It seems as though a lot of Louisville area teams (think Shawnee, Iroqouis, etc) that could benefit from running a version of the Wing-T refuse to do so. Seems as though a lot of these schools in the area want to run the spread with poor size & execution rather than something that may be beneficial to them. With the new resides in Louisville - football participation outside of the bigger known schools seems to be trending down and that could be due to poor performances. Who are some around the Greater Louisville and surrounding area schools that run it successfully that they should be taking inspiration from? 

I can always get behind the idea of some Wing T football!!

I appreciate you thinking out for those teams @JimmieJoeXO as very few (although several on this site do) do.

The thing with running the Wing T is you not only need the kids to run it; you perhaps even moreso need coaches who know alot about it to run it.  I'm not convinced there are a ton of Coaches out there with significant Wing T experience anymore.  Maybe that is why you don't see it as much anymore.

Another issue IMO is kids don't want to run it.  All they see is ESPN clips of throwing the ball in the spread.  

I think the schools you mentioned are doing great just to find coaches who will put in the time to support those programs and kids, as many of you know it's more than just X and Os.  It's navigating life ups and downs for kids not driving Land Rovers.  

I'm not against the Wing T, but outside of Scott County I don't see it being very successful in today's football.  Mostly because when you get behind, you're sunk.  It isn't set up to catch up quick.  

Spencer County runs it & I believe Oldham County runs a version of it, at least they do at the MS level.

I think @Purple88said it best in that you really need the coaches to run it more so than the kids & that’s the problem at some of those schools.  The coaches don’t stay long enough to implement the system & see it through.

It doesn’t have to be the Wing T. But just anything that just keeps the game on the ground. I cannot stand when a team throws it 45 times to lose by 60 (this doesn’t necessarily apply to the teams mentioned above). By throwing the ball you are dragging the game out, increasing TOs, and hurting your team. 
 

To @Purple88 point, in theory you should get more kids out by running a flashy “pass first” “spread em out” offense. But the fact of the matter is many bad teams do not have great numbers—so why not do something to slow the game down a bit and give your team a chance. With all of that being said, I agree with Purp that it’s far more of a Jimmys and Joes than X’s and O’s thing. 

I believe Spencer County runs an offense that, at the very least, has Wing-T concepts. Central Hardin has been very run heavy in the past years with an offense that, as I remember the last time seeing them play, has some Wing-T and wishbone-type aspects.

I know there are some teams outside Louisville and the surrounding counties that run similar offenses that are or have been run-heavy and have aspects of the wishbone, flexbone, and wing-t. Think Belfry, Scott County, Johnson Central (if my memory serves correct). 

Concerning the smaller Louisville schools, not sure how that would work out. Have to have the coaches who know how to coach it. Isn't by any means a system you can implement tomorrow and instantly gain wins.

 

1 hour ago, WishboneCity said:

It doesn’t have to be the Wing T. But just anything that just keeps the game on the ground. I cannot stand when a team throws it 45 times to lose by 60 (this doesn’t necessarily apply to the teams mentioned above). By throwing the ball you are dragging the game out, increasing TOs, and hurting your team. 
 

To @Purple88 point, in theory you should get more kids out by running a flashy “pass first” “spread em out” offense. But the fact of the matter is many bad teams do not have great numbers—so why not do something to slow the game down a bit and give your team a chance. With all of that being said, I agree with Purp that it’s far more of a Jimmys and Joes than X’s and O’s thing. 

This is the greater point here. I love the wing T, obviously, but it takes a lot to coach it and to get kids to remember all of it. 
 

Doss, for example, improved MIGHTILY this year and it’s almost all because they just simply run the football. I Formation, tackle over, run the football at you. A lot of lesser level teams could learn from them!!

Coach Glaser would most likely agree about running the football.

I was a dad coach at LCA (back in the Dark Ages) at the beginning of their football program. Then we got Paul Rains (a Real coach) who installed the Wing T.

LCA went from getting trounced by everyone, to beating Beechwood 3 years later (and winning a state championship 4 years after that). The Wing T gave a group of undermanned and undersized players a chance to win.

All teams should have elements of the triple option in their offense. It allows you to be competitive even if you are outmatched physically or athletically.

I remember not 7-8 years ago that people wanted the wing-T outlawed. Thought it was obsolete and prevented teams from growing their players and programs into the modern game. South Oldham ran the wing-T with great success under coach Jamie Reed for years. To his credit he adopted more passing concepts depending on his players ability. At the collegiate level the service academies do a great job being competitive using this system. 

Watching today’s game at the college and pro level it seems to me concepts from the wing-T and the Single Wing (which we ran in high school in the 70’s) are being used a little more. If you have a dual threat QB that can read a defense and throw the ball you have a tough offense to defend. 
I believe a lot of schools that don’t have the numbers and/or the talent should look into using the wing-T and give their players a chance to compete!

