Wishbone formation
Encyclopedia
The wishbone formation, also known simply as the ’bone, is an offensive formation
in American football
. The style of attack to which it gives rise is known as the wishbone offense. Like the spread offense in the 2000s, the wishbone was considered to be the most productive and innovative offensive scheme in college football
during the 1970s and 1980s.
The Wishbone was designed to run a Triple Option with a Lead Blocker. The purpose of an option is to eliminate one defender without blocking him. Ideally, the defender must make a choice to eliminate one of two offensive players. This is a Double Option. This Option offensive scheme forces a defender to choose one of two offensive players who can advance the ball and then allows the other offensive player to carry the ball, making whatever choice the defender made the "wrong" choice. Because of this aspect of the defensive player taking himself out of the play by his choice, the offensive player that would otherwise block that defensive player can now block a different defender, placing severe pressure on the defense to cover the dive, the Quarterback run, the pitch or the Pass to a receiver.
The Triple Option, then, eliminates two defenders without blocking them. This frees two Offensive Linemen to block different defenders, usually Inside Defenders. This isolates the Dive Key and the Pitch Key for the QB to "Read" and should leave only an outside Support Defender (usually a Safety) and the Cornerback to cover the End, who is running a deep pass route. As Pepper Rodgers and Homer Smith stated in "Installing Football's Wishbone T Offense", "To run a Triple Option with a lead blocker is the reason for the Wishbone formation." It is the "Extra Blocker" concept that drives the success of the Wishbone and its derivatives. The Cornerback must cover the Outside Receiver. The support/Safety must support the run defense and (usually) covers the Pitch Back. The Defensive End typically attacks the Quarterback and a Defensive Tackle is assigned the Fullback Dive. These assignments must be made before the play begins and that totals eight defensive players to both sides of the ball.
As stated above, however, the Offense now has linemen that can be released to block other defenders, usually inside. The play is designed to handle five defenders on either side of the ball. Thus, the defender least able to affect the play, the offside Cornerback or Deep Safety, is not blocked by design. The Offensive Linemen, now free to block inside, can block the First Down Lineman to the Playside and the first Linebacker to the Playside. The great Emory Bellard once said, "If the threat of the Fullback can be applied to the Defense, the Offense is sound." . Then, the Lead Back Principle takes over. The Lead Back can block the Defensive End or the Safety and there is then a One-on-None possibility for the offensive player with the ball. In order to stop this attack, the defense must defeat blocks or flow defenders to the playside.
This makes the Wishbone a "Complete" Offense. The offense expects to get a One-on-None in the running game and a One-on-One in open space with the passing game. The Safety, who must support the run and also defend against the pass is under tremendous pressure in this attack. The Basic Wishbone Triple Option play accounts for every defender on the field. Every defender is threatened before the Basic Play begins. There is an invitation to overplay or compensate on the Basic Play and overplaying or making a misstep on the Basic Play leaves the Defense open for counters that leave no one to make up for the mistake.
The wishbone has the quarterback
taking the snap from under center, with a fullback
close behind him, and two halfback
s (sometimes called tailbacks) further back, one slightly to the left, and the other slightly to the right. The alignment of the four backs makes an inverted Y, or “wishbone”, shape. There is typically one wide receiver
and one tight end
, but sometimes two wide receivers, or two tight ends.
The wishbone was designed to facilitate a running, option offense
. It allows the quarterback to easily run the Triple Option
to either side of the line. The quarterback first reads the defensive tackle or linebacker who is unblocked. As he reads the tackle/linebacker, he rides the ball in the fullback's stomach. If the defensive tackle/linebacker looks to tackle the fullback the quarterback pulls the ball out and runs down the line to his next option read, usually the defensive end/outside linebacker. If the end/linebacker looks to tackle the quarterback, the ball is pitched to the trailing halfback. The lead halfback is a lead blocker usually looking to block the outside defensive player, a safety or corner. The tight end to the option side 'arc' releases to block the safety.
developing the wishbone formation in 1968 as offensive coordinator
at Texas
, the wishbone's roots can be traced back to the 1950s. According to Barry Switzer
, it was Charles “Spud” Cason, football coach at William Monnig Junior High School of Fort Worth, Texas
, who first modified the classic T formation
in order “to get a slow fullback into the play quicker.” Cason called the formation “Monnig T”. Bellard learned about Cason's tactics while coaching at Breckenridge High School
, a small community west of Fort Worth.
