Coach David Weathersby, offensive coordinator at Triton High School (NC) for the last 5 years, has been coaching in the Wing-T offense for over a decade.
In that time he’s implemented a dominant traditional Wing-T offense that has caused headaches for numerous defensive coordinators that he’s faced over the years. This offensive scheme has allowed his program to average over 30 points per game during his tenure and lead the conference in rushing every year that he has been a part of the program.
This video is taken directly from Coach Weathersby's presentation: The Traditional Wing-T 101.
Watch the video below or keep scrolling to learn more about the Buck Counter play.
Installing the Buck Counter Play
The first counter play that coach Weathersby installs with his team is the Buck Counter. They call this play either 121 scissors at 7 or 929 scissors at 3. What this means is that when they call 121 scissors, the offense is faking buck and the 7 indicates the hole that the counter is going to (in this case: hole 7). Apply these same principles for 929 scissors, with the buck fake coming, but the counter hitting the 3 hole instead of the 7.
Buck Counter Blocking Rules
For this run scheme, the play side tackle’s rules consist of on, gap, down, backer. More on the specifics of that later in this article.
The play side guard’s responsibility is gap, down, backer. This is consistent with other plays in coach Weathersby’s scheme.
The center is going to work away from the play and towards the backside linebacker. The back side guard is also going to work away from the play side and aim for the defensive lineman lined up across from the back side offensive tackle.
The back side offensive tackle is going to work towards the play side by pulling, leading, and logging. This is the critical block on the play as it sets up the counter, but also presents a key other than a pulling guard that the defense has to adjust to. Coach Weathersby refers to this as a “key breaker”.
Buck Counter Backfield Assignments
Transitioning into the roles and responsibilities of the ball handlers, the quarterback is going to give a buck hand off and then execute a waggle fake to add some additional layers to the offense that they will get to later. This little add-on is just enough to keep the defense semi-honest, and if they aren’t they’re going to get burned for it later.
The dive back is going to run buck underneath and hand off to the wing. This means that this is a double hand off play. The ball is going from the quarterback, to the dive back, to the wing. This is going to create a lot of misdirection and confusion on the defense’s end.
This also means that your dive back needs to have a lot of reps at practice running this play because he is responsible for getting this ball to the actual ball carrier, not your quarterback. Make sure you have multiple players on your roster familiar and comfortable doing this so that you don’t find yourself in a pinch at some point during a game.
The full back is going to fake a trap look. He’s going to take one step to fake the trap and then shift his aiming point to kick out the last man on the line of scrimmage (LOS/EMOL).
That brings us to the wing who is going to be the primary ball carrier as referenced above. He will take a jab step and then try his best to take the hand off at a 90 degree angle from the dive back and get straight upfield. Angles are really important in this scheme as it will allow the offense the shortest distance towards where they want to get which is vertical as fast as possible.
Finally, the X receiver is going to stalk block and the Tight End is going to block away. It is really important that he takes care of the outside linebacker or defensive end that is lined up over top of the wing back.
Conclusion
There are some adjustments that can be made to this play depending on the look that is given from the defense. Some on the fly adjustments may have to be made so it’s key to rep this play against multiple fronts and looks at practice.
Want more?
Check out Coach Weathersby's incredible presentation on the Traditional Wing-T HERE.