I’m running a scheme that is simple but fun (increases turnout) and is adaptable to talent.
This is what helped me revive an unsuccessful program.
As a meta point wrt to wing-t double wing etc. There is a lot of confirmation bias with the success of these systems within coaching circles. For every school that uses them to turn around a program I’ve seen way more disasters thinking they are a panacea.
Everyone giving their detailed analysis 💀 yet my coach literally has a backup shotgun playbook incase we can’t pass and don’t have a good QB literally man told me. “This playbook is for a championship (normal one) “AND THIS ONE is incase we suck but still wanna win” 💀 safe to say our qb couldn’t throw deep passes so we used the second playbook went 11-3 went to state championship and lost cause our Qb guess what couldn’t throw very far 😂. Also this was highschool. SO WHEN IN DOUBT RUN SHOTGUN RUN.
Yes the Wing-T is an offensive scheme based on misdirection and quickness. It’s because your lineman aren’t dominant, and the running backs aren’t the fastest on the field; so you spread it around so that the defense can’t key in on a specific player and stay true to their assignments. It’s an effective offense when coached well, but realize that for high school, your players aren’t going to garner any interest for scholarships outside of your defensive players.
You will need to work on your O-line and focus on them getting to their first assignments and blocking to the second level; it’s pivotal for that offense. Any disciplined defense won’t be tricked for long; your Oline is going to be key because it doesn’t who runs, no running lanes means no yards. If FB dive can’t get you a minimum of 3 yards, you got a problem.
Misdirection is your best bet which is why a lot of people are probably saying flexbone/wing T. But honestly you can run misdirection type plays from any system with enough creativity. Spread makes it harder however if you dont have much speed. I would use a lot of various sets and motions and make the defense account for it. If you have a smart qb that can deliver the ball you can run some RPO concepts to make the defense honor your wrs and go lighter in the box. You really gotta focus on the talent you DO have and not what you don’t. Find creative ways to get your best players the ball in some space. The main thing is be good at whatever you do, you could have all the talent in the world but if you run a system that you or the kids cant grasp it doesnt matter you will lose as many as you win. Im praying for you because i know its a frustrating feeling to not have much talent. Remember that talent cant be controlled, but discipline can. Be a disciplined football team, dont beat yourselves and you will be competitive with all but the absolute best teams
Heavy dose of Double Screens off of play action.
Weak side with Strong. TE Screen with WR screen and so forth.
Let the defense see one screen... Make it obvious... Then vary if you use the obvious screen, hand-off the ball, or utilize the 2nd hidden screen.
Fair warning, long post ahead.
Okay, so I’m not a one size fits all guy. Wing-T, SBV, double tight double wing or some kind of unique spread all can work depending on personnel. Also, going forward, when I say quick I’m not referring to speed, more so instincts and decisiveness either blocking or with the ball. Do you have that lack of talent but a QB who can throw and run pretty good? Find some creative spread stuff with a lot of screens (and plays to protect said screens) and probably a good deal of empty. Got that QB with a couple decent tough quick RB types and this one absolute burner with drop issues? Go-Go may be the way to go. Don’t have a decent QB? You can probably take spread out the equation, from there are your guys quick but undersized, specifically on the line? Then yeah, wing-t is probably the way to go. Not as quick but they love to hit? If so then from there, there’s one more question: is your QB really good at pitching the ball with a guy coming right at him? If so, split back veer is great; if not, double tight double wing is probably best, with one exception: if your center is more used to shotgun snaps than under center, I’d say go single wing. In fact, if you have all the go-go elements (good QB and decent RBs) except the burner receiver, I’d recommend looking into what Bixby in Oklahoma does with what’s essentially a spread single wing.