Earlier in his career Bellard saw a similar approach implemented by former Detroit Lions
guard Ox Emerson
, then head coach at Alice High School
near Corpus Christi, Texas
. Trying to avoid the frequent pounding of his offensive line, Emerson moved one of the starting guards into the backfield, enabling him to get a running start at the opposing defensive line. Bellard served as Emerson's assistant at that time. During his high school coaching career in the late '50s and early '60s, Bellard adopted the basic approaches of both Cason and Emerson, as he won two 3A Texas state championships Breckenridge in 1958 and 1959 and a 4A state title at San Angelo Central High School
in 1966, using a wishbone-like option offense.
In 1967 Bellard was hired by Darrell Royal
and became offensive coordinator a year later. The Texas Longhorns
only scored 18.6 points per game in a 6–4 season in 1967. After watching Texas A&M
—running Gene Stallings
' option offense—beat Bear Bryant
's Alabama team in the 1968 Cotton Bowl Classic, Royal instructed Bellard to design a new three-man back-field triple option offense. Bellard tried to merge his old high school tactics with Stallings' triple option out of the Slot-I formation
and Homer Rice
's variations of the Veer
, an offensive formation created by Bill Yeoman
.
Introducing the new offensive scheme at the beginning of the 1968 season, Houston Chronicle
sportswriter Mickey Herskowitz stated it looked like a “pulley bone
”, while Royal agreed but changed the name to “wishbone”. Royal quickly embraced the idea of the wishbone, which 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 game
appearances in the late 1970s. At Mississippi State Bellard “broke the bone” and introduced the “wing-bone”, moving one of the halfback
s up to a wing formation and frequently sending him in motion. Another variation of the wishbone formation is called the flexbone
.
Bear Bryant
at Alabama began to use the wishbone option after visiting Darrell Royal
in 1971.
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 coach Barry Switzer
has been credited by some for having “perfected” the use of the wishbone offense and former OU quarterback Jack Mildren
is often referred to as "the Godfather of the wishbone" throughout College Football lore . The Oklahoma Sooners
wishbone offense set the all-time NCAA rushing average in 1971 of 472.4 yds per game, a record which still stands to this day .
The wishbone's reliance on execution and discipline, along with its ability to eat up the play clock, make it a favorite of programs that routinely play opponents with superior size and speed, such as the three service academies. Air Force
saw tremendous success running the option game out of the wishbone. In 1985, Air Force climbed to #2 in the country, just barely missing the national championship game, under Head Coach Fisher DeBerry
. Army football saw success using the wishbone under head coaches Jim Young
and Bob Sutton
in the 1980s and early 1990s, leading to the school's only bowl appearances (10–6 win over Michigan State in the 1984 Cherry Bowl; 31–29 win over Illinois in the 1985 Peach Bowl; 29–28 loss to Alabama in the 1988 Sun Bowl; and a 32–29 loss to Auburn in the 1996 Independence Bowl) and its only 10-win season.
Phil Jack Dawson, then head coach of Westbrook High School in Westbrook, Maine
, developed an effective defense against the wishbone offense then in use by Texas, called “backbone defense”. Dawson contacted Ara Parseghian
, then head coach of the University of Notre Dame
, and convinced him to use it against Texas in the 1971 Cotton Bowl Classic. Notre Dame beat Texas 24-11.
Formation (American football)
A formation in American football refers to the position players line up in before the start of a down. There are both offensive and defensive formations and there are many formations in both categories.-Offense:...
in American football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
. The style of attack to which it gives rise is known as the wishbone offense. Like the spread offense in the 2000s, the wishbone was considered to be the most productive and innovative offensive scheme in college football
College football
College football refers to American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies, or Canadian football played by teams of student athletes fielded by Canadian universities...
during the 1970s and 1980s.
The Wishbone was designed to run a Triple Option with a Lead Blocker. The purpose of an option is to eliminate one defender without blocking him. Ideally, the defender must make a choice to eliminate one of two offensive players. This is a Double Option. This Option offensive scheme forces a defender to choose one of two offensive players who can advance the ball and then allows the other offensive player to carry the ball, making whatever choice the defender made the "wrong" choice. Because of this aspect of the defensive player taking himself out of the play by his choice, the offensive player that would otherwise block that defensive player can now block a different defender, placing severe pressure on the defense to cover the dive, the Quarterback run, the pitch or the Pass to a receiver.
