My System vs Traditional Wing-t

To try to explain my play calling I thought I would compare it to the traditional Delaware wing-t. That way people may be able to grasp the evolution of why I do things the way that I do.

The traditional wing-t has many different formations. They number the hole from left to right, counting backwards. 9 is to the left and 1 is to the right. Looking like the following:

9 8 7 6 X 4 3 2 1

They way I number the holes are odd and even. 9 is on the left and 8 would be on the right. so my whole would look like this:

9 7 5 3X 2 4 6 8

Their formations would also fall in line with this thinking. 900 would be my left formation and 100 would be my right formation. So if a play is called it would be 121. Which would be a sweep to the left. (right formation, 20 series, to 8 hole)

In my system, I try to simplify things and make it more understandable. I would call right 238 sweep. Essentially saying the same thing. (Right formation, 200 series, 3 back to 8 hole.)

The reason why I do the odd and even holes and saying the formations is because that is what I grew up with in high school and first coaching the wing-t under Bob Timmerman at Dubuque Hempstead. They have been running the wing-t since the school has been in existence in the 1960's. Hempstead has had great success running the wing-t over the years. They have won several state titles and has been a visitor to the playoffs nearly every year.

When I moved away from the Dubque area I became more of a student of the Delaware wing-t. I became a Defensive coordinator at Des Moines Hoover under Joe Kuhn. Joe was just becoming the head coach there and was implementing the traditional wing-t. He brought me in to help the kids learn how to run the offense. When I interviewed for the position however he had already offered the offensive coordinator position to someone else. This first year at Hoover was exciting to watch. We only won one game that year but things were moving in the right direction. There were a couple of problems and to make a story short, Joe left the program and so did I. I really would have to liked to have seen how things would have gone for a second or third year there. (You can see highlights in a previous post)

I than became a head coach myself the following year. I had taken over a program that had not won a football game in 6 straight years. I knew with the wing-t, things could be turned around. Here I was torn between what I learned at Dubuque Hempstead and Des Moines Hoover. Do I want to go with a modified wing-t or do I want to go with the traditional ways. The first year I decided to run the Dubuqe Heampstead modified wing-t. We tied the school record for rushing, and we won our first game that year.

However many of the players and even several of my assistant coaches were confused by the system. When I tried to explain the traditional system to them in the off season they even got more confused. What I did than was modify the Heampstead wing-t and added the back number into the mix. When I did that the confusion problem seemed to be solved. I have also modified some other things since then but the basis is still the same. What I changed was my numbering of some of the series.

The next year I resigned as a head coach because of lack of support from the administration, But that is an entirely differnt and rather ugly story.

Here is how I number my series:

100 - QB run series
200- The buck series (previous posts)
300 - The buck series modified (Lead back block & backside Guard pulling)
400 - Option Series
500 - The lead series (One back leading through the hole)
600 - The Jet/Rocket series
700 - Three step passing
800 - five step passing
900 - Play Action Passing

My plan through out this next several posts is to explain each of these series. I have already explained the 200 series (the Buck series). The next series I shall explain shall be my 300 series.

Coach D

Watch for an update in a couple of days