I grew up during the era Ivan McGlone coached at Russell. Coach McGlone was known for his Wing-T offense, winning state championships in 1978 and 2005. When you prepared for Russell and had everything to look at on paper, it looked like a simple offense to stop. Read your keys, line up properly and maintain gap discipline. You compete against it for real, and there is a lot of confusion with ball movement, you have to be disciplined with your keys or you will pay. A QB in this offense can be tough to defend if they can throw the ball well or run the ball, but they can be an absolute nightmare to defend if they can do a solid job of hiding the football and the backs explode to the line when carrying out their fakes. I know of a quarterback in the 1990's who was recruited to play college for the lone reason that he was so talented at hiding the football. 

Although I know we're going quite a few years back to 2005, Russell played an Owensboro Catholic team in the state finals that ran the offense that a lot of what teams today run. Owensboro Catholic averaged around 38 points per game offensively and pulled a stunning upset of Fort Campbell in the regional finals, who many projected to win 2A that year. Russell would come into the state finals, executing a clock control game plan that kept the more modern Owensboro Catholic offense off the field on the way to a 27-14 victory. 

@FootballBobcat made a good point about how it feels like some pro teams utilize some of the concepts. I have not watched the NFL as much over the past decade or so, but the times I have I would agree there are more elements of the Wing-T offense being run than in my high school and college years when I often watched it.

A fun fact is that the Wing-T was actually used in the NFL at one time as the main offense for a team! It happened in 1978 with the Kansas City Chiefs. The coach was Marv Levy, who would eventually lead the Buffalo Bills to four consecutive Super Bowl appearances. Coach Levy implemented the offense with the Chiefs so that they could control the clock and keep what was 1977's second worst defense in points allowed (and the league's worst defense in yardage allowed) off the field considering they gave up almost 5,000 yards that season. In 1978 team ended going up 4-12, but the offense averaged close to 200 rushing yards per game and the team did move up a few notches defensively moreso due to their clock control offense. In 1979 it was still used but not as much as the team made major strides defensively that season.

Although this was mentioned in the other Wing-T thread, a good team to watch that incorporates a lot of the Gun-T elements is Kirtland, OH. They are extremely disciplined. Kirtland is almost always undersized compared to their opponents on the offensive line yet they do an excellent job setting up their blocks. Coach Tiger LaVerde has utilized his power running offense to win seven state championships.

Having run the wing t for years to a pretty high level of success one thing I can attest to is that it is much more complex in the offensive line play than people might realize. If you are in a transient school or a school that doesn't have a solid feeder program it becomes much more difficult to execute. It can be done but it would need to be much more limited in the plays (series) that you run imo. 

7 hours ago, TCR said:

I grew up during the era Ivan McGlone coached at Russell. Coach McGlone was known for his Wing-T offense, winning state championships in 1978 and 2005. When you prepared for Russell and had everything to look at on paper, it looked like a simple offense to stop. Read your keys, line up properly and maintain gap discipline. You compete against it for real, and there is a lot of confusion with ball movement, you have to be disciplined with your keys or you will pay. A QB in this offense can be tough to defend if they can throw the ball well or run the ball, but they can be an absolute nightmare to defend if they can do a solid job of hiding the football and the backs explode to the line when carrying out their fakes. I know of a quarterback in the 1990's who was recruited to play college for the lone reason that he was so talented at hiding the football. 

Although I know we're going quite a few years back to 2005, Russell played an Owensboro Catholic team in the state finals that ran the offense that a lot of what teams today run. Owensboro Catholic averaged around 38 points per game offensively and pulled a stunning upset of Fort Campbell in the regional finals, who many projected to win 2A that year. Russell would come into the state finals, executing a clock control game plan that kept the more modern Owensboro Catholic offense off the field on the way to a 27-14 victory. 

@FootballBobcat made a good point about how it feels like some pro teams utilize some of the concepts. I have not watched the NFL as much over the past decade or so, but the times I have I would agree there are more elements of the Wing-T offense being run than in my high school and college years when I often watched it.

A fun fact is that the Wing-T was actually used in the NFL at one time as the main offense for a team! It happened in 1978 with the Kansas City Chiefs. The coach was Marv Levy, who would eventually lead the Buffalo Bills to four consecutive Super Bowl appearances. Coach Levy implemented the offense with the Chiefs so that they could control the clock and keep what was 1977's second worst defense in points allowed (and the league's worst defense in yardage allowed) off the field considering they gave up almost 5,000 yards that season. In 1978 team ended going up 4-12, but the offense averaged close to 200 rushing yards per game and the team did move up a few notches defensively moreso due to their clock control offense. In 1979 it was still used but not as much as the team made major strides defensively that season.

Although this was mentioned in the other Wing-T thread, a good team to watch that incorporates a lot of the Gun-T elements is Kirtland, OH. They are extremely disciplined. Kirtland is almost always undersized compared to their opponents on the offensive line yet they do an excellent job setting up their blocks. Coach Tiger LaVerde has utilized his power running offense to win seven state championships.

Ivan McGlone is absolutely the first name that comes to mind when it comes to the Wing-T and Kentucky HS football.  Hard to believe that anyone else did it better for longer. 
 

@ChiefSmoke