The Triple Option, then, eliminates two defenders without blocking them. This frees two Offensive Linemen to block different defenders, usually Inside Defenders. This isolates the Dive Key and the Pitch Key for the QB to "Read" and should leave only an outside Support Defender (usually a Safety) and the Cornerback to cover the End, who is running a deep pass route. As Pepper Rodgers and Homer Smith stated in "Installing Football's Wishbone T Offense", "To run a Triple Option with a lead blocker is the reason for the Wishbone formation." It is the "Extra Blocker" concept that drives the success of the Wishbone and its derivatives. The Cornerback must cover the Outside Receiver. The support/Safety must support the run defense and (usually) covers the Pitch Back. The Defensive End typically attacks the Quarterback and a Defensive Tackle is assigned the Fullback Dive. These assignments must be made before the play begins and that totals eight defensive players to both sides of the ball.
As stated above, however, the Offense now has linemen that can be released to block other defenders, usually inside. The play is designed to handle five defenders on either side of the ball. Thus, the defender least able to affect the play, the offside Cornerback or Deep Safety, is not blocked by design. The Offensive Linemen, now free to block inside, can block the First Down Lineman to the Playside and the first Linebacker to the Playside. The great Emory Bellard once said, "If the threat of the Fullback can be applied to the Defense, the Offense is sound." . Then, the Lead Back Principle takes over. The Lead Back can block the Defensive End or the Safety and there is then a One-on-None possibility for the offensive player with the ball. In order to stop this attack, the defense must defeat blocks or flow defenders to the playside.
This makes the Wishbone a "Complete" Offense. The offense expects to get a One-on-None in the running game and a One-on-One in open space with the passing game. The Safety, who must support the run and also defend against the pass is under tremendous pressure in this attack. The Basic Wishbone Triple Option play accounts for every defender on the field. Every defender is threatened before the Basic Play begins. There is an invitation to overplay or compensate on the Basic Play and overplaying or making a misstep on the Basic Play leaves the Defense open for counters that leave no one to make up for the mistake.
The wishbone has the quarterback
Quarterback
Quarterback is a position in American and Canadian football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive team and line up directly behind the offensive line...
taking the snap from under center, with a fullback
Fullback (American football)
A fullback is a position in the offensive backfield in American and Canadian football, and is one of the two running back positions along with the halfback...
close behind him, and two halfback
Halfback (American football)
A halfback, sometimes referred to as a tailback, is an offensive position in American football, which lines up in the backfield and generally is responsible for carrying the ball on run plays. Historically, from the 1870s through the 1950s, the halfback position was both an offensive and defensive...
s (sometimes called tailbacks) further back, one slightly to the left, and the other slightly to the right. The alignment of the four backs makes an inverted Y, or “wishbone”, shape. There is typically one wide receiver
Wide receiver
A wide receiver is an offensive position in American and Canadian football, and is the key player in most of the passing plays. Only players in the backfield or the ends on the line are eligible to catch a forward pass. The two players who begin play at the ends of the offensive line are eligible...
and one tight end
Tight end
The tight end is a position in American football on the offense. The tight end is often seen as a hybrid position with the characteristics and roles of both an offensive lineman and a wide receiver. Like offensive linemen, they are usually lined up on the offensive line and are large enough to be...
, but sometimes two wide receivers, or two tight ends.
The wishbone was designed to facilitate a running, option offense
Option offense
The option offense is a generic term that is used to describe a wide variety of offensive systems in American football. Option offenses are characterized as such due to the predominance of option running plays employed in these schemes. Option offenses have traditionally relied heavily upon running...
. It allows the quarterback to easily run the Triple Option
Triple Option
The triple option is an American football scheme used to offer multiple ways to progress the football forward in the field of play. The triple option is based on the option run, but uses three players who may run with the ball instead of the two that are used in the standard option run.The triple...
to either side of the line. The quarterback first reads the defensive tackle or linebacker who is unblocked. As he reads the tackle/linebacker, he rides the ball in the fullback's stomach. If the defensive tackle/linebacker looks to tackle the fullback the quarterback pulls the ball out and runs down the line to his next option read, usually the defensive end/outside linebacker. If the end/linebacker looks to tackle the quarterback, the ball is pitched to the trailing halfback. The lead halfback is a lead blocker usually looking to block the outside defensive player, a safety or corner. The tight end to the option side 'arc' releases to block the safety.
