Coleman Feeley
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- Dec 21, 2013
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in Texas Longhorns Football By Coleman Feeley
In the beginning man created the scrum. Offenses were without form; void and darkness was upon the face of the gridiron. Then Walter Camp said, “just throw the damn thingâ€â€¦ and it was thrown. – W. Camp 1:1
There are 128 Division 1 football teams in the NCAA, meaning that there are 128 different D1 offensive coordinators in the country. Each one of those coordinators runs a different offense and in each one of those offenses there are multiple formations. That adds up to hundreds of possible formations that any given team must defend against. Army and Navy still use ‘Triple Option’ offenses that were popular over fifty years ago while others choose offenses that are considered ‘cutting edge’ like Oregon and Baylor. Some teams base their offensive attack in the run game and others through the air, but they are all designed to do one thing, score points. The only limitation to these offensive innovations is that you must have seven players lined up on the line of scrimmage and four off the line.
Early football featured the ‘Single Wing’ in which almost every play was a run. The ‘Quarterback’ was known as a ‘Blocking Back’, ‘Halfbacks’ or ‘Running Backs’ were in the same position that modern day ‘Fullbacks’ find themselves and an ‘End’ was just the last guy on the line of scrimmage (fig 1).
This formation slowly started to develop into the ‘Double Wing’ and from that, the ‘Wing T’, creating more balanced formations and the beginning of modern offenses. The ‘Double Wing’, largely credited to Glen “Pop†Warner, contributed to the mystery pre-play by not giving away the strength of the formation (fig 2).
The ‘Wing-T’ was essentially the beginning of what fans know today as ‘modern football’. The Wing-T split receivers out wide which forced defenses to spread out wider across the field thus opening up different and creative run plays. This formation also added the more immediate threat of the forward pass and even more so the Play Action Pass (fig 3).
The Wing-T created new strategies for offenses that led to different defensive techniques and, subsequently, new blocking schemes. Offensive lineman traditionally put more weight out in front of their stance and put their hand nearest to the ball on the ground. This stance almost guaranteed great explosion off the ball, but little else. The ‘Veer’ encouraged coaches to shift linemen’s feet rather than their hands, putting their outside foot back. This better facilitated pass blocking and reaching blocks, instead of just down blocks. The ‘Veer’ also split two receivers (or flankers at that time) out wide, forcing the defense to again spread across the field. In addition, the ‘Veer’ generated even more advanced techniques which allowed teams to ‘read’ defenders instead of block them (fig 4).
Through the Veer the ‘I-Formation’ was born. Fundamentally only a modified Veer, the ‘I-Formation’ adds an element of surprise to the offense by not having a right and left Runningback. With receivers still out wide the I-Formation still provided teams with the same spatial advantages as the Veer. The I-Formation, however, did have one new wrinkle; it highlighted a specific running back. Throughout the history of football there have always been superb running backs, but the greatest running backs of all time were showcased from the I-Formation. Walter Payton, Barry Sanders, Emmitt Smith, OJ Simpson, Herschel Walker… they all ran from the I-Formation (fig 5).
Following the success of formations that highlighted specific athletes, like the aforementioned running backs, offenses had to find more wrinkles in order to create additional opportunities. The I-Formation evolved into ‘Single Back’ formations that highlighted great quarterbacks and not great runners. By changing the personnel from “12†to “11†you exchange running backs for receivers. These numbers correspond to personnel and work as two separate indicators, the first number relating to the number of tight-ends and the second to the number of running backs (making twelve more like ‘1 – 2’). With this simple exchange of a player, teams really didn’t have to alter the formation to any great extent (fig 6).
This change in personnel did, however, bring about a change in philosophy. Teams now began to focus on the pass instead of the run. Formations that were previously reserved for 3rd and long or ‘2 minute drill’ situations were now being used at any time.
In current offenses, the ‘Shotgun’ is the most recognizable formation to highlight QBs and receivers – it is the focus of modern day football. The ‘Shotgun’ not only adds more receivers to the mix, it flexes the quarterback from ‘under-center’ to a position further back in the pocket. This allows quarterbacks to begin reading defenses much earlier because there is essentially no need for the traditional drop-back. The Shotgun also optimizes the advantages that early offenses created by reading players instead of blocking them, creating what we know today as the Zone Read (fig 7).
All of these recycled concepts that were now being integrated back into ‘Shotgun’ formations were giving teams such an advantage that even the ‘Triple Option’ was brought back. These added options, reads, and fakes sparked the concept of the ‘Pistol’ formation, which has gained popularity over the past few years.
One of the newest formations in football, the ‘Pistol’ utilizes the advantages of both the I-Formation as well as the Shotgun by having a quarterback flexed back three to five steps in the ‘gun’ position with a running back located behind the QB. This not only allows the QB to run Zone Reads but also the same plays that highlighted great running backs in the I-Formation (fig 8).
All of these formations are tweaked, modified, and shifted slowly from coach to coach until someone runs something ground breaking. In California a pair of High School coaches created a system that’s known as the ‘A11’. The ‘A11’ is now illegal in College and the NFL, however, its creativity is unparalleled. By having NO players on the field with ineligible numbers (50-79) and lining up extremely wide, every player gets the opportunity to touch the ball.
Recently Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots used similar strategies to enable the Left Tackle to become eligible. In the NFL, unlike in the NCAA, ineligible numbers (50-79) may substitute on any given play if they line up properly. Eligible receivers include the ‘two men at either end of the line of scrimmage’ as well as any player off the ball. The twist that makes the A-11 legal is that the rules of football state that anyone may touch the ball if the pass is a backwards lateral. The rule never states how long that lateral must be nor does it state who can run a route behind the line of scrimmage. The following figure shows how a team could have 10 eligible receivers on one play (fig 9).
University of Texas’ offensive coaches must find a balance of running and passing plays. They will be tasked with the business of creating advantages for the team as well as individual players and, as you can see, there are plenty of formations to choose from. When piecing together an offensive playbook, coaches must be mindful of their personnel. If a team does not have an outstanding running back, maybe the I-Formation shouldn’t be added. Conversely, if you don’t have a great quarterback you probably shouldn’t run every play from the Shotgun. However, there is one formation that EVERY team includes in their playbook. This formation is regarded as the “best formation in footballâ€â€¦ the ‘Victory Formation’. Seven men line-up on the line of scrimmage and the additional four find themselves off the line of scrimmage. There is only one play run from this formation and it is a QB Kneel (fig 10).
NOTE: Every offense contains multiple variations and player motions so base formations without plays are shown. Formation names are also subject to interpretation and due to the multitude of defenses only offensive formations are shown.
