The Wishbone Offense

[mlh]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Super analysis! Are you a former coach?</font>

Not a coach...just an old wishbone QB. I ran the wishbone for 2 years and the "veer" offense for 2 years. The veer was a derivative of the bone with an I formation in the backfield. A lot of teams ran that offense for several years to get the options of the bone with a little more passing mixed in. I was a much better runner than passer so, naturally, I preferred the true wishbone to the veer.

 

[SoonerInFla]

There's a couple SoonerFans who are allways making videos of old Sooner games. Thought you guys might like to take a look at the Joe Washington highlight video if you have high speed. Amazing. Get it while the gettin's good. They don't leave em up long and this one's worth grabbing.If you're an old wishbone fan like me, there's nothin sweeter than watchin Lil Joe take the pitch on the corner and do his thing.


http://www.cuthbert.lunarpages.com/JoeW.zip

 

[wishbonesooner]

A couple of years ago, I heard barry Switzer being interviewed on the radio. He said that he was never able to fully utilize all the wishbone could do, because he never found the ultimate prize: a QB that could handle the physical demands, and also possessed the great passing touch. Jack Mildren was probably the best passing QB we ever had in the bone offense. As you might have guessed, I loved the wishbone. OU could almost line up, tell the opposition which way they were going to run, and the run over 'em.

 

[bamsam]

The pros don't use it because it would be too expensive to hire the number of QBs they would need.Would the wishbone work today?
Absolutely.

 

[red55]

mlh is very astute in that the wishbone died when the fullback became a blocking back. The wishbone really only works at it's best when you have an exceptional fullback, and exceptional fullbacks don't come along every day. If the dive isn't a legitimate threat on every play, it becomes the double-option, instead of the triple-option, . . . and the wishbone can be stopped.

 

[JessN]

I don't believe the 'bone would work today, at all.

First of all, you'd never get a chance to find out. You mention the words "option offense" in recruiting and aside from a tailback or two, practically every skill player would say "So long, coach," and that would be the end of it.

Assuming you could recruit Top 25 talent and then run the bone, what you'd find out rather quickly is any of the following: Outside linebackers today are much faster and more talented than they were 20 years ago...same for safeties...today's offensive linemen may actually be too big (I can't imagine Roosevelt Patterson or Dante Ellington running a wishbone offense)...finding quarterbacks with that particular skill set is virtually impossible...practice time has been so cut back by the NCAA you'd never install your whole package...ditto for scholarship limitations...

I think you see where I'm going with this. For the same reasons the Notre Dame Box wouldn't work for a top program, the wishbone wouldn't work today.


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Jess Nicholas
Editor-In-Chief
TideFans.com

 

[Bamaro]

Are the wishbone and triple option the same thing?

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"I left Texas A&M because my school called me. Mama called, and when Mama calls, then you just have to come running." - The Bear, once the most but still the best!

 

[red55]

Not exactly. You can run the triple option out of other formations. You can also run non-option plays out of the wishbone. But the wishbone was designed for the triple-option and it seemed to be the best formation for it.

 

[owenfieldreams]

Deliveryman35.....I heard Spencer Tillman talk about his experience against those Miami teams in the mid-80's.

It was defensive team speed that did us in & we weren't slow. Spencer said that when we'd run the option, after the base fake & as the QB got to the corner & brought the defender to him @ the decision point, the lead halfback was out in the "soft triangle" with the responsibility of taking on the safety who was closing on the play.

It was all about timing. The problem was, when the lead back got to the point where the timing of the play said he was to encounter the safety, the Miami safety was past that point & already into the area where the trailing back was to get the pitch.

Few people realize that we entered the '84 season with a QB @ the controls that was going to revolutionize the Sooner 'bone because of his incredible passing skills. He was fast enough to run the option, strong enough to take the punishment, with a canon for an arm. Miami broke his leg in the second game of the season, he transfered to U.C.L.A., O.U. won an NC with his replacement, & he went on to win multiple Super Bowls.

The spread O's of today are simply the wishbone of the air. Same principle....get fast, athletic people out in open space & get them the ball. The only difference is the passes are a little longer but what these O's do that the 'bone couldn't is spread the D out all over the field.

I miss the 'bone terribly. It was like watching a ballet.

 

[utjughead]

I am surprised no one above has referenced the inventor of the wishbone. No, it was not Paul Bryant. I am sure there is always controversy about who designed whatever offense in football, but the man usually credited as the architect behind the wishbone was Emery Bellard.

 

[TexasBama]

Bellard was the man. I saw him coach near the end of his career at Texas City.

Homer Smith's website at one time had some discussion about why the wishbone went away. What I remember is that defenses learned to "mirror" the formation, and with equal speed as the offense, minimized the one-on-one advantages you got with the formation (basically what owens described).

Tyler Watts got a lot of mileage out of the option; it was the old single wing style option.

 

[red55]

Jimbo Fisher's offense at LSU includes the triple option on occasion. Ordinarily a pro-style offense, Nick likes to run various option plays from time to time just to keep defenses off balance. He uses it mostly inside the 20, but rarely runs it out of the wishbone. Matt Mauck was a very effective option QB before his foot injury.

Option plays, including the triple-option and the wishbone formation still have a place in modern football. It can be used effectively in special situations. I just don't think we'll ever see 100% wishbone teams like Oklahoma and Alabama in the 70s again.

 

[owenfieldreams]

One must differenciate between the Wishbone & the triple-option.

The original triple-option O was invented by Bill Yeoman & was called The Houston Veer. The Cougars were running this O with great success, led by great backs such as Warren McVea well before Texas moved the FB up in a "robust" set to form the inverted "bone" set.

In fact, O.U. went to the Veer in '69 to exploit Jack Mildren's passing skills within a triple-option scheme. Just before the '70 Texas game, we switched to the Wishbone, & the rest, they say, is history.