History
While the record books commonly refer to Emory BellardEmory Bellard
Emory Dilworth Bellard was a college football coach. He was head coach at Texas A&M University from 1972 to 1978 and at Mississippi State University from 1979 until 1985. Bellard died on February 10, 2011 after battling Lou Gehrig's disease since the fall of 2010.Bellard is a member of the Texas...
developing the wishbone formation in 1968 as offensive coordinator
Offensive coordinator
An offensive coordinator is a member of the coaching staff of a gridiron football team who is in charge of the offense. Generally, along with his defensive counterpart, he represents the second level of command structure after the head coach...
at Texas
Texas Longhorns football
The Texas Longhorns football program is the intercollegiate football team representing The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas. The team currently competes in the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision as a member of the Big 12 Conference which is a Division I Bowl Subdivision of the National...
, the wishbone's roots can be traced back to the 1950s. According to Barry Switzer
Barry Switzer
Barry Switzer is a former football coach, active in the college and professional ranks between 1962 and 1997. He has one of the highest winning percentages of any college football coach in history, and is one of only two head coaches to win both a college football national championship and a...
, it was Charles “Spud” Cason, football coach at William Monnig Junior High School of Fort Worth, Texas
Fort Worth, Texas
Fort Worth is the 16th-largest city in the United States of America and the fifth-largest city in the state of Texas. Located in North Central Texas, just southeast of the Texas Panhandle, the city is a cultural gateway into the American West and covers nearly in Tarrant, Parker, Denton, and...
, who first modified the classic T formation
T formation
In American football, a T formation is a formation used by the offensive team in which three running backs line up in a row about five yards behind the quarterback, forming the shape of a "T"....
in order “to get a slow fullback into the play quicker.” Cason called the formation “Monnig T”. Bellard learned about Cason's tactics while coaching at Breckenridge High School
Breckenridge High School
Breckenridge High School is a public, co-educational secondary school in Breckenridge, Texas . It is part of the Breckenridge Independent School District. Breckenridge High School's mascot is a Buckaroo .-Athletics:...
, a small community west of Fort Worth.
Earlier in his career Bellard saw a similar approach implemented by former Detroit Lions
Detroit Lions
The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit, Michigan. They are members of the North Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League , and play their home games at Ford Field in Downtown Detroit.Originally based in Portsmouth, Ohio and...
guard Ox Emerson
Ox Emerson
Gover Conner “Ox” Emerson was an American football player.Born and raised in rural East Texas, Emerson played high school football at Orange High School. He later played starting left guard on the Texas Longhorns team of 1929 and 1930 under coach Clyde Littlefield. He garnered all-Southwest...
, then head coach at Alice High School
Alice High School
Alice High School serves the students of Alice, Texas and surrounding communities in Jim Wells County.- History :The City of Alice originated from the defunct community of Collins, which was located three miles east. Around 1880 the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway attempted to build a line...
near Corpus Christi, Texas
Corpus Christi, Texas
Corpus Christi is a coastal city in the South Texas region of the U.S. state of Texas. The county seat of Nueces County, it also extends into Aransas, Kleberg, and San Patricio counties. The MSA population in 2008 was 416,376. The population was 305,215 at the 2010 census making it the...
. Trying to avoid the frequent pounding of his offensive line, Emerson moved one of the starting guards into the backfield, enabling him to get a running start at the opposing defensive line. Bellard served as Emerson's assistant at that time. During his high school coaching career in the late '50s and early '60s, Bellard adopted the basic approaches of both Cason and Emerson, as he won two 3A Texas state championships Breckenridge in 1958 and 1959 and a 4A state title at San Angelo Central High School
Central High School (San Angelo, Texas)
Central High School is a public, co-educational secondary school in San Angelo, Texas. It is part of the San Angelo Independent School District. The school serves grades 10-12 while a freshman campus serves grade 9. Its mascot is the Bobcat...
in 1966, using a wishbone-like option offense.
