A Dissection of a Series (Part One)

Today I want to begin a series of articles on sequence-based football. The objective behind sequence football (also called "series" football) is to make every play look as closely similar as possible at the snap and for the first few steps into the play. This forces the defenders to commit based on what they think is happening, and a properly constructed series will place a defender in the wrong position most of the time by default; whatever action he has to take to put himself in position to defend play "A" of the series will take him out of position for play "C" of the series, and so on.

At the youth level, the most dangerous play is usually the sweep. There are a lot of reasons for this, but one that sometimes is forgotten is instinct. If you give a player a ball and tell him to run away from the defense, he runs to where he sees open field, usually to either side. Then he turns downfield and heads for the goal line. The sweep in my playbook doesn't work because I'm a great coach, but because of the natural instinct an athlete has to run away from where there are tacklers.

So, if most youth coaches are going to run some sort of sweep, let's look at a series that starts there, and expands in all directions while still staying true to the idea of series-based football.

Perhaps no system is more focused on series football than the venerable and efficient Wing-T. Developed in the early 1940's as an extension of the under-center T-formation, the Wing-T allowed the offensive coach to force the defense to respect both sides of the formation as a run threat, but in different ways.

Shown in the diagram above, the base formation features a "Wing" on one side, with a tight end and a back in close proximity to one another, allowing for double teams on the defensive end, as well as providing a natural rub angle for bunch passing attacks. On the weak side, the end is split 7-10 yards from the tackle, not necessarily to isolate him for the passing game, but to give him an excellent crack angle for a down block that can spring the quick pitch sweep.

In the backfield, a halfback sits approximately four yards deep and with his outside foot splitting the tail of the tackle on his side. A fullback aligns anywhere from four and a half to five yards depth directly behind the quarterback. His depth should depend on his acceleration and allow him to reach almost full speed before striking a hole opening in the center of the formation.

The series I want to talk about here is the "20" series in standard Wing-T nomenclature, or the "Buck Sweep," as it is also known. You can find it in just about any offense, and from almost any formation, but it always features three distinct parts:

1) A fullback play that strikes directly between the guards. Whether this is a "Cut" (playside trap) like the Vallotton Double Wing, or the 124 Guard Trap out of the traditional Wing-T, or an inside zone out of a Split-Back Pro look, or even simply a dive out of the I-Formation, this play forces the inside linebackers to honor it first and foremost before pursuing the sweep that is the horizontal stretch.

2) A halfback sweep action that attacks the perimeter almost immediately at the snap and is executed as close to simultaneously to the dive action as can be timed on the field. This play usually relies on the speed of the halfback to get around the corner, but great gains can be made if the defense overpursues and the back can cut against the grain. You see this play as the traditional "Packer sweep" and also in the pros "end around". (Which is not a reverse, no matter what Joe Theismann says.)

3) A combination quarterback keep/rollout pass play that occurs almost immediately after the sweep action and forces the defense to react simultaneously across both perimeter points of attack. Since defenses usually structure their pursuit to "roll towards" a sweep, allowing the corners and outside linebackers to force the ball back inside, two perimeter attacks at one time has the effect of drawing the defense apart down the middle, opening the way for the fullback.

3a) With the addition of a couple of slight adjustments to the eligible receivers and their pass routes, a "Waggle" play can be added to the quarterback keep, allowing for a run/pass option that again forces the defense out of position; a corner rolling up to prevent the run has almost no ability to defend a pass thrown over his head. He is entirely dependent on the free safety assistance over the top, and if the free safety is reacting to the perceived dive or sweep on the other side of the field, he will be well out of position to assist on the pass.

What makes this series so effective, especially at the youth level, is the conservation of effort that it allows. By practicing the series without footballs and focusing on the steps each player must take no matter where the ball goes, it is possible to make the entire series look almost identical. This means, for the first few seconds after the snap, the defense has absolutely no clue whatsoever where the ball is or where it is going.

When I have installed this series, whether from out of a Wing-T look, or the I-Formation, or even my beloved Double Wing, I generally rep it with the offensive backfield some 150-200 times without a football. Although this sounds like a lot, it really isn't. I'm using just the backs, and the timing drill we work on every day allows us to get approximately 40 reps every ten minutes during our individual period each day. (Indo usually features a five minute drill of some manner, such as exchanges or ball security or aggressive running, and then 20-25 minutes of timing work where we perfect the backfield actions of each play.)

In most offenses that are not series-focused, each play should receive 150-200 reps of the backfield actions before seeing game day grass. That means the four plays described, if they were broken among a typical grab-bag youth offense, would require 150x4=600 reps to perfect.

With a series-based format, however, the entire series can be repped in the same amount of time. I'm sure you can see the benefits. (Now get tricky: find 4-8 offensive formations that allow you to run the same series without altering any of the responsibilities. Now flip those formations and run the same sets and actions to the other side of the field. To the defense, it looks like you have 400 potential plays, but your offense is only learning one four-play series and eight formations! This is what I mean when I say "simply complex.")

While the backfield is working to perfect their movements, the offensive line divides their time into a) learning the assignments for that day's two plays from the series (generally starting with the trap/dive first and then the sweep second), and b) getting reps of plays previously installed.

During team time (anywhere from 20-45 minutes, depending on the time of year and how much of the offense is installed), we focus on running the specific plays called on to rehearse during that day's practice against a myriad of defensive fronts (Gap-8, 7-1, 6-2, 5-3, 4-4, etc) in the preseason, and against our next opponent's most likely defense in the regular season. During this period, we teach the line to make any necessary calls against a defensive front, how to react to blitzing linebackers, and we can even "front load" the next day's offensive line responsibilities. The backs should focus during this period on faking correctly; series-based systems fail miserably when they don't fool the defense.

It's with no small amount of pleasure that I see the Wing-T sliding downward in popularity against the "sexier" Spread-based offenses that have been the craze since about 2004. This means that the most popular and effective offense in history is becoming less and less well known to defensive coordinators, increasing your chances of success with it.

Don't forget that this one series is just a tiny, tiny fraction of what the Wing-T has to offer you, should you choose to run it, and equally important is the knowledge that you can run the Buck Sweep series as part of virtually any offensive system, from the West Coast to the Run and Shoot, if you keep to the simply principles I've outlined and force the defense to honor a dive/trap, sweep, and keep/pass all at the same time!

It works.

Next week I'll talk more about the responsibilities of the offensive backfield in this series.

For more information, see: 

1. Creehan, Dennis. The Wing-T from A to Z: The Base Plan. [Monterey, Calif.]: Coaches Choice, 1999. Print.
2. Creehan, Dennis. The Wing-T from A to Z: Installing the System. [Monterey, Calif.]: Coaches Choice, 1999. Print.
3. Coverdale, Andrew, and Dan Robinson. The Bunch Attack: Using Compressed, Clustered Formations in the Passing Game. Champaign, IL: Coaches Choice, 1997. Print.
4. Raymond, Harold R., and Ted Kempski. The Delaware Wing-T: the Running Game. Champaign, IL: Coaches Choice, 1998. Print.
5. Gentry, Dan. Football's Mis-direction Wing-T with Multi-points of Attack. Champaign, IL: Coaches Choice, 1997. Print.
6. Cox, Gene. The Multiple Offense. Lake City, FL: Hunter Printing, 1996. Print.