Wishbone formation

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A variant of the wishbone formation with two running backs (RB), two wide receivers (WR), a quarterback (QB), a fullback (FB), and five down linemen (OL). The basic wishbone formation has one tight end and one wide receiver.
A variant of the wishbone formation with two running backs (RB), two wide receivers (WR), a quarterback (QB), a fullback (FB), and five down linemen (OL). The basic wishbone formation has one tight end and one wide receiver.

The wishbone formation, also known simply as the ’bone or the wishbone offense, is a play formation in American football.

The wishbone is primarily a running formation with one wide receiver, one tight end and three running backs behind the quarterback (who takes the snap under center). The back lined up behind the quarterback is the fullback and the other two are halfbacks (although they may be called tailbacks or I backs in some playbook terminology).

The wishbone is often associated with the option as this formation allows the quarterback to easily run the option to either side of the line. It is also ideal for running the Triple Option.

The wishbone offense is very similar in nature to the Veer offense created by Bill Yeoman at the University of Houston.

[edit] History

Coach Charles "Spud" Cason started running the formation that was to become known as the wishbone in 1952 when Monnig Jr High first opened its doors. Monnig is located in Ft. Worth, Texas.

"I've heard that a junior-high coach in Fort Worth, Spud Cason, invented the formation in an effort to get a slow fullback into the play quicker. But it was Emory Bellard as offensive coach for Darrell Royal who took the alignment and added the triple option that made it almost unstoppable....if you had the right people to run it."- quote from Barry Switzer's book "BOOTLEGGER'S BOY" page 72.

The wishbone was developed for the college game by Offensive Coordinator Emory Bellard under Head Coach Darrell Royal at the University of Texas in 1968. Bellard began his coaching career in the high school ranks winning Texas state championships in 1958 and 1959 using a wishbone-like option offense. Royal directed Bellard to come up with an option offense after watching Texas A&M, running Gene Stallings' option offense, beat Bear Bryant's Alabama team in the Cotton Bowl the previous season. After experimenting with family members over the summer, Coach Bellard came up with the formation.

Coach Bellard demonstrated the formation to Darrell Royal, who quickly embraced the idea. It proved to be a wise choice: Texas tied its first game running the new offense, lost the second, and then won the next thirty straight games, leading to two National Championships using the formation.

Bellard later left Texas and, using the wishbone, guided Texas A&M and Mississippi State to bowl appearances in the late 1970s.

It was given the name wishbone by the Houston Chronicle sportswriter Mickey Herskowitz.

A variation to this formation is called the flexbone.

Ironically, the longest running wishbone offense was run not by Texas but by their arch-rivals, the University of Oklahoma, who ran variations of the wishbone well into the mid 1990s. Oklahoma coaching great Barry Switzer has been controversially credited by many for having "perfected" the use of the wishbone offense.

The wishbone's reliance on execution and discipline make it a favorite to this day of programs that routinely play opponents with superior size and speed, such as the Air Force Academy.