In 1967 Bellard was hired by Darrell Royal
Darrell Royal
Darrell K Royal is a former American football player and coach. He served as the head coach at Mississippi State University , the University of Washington , and the University of Texas at Austin , compiling a career college football record of 184–60–5...
and became offensive coordinator a year later. The Texas Longhorns
Texas Longhorns football
The Texas Longhorns football program is the intercollegiate football team representing The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas. The team currently competes in the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision as a member of the Big 12 Conference which is a Division I Bowl Subdivision of the National...
only scored 18.6 points per game in a 6–4 season in 1967. After watching Texas A&M
Texas A&M Aggies football
The Texas A&M Aggies football team represents Texas A&M University in college football. The Aggies have competed in the Big 12 Conference since the conference's inception in 1996. They will join the Southeastern Conference in July 2012. Texas A&M football has earned one national title and 18...
—running Gene Stallings
Gene Stallings
Eugene Clifton Stallings, Jr. is a former American football player and coach. He played college football at Texas A&M University , where he was one of the "Junction Boys", and later served as the head coach at his alma mater from 1965 to 1971. Stallings was also the head coach of the St...
' option offense—beat Bear Bryant
Bear Bryant
Paul William "Bear" Bryant was an American college football player and coach. He was best known as the longtime head coach of the University of Alabama football team. During his 25-year tenure as Alabama's head coach, he amassed six national championships and thirteen conference championships...
's Alabama team in the 1968 Cotton Bowl Classic, Royal instructed Bellard to design a new three-man back-field triple option offense. Bellard tried to merge his old high school tactics with Stallings' triple option out of the Slot-I formation
I formation
The I formation is one of the most common offensive formations in American football. The I formation draws its name from the vertical alignment of quarterback, fullback, and running back, particularly when contrasted with the same players' alignments in the T formation.The formation begins with...
and Homer Rice
Homer Rice
Homer Rice was a college athletic director and football coach. From 1967 to 1968, he served as the head football coach at Cincinnati, where he compiled an 8-10-1 record. From 1976 to 1977, he coached at Rice, where he compiled a 4-18 record...
's variations of the Veer
Veer
The Veer is an option running play often associated with option offenses in American football, made famous at the collegiate level by the Houston Cougars. It is currently run primarily on the high school level, with some usage at the collegiate and the professional level with varying degrees of...
, an offensive formation created by Bill Yeoman
Bill Yeoman
Bill Yeoman is a former American football player and coach in the United States. Starting in 1962, he was the University of Houston's head coach, holding the position through 1986. In his tenure, he became the winningest coach in school history, with an overall record of 160–108–8...
.
Introducing the new offensive scheme at the beginning of the 1968 season, Houston Chronicle
Houston Chronicle
The Houston Chronicle is the largest daily newspaper in Texas, USA, headquartered in the Houston Chronicle Building in Downtown Houston. , it is the ninth-largest newspaper by circulation in the United States...
sportswriter Mickey Herskowitz stated it looked like a “pulley bone
Furcula
The ' is a forked bone found in birds, formed by the fusion of the two clavicles. In birds, its function is the strengthening of the thoracic skeleton to withstand the rigors of flight....
”, while Royal agreed but changed the name to “wishbone”. Royal quickly embraced the idea of the wishbone, which 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
Mississippi State Bulldogs football
The Mississippi State Bulldogs football program represents Mississippi State University in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision, competing as a member of the Western Division of the Southeastern Conference. Mississippi State has produced 38 All-Americans, 171 All-SEC selections, and 124...
to bowl game
Bowl game
In North America, a bowl game is commonly considered to refer to one of a number of post-season college football games. Prior to 2002, bowl game statistics were not included in players' career totals and the games were mostly considered to be exhibition games involving a payout to participating...
appearances in the late 1970s. At Mississippi State Bellard “broke the bone” and introduced the “wing-bone”, moving one of the halfback
Running back
A running back is a gridiron football position, who is typically lined up in the offensive backfield. The primary roles of a running back are to receive handoffs from the quarterback for a rushing play, to catch passes from out of the backfield, and to block.There are usually one or two running...
s up to a wing formation and frequently sending him in motion. Another variation of the wishbone formation is called the flexbone
Flexbone formation
The flexbone formation is an offensive formation in American football that uses a quarterback, five offensive linemen, three running backs, and varying numbers of tight ends and wide receivers. The flexbone formation is a predominant running formation derived from the wishbone formation and it...
.