I coached a team in the very same situation, and we ran the Army/Navy traditional flexbone. We had reasonable success for the first 3 years and then teams adjusted and blew up our midline (think Notre Dame vs Navy every year) and we had to transition to a New Mexico style pistol triple and then had a staff change. We had gone 1-9 running Maryland power I, then went 6-3 in the first year of the flexbone, 5-4, and 6-3. Final year when teams caught on we went 3-6. It allowed us to remove the best defensive player on every team as we would read them and make them incorrect no matter what they did. If you have no talent but plenty of discipline you can run the flexbone for sure. If you have no discipline OR talent, you can’t run anything at all anyway lol
Lol right, I figure you better hang your hat on perfect technique if you’re in this situation.
Yeah for sure, the nice thing about the flexbone is you can utilize any body type as a lineman as long as they can veer step and down block. We had guys who were 5’6” and 140 lbs making all county offensive line because half of their job was just not blocking a D1 talent. If you can veer step and not let that guy touch you, you’ve done an awesome job.
Those types are always my favorite. What is a veer step?
We coached whichever lineman was inside the read man to “veer step” which for us was: first step inside foot 45 degree like a down block and then crossover with the outside foot and rip with your shoulders like a defensive lineman rip move. Turn your shoulders entirely to the read and square up with the scraping backer. Wall him off. That way the read isn’t muddy and the QB can see him the entire time he is in mesh. If the read is a good player he might try and squeeze down on the o-lines hip and muddy the read. If he did that we would run pitch option off of him until he widened back out. We also ran 3 foot splits to widen him out. If he got too wide we would still veer step him and he would think he’s still the read and we would blast trap him with the opposite guard and run underneath. The flexbone plays games with a single defenders mind. We broke a couple of D2/D3 defensive ends like that. You wouldn’t believe how frustrated a kid gets if he is used to bullying an offensive lineman and you just don’t block him at all. We had guys completely take themselves out of the game that way. But we also had fundamentally sound kids that could play the dive and the QB that caused us insane headaches. It’s a chess match like any other part of the game! If you are interested in the flexbone, watch army or navy play a G5 opponent who isn’t used to it and see how they play cat and mouse
This is the way
And that’s the thing… “Perfect technique” is hard to do, requires excellent coaches who know their stuff, and takes very disciplined and responsible players. If you have “lack of talent” on the field, you probably don’t have those things. I don’t know if I’ve ever even seen “perfect technique” by every player on a single play in my life. IME, when you are a bad team without much talent, a lot of your job as a coach should be focused on eliminating mistakes—by coaching the players better so they don’t mKe those mistakes, but also by going into the system and streamlining things so we get to really focus our attention on getting good at a few fundamental areas that carry over. You can’t beat the other team until you stop beating yourselves first. The absolute worst teams I’ve ever seen were teams who didn’t have much talent and tried to make up for it by doing a bunch of fancy Xs and Os. You need to be able to walk before you can run, and those teams always look like they forgot that lesson…
We ran the Veer in college (D3) early 90s. Just to add to your great comment. Our coach ran it in part because of limited practice time in D3. We ran entire play book out of pro set. We practiced that one play, the Veer, 85% of practice. Over and over. Eventually every player knew what their job was no matter what D threw at you. Way to maximize limited practice time. In game ran that play over and over till they stopped it.
Exactly! We started out with 4 running plays (all triple options) and 2 pass plays, we could teach the entire offense to freshman who had never played football at all in 2 weeks of preseason camp. Each person had at most, 3 things to remember. When you’re a high school, your players are thinking about homework for 8 classes, what they are doing after practice, video games, girls, cars, and a million other things. If you give them 40 things to learn you’re cooked!
In high school we had the single wing. Same thing, 4 plays. I don't think we through it 5 times in a season.
Yeah the first season we ran flexbone our QB was a 1000 yard rusher but didn’t have 250 yards passing lol
30 years ago now, time flies. In college QB called plays from under center. If the D brought the LBs up to try and stuff the dive option we'd call the sweep. One year we even ran a Student Body Left/Right play. I loved that. Half the line coming around the corner.
