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Tuesday, August 18, 1998
True believers keep their wishbone options
alive
By JENNIFER FLOYD
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
FORT WORTH, Texas -- Coaches scribbled furiously, clutching
notebooks and No. 2 pencils in hopes of capturing a bit of the
Marcus mystique.
Fresh from a Class 5A Division II state high school championship,
Marauders coach Que Brittain was preaching his one-back philosophy,
and he had more than a few converts from a standing-room-only,
coaching-clinic crowd during the past off-season.
Meanwhile, at the same clinic, Rice coach Ken Hatfield held
an intimate gathering with about 25 coaches.
His topic? Triple option, usually known as the wishbone offense.
His audience? Dyed-in-the-wool triple-option coaches like Lake
Highlands High School coach Jerry Gayden and Lewisville's Ronnie
Gage, trying to find a fresh twist to an old scheme.
"Not too many coaches doing it anymore," Gayden admitted.
A surprising statement considering that the wishbone formation
once defined Texas' football inventiveness.
Now wishbone attacks defy Texas convention.
"A pure wishbone like Oklahoma and Texas used to play
doesn't exist," Hatfield conceded. "Now a lot of coaches
run a variation of that, a lot of option-based offenses, and having
more success at it than 10 years ago."
Time has added wrinkles to a Texas high school repertoire that
once fed solely on stout rushing and then wishbone-based attacks.
High school attacks, like college brethren, now focus on a
big, mobile quarterback with a strong arm, quick wide receivers
and a strong running back, who sometimes is the "one"
back, with other backs split out as receivers.
Most coaches, however, admit to still finding a little bit
of inspiration in option philosophy.
"We're not as sophisticated as some option teams. We run
the option to complement the pass," Austin Westlake coach
Ron Schroeder said of his mostly pass-oriented attack. "But
we actually do use some of the old wishbone philosophy."
Said Brownwood assistant coach Ted Willmann: "And coaches
that are committed to the wishbone are going to make it live."
It's alive all right, but this is not your daddy's wishbone
being run everywhere from Rice University to Goldthwaite High.
In fact, it's been tweaked and twisted so much that in some
forms it is hardly recognizable from the formation that Emory
Bellard developed while an assistant at Texas in 1968.
Once upon a time, Bellard had halfbacks line up farther from
scrimmage than a lone fullback, providing a Y-shaped formation
and a trio of options.
No. 1: A quick handoff to a fullback.
No. 2: A quarterback run off tackle.
No. 3: A quarterback pitch to a halfback.
Texas used this simple formula to win 30 consecutive games
from 1968-70 and play in six consecutive Cotton Bowls from 1968-73.
"When Texas was winning championships with a 'bone so
did -1/8high school coaches-3/8, and when they stopped the 'bone
so did we," Breckenridge coach Ross Dodson said. "We
pattern ourselves after colleges." Houston Stratford coach
Oscar Cripps remembers first seeing a wishbone while watching
Texas play Oklahoma State in 1968.
He wanted that scheme for himself and introduced a wishbone
at Stratford in 1970. By 1978, he had built a Class 4A state championship
team that featured Craig James at running back.
He has reinvented his system a couple of times since then,
and now he has returned to pure triple option.
"You don't change things that were good in your life,"
said Cripps, about to enter his 25th season at Stratford. "Why
give 'em up? Just add more branches to that foundation."
A natural progression, flashier offensive alternatives and
defensive adjustments have made adaptations necessary for wishbone
coaches.
Gayden encountered problems in 1995 as defenses were anticipating
Lake Highlands' attack. So his coaches gathered during an off
day, looking for a wrinkle. A couple of X's and O's were plotted.
"Somebody said 'No, you can't do that. It's never been
done.' So coaches literally went outside," Gayden said. "One
played fullback, one played halfback. We played with it some out
there and came in that week and started doing it with the kids."
Midline option, a scheme that shrinks width and keeps the action
between the defensive ends, was born that day and has brought
a few coaches back to triple-option ball.
A few fervent believers always will remain, such as Lewisville,
Lake Highlands, Brownwood and Goldthwaite, to name a few teams.
"I don't think there's any doubt you'll see option football
again," said Lewisville's Gage, who has two state championships
in the 1990s. "Fans think it's football to see this wide-open
style, and it may be, but to me option is just as exciting."
Numbers seem to indicate a trend toward passing styles, says
Bobby Burton, editor of 'National Recruiting Advisor'.
He says Marcus' one-back system has become Texas' most popular,
and local trends seem to indicate that, too.
In District 11-4A, Colleyville Heritage, Grapevine, Carroll
and Fossil Ridge plan to incorporate the one-back this season.
Carroll at one time defined a wishbone team, winning championships
in 1988, '92 and '93 under then-coach Bob Ledbetter with a triple
option.
Coach Tom Rapp heads into this season planning on featuring
NCAA Division I prospect quarterback Nathan Chandler.
Coaches change, schemes change, personnel changes.
But Burton says that, like run-and-shoot and wing-T schemes,
the one-back formation likely will be replaced when a newer and
flashier formation comes along or defenses catch on.
"The wishbone has had more staying power than anything,"
Burton said.
A big part of that has been the ability of triple-option coaches
and their willingness to keep changing a once-unstoppable formula
and giving it a new name.
"It just depends on what you call an apple. Some say Granny
Smith, some say Red Delicious, but an apple is an apple,"
Hatfield said. "And an option is an option."
Said Gage: "I don't think there's any doubt that you'll
see option fooball become popular again. It works too well not
to come back."
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Distributed by The Associated Press
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