The wishbone formation , also known only as bone , is an offensive formation in American soccer. The attack style it generates is known as the wishbone attack. Like the widespread offenses of the 2000s, wishbone was considered the most productive and innovative offensive scheme in college football during the 1970s and 1980s.
Video Wishbone formation
Histori
While notebooks typically refer to Emory Bellard developing a wishbone formation in 1968 as offensive coordinator in Texas, wishbone roots can be traced back to the 1950s. According to Barry Switzer, it was Charles "Spud" Cason, the football coach at William Monnig Junior High School of Fort Worth, Texas, who first modified the classic T formation to "get slow back into the game faster." Cason calls the formation "Monnig T". Bellard learned about Cason's tactics while training at Breckenridge High School, a small community west of Fort Worth.
Earlier in his career, Bellard saw a similar approach applied by former Lion Detroit keeper Ox Emerson, then head coach at Alice High School near Corpus Christi, Texas. Trying to avoid frequent attacks on his offensive line, Emerson moved one of the early guards into the backfield, allowing him to get a good start on the opponent's line. Bellard served as Emerson's assistant at the time. During his high school coaching career in the late 50s and early 60s, Bellard adopted the basic approach of Cason and Emerson, as he won two championships of the 3 states of Texas Breckenridge in 1958 and 1959 and the state title 4A at San Angelo Central High School on in 1966, using a wishbone-like option violation.
In 1967, Bellard was employed by Darrell Royal and became the offensive coordinator a year later. Texas Longhorns scored only 18.6 points per game in 6-4 seasons in 1967. After watching Texas A & amp; M - runs the Gene Stallings offense option - beating Bear Bryant's team in Alabama in the 1968 Cotton Bowl Classic, Royal instructed Bellard to design three three-way back infringement options for a new three-man field. Bellard tries to combine his old high school tactics with a choice of three Stallings out of the Slot-I formation and Homer Rice variations of Veer, an attack formation created by Bill Yeoman.
Introducing a new offensive scheme early in the 1968 season, Houston Chronicle sports writer Mickey Herskowitz claimed it looked like a "pulley bone", while Royal agreed but changed the name to "wishbone". Royal quickly embraced the idea of ââwishbone, which proved to be a wise choice: Texas tied up his first game that ran a new offense, lost the second, and then won the next 30 straight games, leading to two national championships using formations. In 1971 the Royal denounced Bear Bryant, who was so enamored with him that he installed it in Alabama complete with his own touch.
Bellard then left Texas and - using a wishbone - guided Texas A & amp; M and Mississippi State to hold a performance game in the late 1970s. In Mississippi State Bellard "breaks the bone" and introduces the "bone-wing", moves one half of the back toward the wing formation and often sends it moving. Another variation of the wishbone formation is called flexbone .
Ironically, the longest wishbone offense that was run was not run by Texas but by its arch-enemy, the University of Oklahoma, which runs a variation of wishbone until the mid-1990s. Oklahoma coach Barry Switzer has been credited by some for "perfecting" the use of the wishbone attack and former OU defender Jack Mildren is often referred to as "Godfather of the wishbone" by University of Oklahoma soccer fans. In 1971, Soonbone Oklahoma Sooners violation broke the NCAA's one-season record of 472.4 yards per game, a record that still survives to this day.
The wishbone dependence on execution and discipline, along with its ability to take hours of play, makes it a favorite program that regularly plays opponents with superior size and speed, such as three service academies. The Air Force saw the tremendous success of running the option game from wishbone. In 1985, the Air Force rose to # 2 in the country, barely absent in a national championship game, under head coach Fisher DeBerry. The army saw success using wishbone under head coaches Jim Young and Bob Sutton in the 1980s and early 1990s, leading to a school-only bowl appearance (10-6 wins over Michigan State in 1984 Cherry Bowl; 31-29 win over Illinois in 1985 Peach Bowl, 29-28 loss to Alabama in 1988 Sun Bowl, and loss of 32-29 to Auburn at Mimble Independence 1996) and a 10-win season only.
Phil Jack Dawson, then head coach of Westbrook High School in Westbrook, Maine, developed an effective defense against a wishbone offense that was later used by Texas, called "backbone defense." Dawson contacted Ara Parseghian, then head coach of the University of Notre Dame, and convinced him to use it against Texas in the 1971 Cotton Bowl Classic. Notre Dame beat Texas 24-11.
During the 1987 strike season, the San Francisco 49ers used the wishbone successfully against the New York Giants to win 41-21. Coach Bill Walsh uses wishbone because of his proximity as a quarterback with similar formations in college.
Maps Wishbone formation
Athlete need
The Oklahoma guidebook illustrates the quarterback, the architect behind Wishbone, as, "running back who can throw." They should also have the talent for choice and decision making that lies in the design of play as well as endurance (can not miss the exercise).
Fullback is required to handle physical blows because he often strikes without the ball; he must also be quick with excellent stamina, and become a good blocker.
Running bone
Wishbone is designed to run triple-option with lead blocker. The goal of the option is to eliminate one defender without blocking him. Ideally, the defender should make the choice to get rid of one of the two offensive players. This is a multiple option. This option's offensive scheme forces the defender to choose one of two offensive players who can advance the ball and then allow another offensive player to carry the ball, making any choice that makes the defender choose the "wrong" option. Due to this aspect of the defensive player taking himself out of the game with his choice, an offensive player who would otherwise block the defensive player was now able to block a different defender, putting heavy pressure on the defense to cover the dives, quarterback run, pitch or operand to the receiver.
The triple-option, then, removes the two defenders without blocking them. This frees two offensive linemen to block different defenders, usually within defenders. It isolates the dive and pitch buttons for QB to "read" and must leave only the outside support defenders (usually safety) and cornerbacks to cover the End, which runs deep internal routes. As Pepper Rodgers and Homer Smith said in "Installing Wishbone T Offense Football", "Running Option Three with a major obstacle is the reason for the establishment of Wishbone." This is the concept of "extra blockers" that drive the success of wishbones and their derivatives. The cornerback should close the external receiver. Support/security should support defense run and (usually) include back pitch. The defensive end usually attacks the quarterback and performs a defensive tackle with a full-back dive. This assignment must be done before the game starts and there are a total of eight defenders on both sides of the ball.
As stated above, however, the offense now has a removable lineman to block other defenders, usually inside. The drama is designed to handle five defenders on both sides of the ball. Thus, most defenders can not influence the game, cornerback offside or deep safety, not hindered by the design. The offensive linemen, now free to block inside, can block the first down midfielder into the drama and the first linebacker into the drama. Emory Bellard once said, "If the threat of a fullback can be applied to the defense, the offense is the vote." Then, the lead principle takes over. A backlash can block defense or security and then there is a one-on-one chance for an offensive player with the ball. To stop this attack, the defense must defeat the block or defender's flow to the drama.
This makes wishbone a "complete" offense. Crime expects to get one-on-one in a walking game and one on one in an open space with passing games. Security, which should support running and also defending against pass, is under tremendous pressure in this attack. The basic wishbone triple play option for every defender in the field. Every defender before the game begins. There are invitations to overplay or offset the basic games and too often play or make missteps on the basic game of making open defense for counters that do not get anyone to make amends.
Wishbone has a quarterback taking a snap from the bottom of the center, with a fullback closing behind it, and two halfbacks (sometimes called tailbacks ) farther back, one bit to the left, and the other slightly to the right. The alignment of the four backs makes the form Y upside down, or "wishbone". There is usually one wide receiver and one tight end, but sometimes two wide receivers, or two tight ends.
Source of the article : Wikipedia