The Single Wing Offense has one of the oldest and most storied histories in all of football. After seemingly disappearing from the game, it has come back in force in recent years.

And that’s what we’re going to talk about on this episode of The Football Coaching Podcast. The modern day Single Wing that you can run with your own football team, right now.

I’ll be looking specifically at the Unbalanced Single Wing as popularized by Coach Rick Darlington from Apopka High School (FL).

Learn the philosophy and the thought process behind this unique offensive attack. Whether you want to install it, have to defend it, or are just curious - this is going to be a great episode!

You’ve got the playbooks printed. The players will be there. Are you ready, coach?

This week in The Football Coaching Podcast we’re looking at preparing for those critical pre-season practices. Getting your team ready for Week 1, when it really counts.

Everyone wants a cookie cutter answer to installing your offense or defense. It’s not that easy. You can’t just run practice plans someone hands you. It’s the same as running a playbook you download from the internet with no understanding of the How or Why.

This episode shares my 4-Step Blueprint for Pre-Season Practice Planning. I’ve established the four main goals of pre-season practice, and then put together a framework for planning how to get all of this in.

Links

In this podcast, I referenced a few other podcasts and resources…

Episode 125 - 5 Keys to Perfect Practice Planning

Episode 80 - The 4 Types of Defense in Football

The 33 Stack Defense: Run Fits is on my YouTube Channel

The Wing-T Offense has always been a fascination of mine. Even though I’ve never really coached the system.

For this episode of The Football Coaching Podcast, I’m indulging that fascination by exploring the origins of the Delaware Wing-T Offense.

You might know the story. You probably don’t. I didn’t.

Tubby Raymond is not a major part of this tale. In fact, he marks the end of the story.

Instead, we’ll talk about the true origins of the Delaware Wing-T Offense. A story that begins with Dave Nelson, Harold Westerman and Mike Lude.

And it doesn’t even start at the University of Delaware. Nope.

This story starts in Maine.

A few key resources for this episode…

I’ve had a blast gathering information for this episode. Here are the key pieces so you can read them for yourself:

• Dave Nelson, Tubby Raymond and the Rise of the Wing-T Offense by Doc Bear. Big help in getting started on the right path.
• Mike Lude… An Originator of the Wing-T by Hugh Wyatt. Coach Wyatt has been on the podcast, and this kind of first-hand knowledge was exactly what I was looking for.
• Appendix III: History of the “Winged T” - by Harold S. Westerman posted by Dave Westerman. I think this was posted by Harold Westerman’s son on his personal blog. It was a really good read. No idea what it is the appendix to.
• The Grand Experiment: Dietzel’s Ingenuity Results in National Title by Marty Mule’. Not much related to the Wing-T and most of it is only interesting if you care about LSU football history. Tells the story of LSU’s 1958 season, which got started in part with Paul Dietzel switching to the Wing-T Offense.
• Fritz Crisler’s 1947 Single Wing Playbook is an interesting look.
• And to balance it out, this is a good look at the T Offense from Kyle McElvany. I also found Frank Leahy’s book on the T Formation pretty cheap on Amazon.

This week is a special Football Coaching Podcast mailbag episode. I’m answering questions from coaches on all kinds of topics.

I’ll be discussing…

• How to coach the 7-technique (or 6i) Defensive End. This is a follow-up on the last episode about the 6-Tech Defensive End
• How do you get into coaching, when you don’t want to be a teacher?
• What coverage options do you have for Trips formations in the Miami 4-3 Defense?
• ...some other things, I don’t clearly recall, because I was recording this episode at about 3am before leaving for vacation the next day.

That in itself should make Episode 202 of The Football Coaching Podcast a must-listen! I’ll have to listen too, because I have no idea what’s in there.

For an in depth look at the 4-2-5 Defense, I’ve got an exclusive video series you can check out at http://425defense.com/podcast. You’ll get instant access to the first video on the foundations of the 4-2-5 Defense, with two more videos to follow.