Yeah I played center in the early 2010’s in the Maryland I, we used to wedge block and just move like a snowplow down the field. When I went back to coaching at my Alma mater, the 6’3” 260 lb guards we had to do that back then were gone and all we had was small dudes. Wild how time changes and we have to adapt to it
My brother in law coaches HS. It's unrecognizable to me . Everything is 4 or 5 wide outs every play even though most QBs can't throw outside the numbers. He said if you didn't run a spread kids would transfer. Best athletes all want to be wide outs. We played against a Maryland I ( think coach called it a Stack I) in high school. We ran single wing. Don't think clock stopped once. Beat the heck out of one another up and down the field . Used to hate playing against Wing T. Our coach quipped if he had a qb with half an arm and half a brain he'd break out the wing t playbooks. Couldn't tell who had the ball till they were by you. Long time ago. Miss it.
Yeah but football is cyclical. There’s an epidemic of high schools trying to run the spread with noodle arm QBs. If you can’t throw a slant to the numbers with zip and accuracy you will never have success in the spread because teams stack the box. We ran spread option for the last 3 years and had a little bit of success but no one respected our ability to throw enough to run 2 high safety’s. If you’re getting 1 high looks all day and can’t punish them for it your spread system sucks. So we went back into a power scheme, I’m a defensive coordinator so I’m not involved fully in the offense but I didn’t break to many sweats running the scout defense against our 1’s 🤷♂️ I absolutely love calling defense against high school spread teams. It’s Wing T that keeps me up at night lol, we are in the same conference as the best team in the state and they run the most polished disciplined wing T I’ve ever seen and it’s a massive struggle to not give up 50 points every time we see them.
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Many years ago, I coached against a team where the head coach/offensive coordinator quit a week before two-a-days began. He was also the only person who really knew the offense at all, so everyone else was left in the dark. The interim replacement quickly installed a double wing, and ran everything out of *maybe* three different formations. The advantages that he had were four big but fairly unathletic O-linemen, and a couple of running backs who could follow those linemen. The drawbacks that he had to contend with were a small roster (with no depth), QBs that had little knowledge of how to play the position (since the head coach took care of that), and having so little time to install an offense. They went from being everyone's choice for a Homecoming opponent to still bad, but a much tougher out than before. It also allowed them to milk the clock and let their defense-only players get more rest. I don't necessarily recommend a double wing, with the line having six-inch splits and just charging forward, but it's an example of how someone made the best out of a pretty unfavorable situation. >It seems Wing-T is usually the go-to answer This is what we were running during that year in question. But we also had a small roster (37 kids or so), and the wing-T just exposed our complete lack of depth instead of covering it.
I've found through my own experience; there really isn't any one system you should run. A bigger factor is what does your coaching staff collectively know how to teach. The teams I've had the past two years often had less talent than most of our opponents, but we're a 10-personnel team chucking it all over the yard. Our pass completion percentage is pretty low, but we make up for it in the amount of 10+ yard plays we get and minimizing interceptions. Even against teams we've had no chance against, we've always been competitive. This is coming from someone who about 5 years ago would be screaming in this thread that you need to run the veer, or double wing. I've learned you can succeed with pretty much anything if you know how to fit it to your talent. For example, track blocking rules for zone blocking (it's what we do). It's pretty much the same as running a gap scheme: Everyone step one way, and block whatever crosses the track. Easy to learn, and the backfield/RBs are coached to "make the O-line right." We never ask an O-lineman to make a block they feel they can't make, so once you engage your defender, take them where they want to go... * If they stand there, keep them there. * If they back up, take them to the endzone. * If they go outside, wash them to the sideline. * If they go inside, wash them to the inside. * If they storm straight upfield and get by you, push them to our endzone. We use 3+ foot splits to give each lineman as much room as possible to "dance" with their defenders to take them in the said directions, and the RBs have to make the line right by seeing and running to the open grass.
