Back in the 1980s, many HS coaches sought an edge by adopting the pass-centric offensive system evolved by LaVell Edwards at BYU. His system was the pre-cursor to what Hal Mumme and Mike Leach evolved into the “Air Raid” that has been the football orthodoxy for the last 25 years. When the proper talent can be assembled (receivers, freakishly athletic OLs, and a QB) it can be an explosive force…

Without precisely the right talent, it is a shitshow.

The coaches at my high school were students of the game. They were well-prepared, knowledgeable, highly competent, motivated, and experienced. They were certain that BYU’s cutting-edge passing game was the answer to WHS’s lack of athletes. They were confident they could X-and-O the Warriors to gridiron success.

We went 0-10.

Our offense was a circus of long gains that were immediately nullified by sacks, holding penalties, incompletions, and interceptions. We could not sustain a drive, move the sticks, or flip the field. As a result, our defense was on the field, starting in our end, for 2/3 of every game.

0-10 coaches are almost always replaced. The new staff brought in a run-oriented, power/misdirection offense called the Wing T. They went 5-5 in 1988, then 10-0 in 1989.

Witnessing that turnaround had a profound impact on me.

When I started coaching, I knew I instinctively that running the ball would give my teams the best chance. I found and implemented John T. Reed’s single wing offense and my teams suddenly began to move the ball, sustain drives, and score. From there, I discovered the Double Wing through videos by Hugh Wyatt and Don Markham. They beguiled my mind and I immediately began melding their concepts into Reed’s single wing.

The last piece of evolution was the sidesaddle. After many fumbles while attempting to get a wedge snap to a sniffer back, I got frustrated and put the sniffer in the open QB stance. It immediately worked. The wedges were crisper and quicker and the kickout angles were significantly better. The sidesaddle single wing was born.

The league I coach in is isolated. It is very difficult to recruit kids from other areas. I have never been a strong recruiter, myself, and I do not really aspire to assemble an all star team. That process requires cutting players. I have never run a marginal player off and I do not even have the will to do it. I’ll leave that to the trophy-chasers. Instead, I want to see what I can do with the hand I’m dealt. You build relationships with these kids. Your heart bleeds for them. Your pride swells with them when they knock off a team vastly more talented. It’s a deeply satisfying experience for me to turn rec teams into contenders. If one must recruit an all star team to win a trophy, then so be it. I don’t begrudge them. But we have to find another way to success.

Therefore, we run the ball.

I’ve heard all the critiques of my offense a thousand times.
“That is not real football.”
“You have to pass!”
“That stupid/ugly/simplistic offense will never work in 4th grade.”
“It’ll never work in 5th grade.”
“It’ll never work in 6th grade.”
“It’ll never work in 7th grade.”
“It’ll never work in 8th grade.”

We run the same core plays in 8th grade that we ran in 2nd grade. Wedge. Power. Sweep. Counter.

Our 8th grade team gained 286.4 yards per game… our second best output ever.

This past year, despite a 4th place schedule, our rec team out-gained every opponent we played except 1. 4 of those opponents have significant numbers of out-of-area recruits on their roster. We have zero. We are a 100% rec team. We finished 5th out of 26 teams.

People can mock and sneer all they want, but there are no “style points” awarded in football. If you want a trophy, cut your weaker players loose and go get the dudes. But if you want to make a difference for a group of kids, give them a chance to succeed. Run the ball.

VIDEO:
https://www.hudl.com/video/2/689994/66ddee81203630716602987e