Does Winning Ever Go Out-Of-Style?
Does Winning Ever Go Out-of-Style?
The Single Wing offense is the oldest offensive football scheme in the modern era of football. While the system is rarely seen in practice today impressive winning records are being posted by a new generation of youth, middle school, and high school Single Wing coaches who dare to be considered “Old School.”
History of the Single Wing The Single Wing offense dates back to 1906 when President Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt forced rule changes in college football for the sake of player safety. The Single Wing offense was born from the need to respond to the new rules. Legendary coach Pop Warner is credited with inventing the Single Wing offense in 1906 at the Cornell. From 1906 until World War II the Single Wing offense was the preferred system of high school, college, and professional football teams across America. Coaching legends Knute Rockne and Amos Alonzo Stagg coached the offense with great success.
Revival of the Single Wing Offense The last vestige of the college Single Wing had been Denison University (OH) – where it was abandoned with the passing of Coach Keith Piper – until its recent re-emergence in the offenses at Arkansas, Clemson, Arizona State, Ohio State, Arkansas State, and Florida. Until the recent arrival of the “Wildcat” no NFL team had used the Single Wing offense since the Pittsburgh Steelers of the early 1950s.
Through the efforts of dedicated Single Wing mentor coaches who understand the considerable advantages of the offense – especially at the youth, middle school, and high school levels – there now exists a small but dedicated population of coaches who enjoy an average 70% win to loss ratio. Many of these coaches regularly compete for league, state, and nation- al championships. Credit for the education of this new generation of Single Wing coaches can be given to Single Wing loyalists who have shared their knowlege through the annual National Single Wing Coaches Association Symposium and the annual Wilkes-Barre (PA) Single Wing Conclave – both significant venues for the education of coaches wishing to transform their teams into winners.
Gold Ball Football • 21 Lily Pond Drive • Camden, Maine 04843 • www.goldballfootball.com
TM Single Wing System Pro Set Offense vs Single Wing It seems only human nature that youth, middle school, and high school coaches prepare their teams by adopting the more familiar offensive systems currently seen in college and pro football. These systems – while appropriate for teams comprised of all-star athletes – often require more ability than the average youth, middle school, or high school player can deliv- er. Yet without first considering whether their young players can master the skills needed to become successful in the system, many young coaches go full-speed-ahead into a question- able strategy of one-on-one match-ups. Pro SeT
In contrast, the Single Wing offense relies on a synchronized, team-oriented strategy to move the ball. The base play in many Single Wing packages is the strong side off-tackle run. To ensure that the defense does not overload to the strong side off-tackle play most Single Wing power se- ries include sweeps, counters, traps and wedge plays – all run from the same formation. To make it even more deceptive, the ball is snapped to any of three backs who have a variety of backfield actions at their disposal including hand-offs, pitches, spins, and motion. It is this “who has the ball?” backfield action that causes many to label the Single Wing as a gimmick offense when in reality it is a hard-nosed, down-your-throat, power run offense.
The Single Wing offense is designed to: • Place more players at the point of attack with an unbalanced formation, • Overpower at the point of attack with down blocks, kick-out blocks, and lead blocks, • Run the ball from any of four backfield positions, and • Make blocking more successful as the defense tends to condense down.
A common misconception of the Single Wing offense is that, since there is no designated quarterback position, there is no passing in the Unbalanced single wing system. This is far from reality. Nationally, the average Single Wing team passes on approximately 10% of their plays from scrimmage. The Championship Single Wing Systems is designed to pass on 30-40% of plays.
In short, the real advantage of the Single Wing offense is that it more than levels the playing field allowing average athletes to be successful against more physically gifted opponents.
Gold Ball Football • 21 Lily Pond Drive • Camden, Maine 04843 • www.goldballfootball.com
TM Single Wing System