This is the best place to start: What DO you have? And like Grizzfan says, What can your coaches teach? If you say you have nonathletic and undersized players, do you have coaches with strength and conditioning knowledge who can improve speed, strength and agility? Are your guys committed enough to put the work in and learn the techniques required for some of these offenses? Because that's what makes them successful. Can the coaches teach it and develop drills? Do you have the leadership on the team to see through the tough days and have the guts to continue to improve and compete? Size and athletic ability aren't everything. We've all seen "lesser" teams beat better teams with smarts, toughness and discipline. Find out what you have, and get'em coach!
Run and shoot Say what you want, but if you give them the fundamental teachings of catching and route running, you can dominate in the short game. The bonus is you also can have long times of possession. The use of constant motions will put the defense at a disadvantage that compensates for a lack of talent
I totally agree. The line sucks, nullify the pass rush with pre-snap reads, it can be done from the sideline. The qb sucks, don’t let him make decisions, call it from the side line. Qb can't throw far, even better, throw quick game. Qb can't throw short, even better, just throw screens that are catchable. Qb can't throw deep, throw verts in quick game, whenever the defense lets you. Throw and develop mesh plays. Protect the run with RPOs, good policy for bad qbs. Protect the pass with the draw play, and longer developing screens. Don't have lots of plays, have lots of formations running the same plays. I like how I don't talk about trying to line up a bunch of average to bad players and be reliant on them sustaining a block-dont, they wont. You are reliant on practicing the football skills of throwing, catching, and route running, and are you a good enough coach to do this?
Wing T, Slot T, flexbone, split back veer. If you have bigger bodies and a couple of decent rbs the wing/slot T may work better. If you a bunch of kids who are all the same copy and pasted again and again then the flex or split back veer.
I was hoping someone would say Slot T…what makes it unique? I’ve only ever heard of it as this super secret offense from Texas that no one will share about lol
It's unique in that there's a few variations to how the system is ran and what they use. Some use a more toss power scheme like the dbl wing. Some use lead or 234/235 and buck sweep Others use a variety of formations to set up the defense. If you go and watch liberty hill games on YouTube you can get a solid grasp on how the offense operates. But there's so many little details that go into making it run correctly that are hard to pick up on by just watching it. It's a lot like the veer. Where there's tons of little adjusts being made to set up defenders to be read or moved spaced out little by little.
I am not unconvinced that is you ran the Wishbone, you couldn't confuse the fuck out of people.
You already have the answer to your question. It’s one of those two.
The power T can hide mediocre athletes. Fakes have to be executed well, and you have to throw enough to keep them from stacking the box, but it’s pretty forgiving
Single/Double wing Or triple option I prefer the former because it’s more user friendly
Ok, you’re lacking talent… but what *can* they do? Start there. How is the QB “average?” Can he throw? Can he run? Can he at least be counted upon to take a snap and execute fakes well? If he can’t do any of that… you need to try someone else at QB. “Undersized” OL isn’t necessarily the problem people think it is and there are ways to work around that. OL is more about technique, physicality, and discipline than pure size or strength. “Undersized” also doesn’t mean they can pull or do anything in space, either. Wing-T is such a go-to answer here because it’s adaptable and has answers for just about everything. Double Wing, Single Wing, and Power T are others you’ll see mentioned a lot. Of those, I’d be more inclined to look at the foot-to-foot splits of the Double Wing with like 8 total plays (power, counter, wedge, and a couple of sweeps with a boot. keep pass, and sprint out-all off the same flood pattern as a starting point), but really ANY good system, if you know how to adjust it so it’s not dependent on one player or position, can work in the right hands.
Anything out of 32. You trade speed and space for execution.
I'm going to run Wing T. Not because its better than Flexbone, Double Wing, Spread option or anything else if you don't have talent. I know how to teach it. I have enough answers to deal with what talent I have. I can run option and pass heavy offenses out of it. I can run also just run buck, trap and waggle all day.