Bear Bryant
Bear Bryant
Paul William "Bear" Bryant was an American college football player and coach. He was best known as the longtime head coach of the University of Alabama football team. During his 25-year tenure as Alabama's head coach, he amassed six national championships and thirteen conference championships...
at Alabama began to use the wishbone option after visiting Darrell Royal
Darrell Royal
Darrell K Royal is a former American football player and coach. He served as the head coach at Mississippi State University , the University of Washington , and the University of Texas at Austin , compiling a career college football record of 184–60–5...
in 1971.
Ironically, the longest running wishbone offense was run not by Texas but by their arch-rivals, the University of Oklahoma
Oklahoma Sooners football
The Oklahoma Sooners football program is a college football team that represents the University of Oklahoma . The team is currently a member of the Big 12 Conference, which is a Division I Bowl Subdivision of the National Collegiate Athletic Association...
, who ran variations of the wishbone well into the mid 1990s. Oklahoma coach Barry Switzer
Barry Switzer
Barry Switzer is a former football coach, active in the college and professional ranks between 1962 and 1997. He has one of the highest winning percentages of any college football coach in history, and is one of only two head coaches to win both a college football national championship and a...
has been credited by some for having “perfected” the use of the wishbone offense and former OU quarterback Jack Mildren
Jack Mildren
Larry Jack Mildren a native Texan, was an All-American quarterback at The University of Oklahoma in his college years, and professional football player with the Baltimore Colts and New England Patriots, an oil company owner, was elected as the 13th Lieutenant Governor of Oklahoma, and enjoyed a...
is often referred to as "the Godfather of the wishbone" throughout College Football lore . The Oklahoma Sooners
Oklahoma Sooners
The University of Oklahoma features 19 varsity sports teams. Both men's and women's teams are called the Sooners, a nickname given to the early participants in the land rushes which initially opened the Oklahoma Indian Territory to non-native settlement. They participate in the NCAA's Division I-A,...
wishbone offense set the all-time NCAA rushing average in 1971 of 472.4 yds per game, a record which still stands to this day .
The wishbone's reliance on execution and discipline, along with its ability to eat up the play clock, make it a favorite of programs that routinely play opponents with superior size and speed, such as the three service academies. Air Force
Air force
An air force, also known in some countries as an air army, is in the broadest sense, the national military organization that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an army, navy or...
saw tremendous success running the option game out of the wishbone. In 1985, Air Force climbed to #2 in the country, just barely missing the national championship game, under Head Coach Fisher DeBerry
Fisher DeBerry
Fisher DeBerry is a former American football player and coach. He served as the head football coach at the United States Air Force Academy from 1984 to 2006, compiling a record of 169–109–1. DeBerry led 17 of his 23 Air Force Falcons squads to winning records and 12 captured a bowl...
. Army football saw success using the wishbone under head coaches Jim Young
Jim Young
James Norman "Dirty Thirty" Young is a former professional American football and Canadian football player. Young played running back and wide receiver for the NFL's Minnesota Vikings for one season , and the CFL's BC Lions for twelve seasons...
and Bob Sutton
Bob Sutton
-External links:*...
in the 1980s and early 1990s, leading to the school's only bowl appearances (10–6 win over Michigan State in the 1984 Cherry Bowl; 31–29 win over Illinois in the 1985 Peach Bowl; 29–28 loss to Alabama in the 1988 Sun Bowl; and a 32–29 loss to Auburn in the 1996 Independence Bowl) and its only 10-win season.
Phil Jack Dawson, then head coach of Westbrook High School in Westbrook, Maine
Westbrook, Maine
Westbrook is a city in Cumberland County, Maine, United States and a suburb of Portland. The population was 17,494 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Portland–South Portland–Biddeford, Maine metropolitan statistical area.-History:...
, developed an effective defense against the wishbone offense then in use by Texas, called “backbone defense”. Dawson contacted Ara Parseghian
Ara Parseghian
Ara Raoul Parseghian is a former American football player and coach of Armenian descent. He served as the head football coach at Miami University , Northwestern University , and the University of Notre Dame , compiling a career college football record of 170–58–6...
, then head coach of the University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame Fighting Irish football
Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team is the football team of the University of Notre Dame. The team is currently coached by Brian Kelly.Notre Dame competes as an Independent at the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision level, and is a founding member of the Bowl Championship Series coalition. It is an...
, and convinced him to use it against Texas in the 1971 Cotton Bowl Classic. Notre Dame beat Texas 24-11.