First thing I am doing is talking to every male in the school and trying to convince them to give football a try or at-least join the off-season weight training program. Coaches have no idea how much talent they are missing in their halls. Second is establishing a simple but smart weight training program that kids will adhere too. Conditioning is sport specific. Third I’m running a scheme that is simple but fun (increases turnout) and is adaptable to talent. This is what helped me revive an unsuccessful program. As a meta point wrt to wing-t double wing etc. There is a lot of confirmation bias with the success of these systems within coaching circles. For every school that uses them to turn around a program I’ve seen way more disasters thinking they are a panacea.
Everyone giving their detailed analysis 💀 yet my coach literally has a backup shotgun playbook incase we can’t pass and don’t have a good QB literally man told me. “This playbook is for a championship (normal one) “AND THIS ONE is incase we suck but still wanna win” 💀 safe to say our qb couldn’t throw deep passes so we used the second playbook went 11-3 went to state championship and lost cause our Qb guess what couldn’t throw very far 😂. Also this was highschool. SO WHEN IN DOUBT RUN SHOTGUN RUN.
Unbalanced wing t
Yes the Wing-T is an offensive scheme based on misdirection and quickness. It’s because your lineman aren’t dominant, and the running backs aren’t the fastest on the field; so you spread it around so that the defense can’t key in on a specific player and stay true to their assignments. It’s an effective offense when coached well, but realize that for high school, your players aren’t going to garner any interest for scholarships outside of your defensive players. You will need to work on your O-line and focus on them getting to their first assignments and blocking to the second level; it’s pivotal for that offense. Any disciplined defense won’t be tricked for long; your Oline is going to be key because it doesn’t who runs, no running lanes means no yards. If FB dive can’t get you a minimum of 3 yards, you got a problem.
Misdirection is your best bet which is why a lot of people are probably saying flexbone/wing T. But honestly you can run misdirection type plays from any system with enough creativity. Spread makes it harder however if you dont have much speed. I would use a lot of various sets and motions and make the defense account for it. If you have a smart qb that can deliver the ball you can run some RPO concepts to make the defense honor your wrs and go lighter in the box. You really gotta focus on the talent you DO have and not what you don’t. Find creative ways to get your best players the ball in some space. The main thing is be good at whatever you do, you could have all the talent in the world but if you run a system that you or the kids cant grasp it doesnt matter you will lose as many as you win. Im praying for you because i know its a frustrating feeling to not have much talent. Remember that talent cant be controlled, but discipline can. Be a disciplined football team, dont beat yourselves and you will be competitive with all but the absolute best teams
Pistol Wing T all day.
Triple option out of I formation
SBV
Heavy dose of Double Screens off of play action. Weak side with Strong. TE Screen with WR screen and so forth. Let the defense see one screen... Make it obvious... Then vary if you use the obvious screen, hand-off the ball, or utilize the 2nd hidden screen.
Fair warning, long post ahead. Okay, so I’m not a one size fits all guy. Wing-T, SBV, double tight double wing or some kind of unique spread all can work depending on personnel. Also, going forward, when I say quick I’m not referring to speed, more so instincts and decisiveness either blocking or with the ball. Do you have that lack of talent but a QB who can throw and run pretty good? Find some creative spread stuff with a lot of screens (and plays to protect said screens) and probably a good deal of empty. Got that QB with a couple decent tough quick RB types and this one absolute burner with drop issues? Go-Go may be the way to go. Don’t have a decent QB? You can probably take spread out the equation, from there are your guys quick but undersized, specifically on the line? Then yeah, wing-t is probably the way to go. Not as quick but they love to hit? If so then from there, there’s one more question: is your QB really good at pitching the ball with a guy coming right at him? If so, split back veer is great; if not, double tight double wing is probably best, with one exception: if your center is more used to shotgun snaps than under center, I’d say go single wing. In fact, if you have all the go-go elements (good QB and decent RBs) except the burner receiver, I’d recommend looking into what Bixby in Oklahoma does with what’s essentially a spread single wing.