Regardless of what offense you choose to install as a coach, you need to be actively thinking about the pros and cons that the scheme or set of plays can have on your football team.
Things to consider include your personnel, how the new material compliments or impacts other things that you’re trying to do, and even how expensive it will be for your program to implement?
Coach David Weathersby of Triton High School (NC) has spent over a decade creating and adding onto one of the most successful traditional Wing-T offenses in the state.
This article is taken directly from his incredible presentation: Traditional Wing-T 101: The Complete Series.
Watch the video below or keep scrolling to learn more.
The Pros and Cons of the Wing-T Buck Series
Of course we’re not specifically referring to a dollar amount cost, which may be part of the equation, but energy and effort comes at a premium value when looking to add different dimensions to your football team. Each program only has so much of it.
His wrinkles and adjustments have allowed the offense to stay fresh, have answers to unique defensive opponents, and set an incredibly high bar for what offensive success means for his program.
Coach Weathersby’s buck series is an absolute must in his offensive arsenal. The reasons for this are listed below:
Pros
This is HUGE. The buck series can become Triton’s entire offense in the event that they find themselves in a pinch. The buck, trap, and waggle plays that are all a part of this series create multiple highly effective options for the offense to get to when needed.
This leads us into the next advantage of installing the buck series which allows the offense to have answers for any questions that the defense throws at you. It doesn’t matter if the defense is odd or even. If they read or blitz at a high rate. The buck series has an answer for all of the above.
Of course this means that the buck series is incredibly difficult to defend for any defense, which is a huge plus for the offense.
Finally, this creates a core identity for any Wing-T offense. Most people think of the buck sweep and buck series when they picture a cookie cutter version of this offense. By installing this series, it gives coaches a sturdy and reliable backbone to lean on when other chunks of the offense aren’t working.
Cons
While coach Weathersby heavily endorses implementing the buck series into any Wing-T offense, he does recognize that there are a couple of downsides that could be a factor in your ability to run it.
First, it’s a very expensive installation process. Especially for running buck. There’s a lot of finite details and specific angles that players need to take on each rep that take time to develop and perfect.
Specifically, your program needs to have athletic guards that are able to pull and move at a high level.
Additionally, mesh points and movement in the backfield is another area of this series that takes a lot of work and can limit what else you’re able to do offensively.
Repetition is the name of the game when installing buck. It’s really effective once you get it down correctly, but is it worth it to your offensive system? Coach Weathersby thinks so, but that’s a decision that you and your program need to decide based on your strengths and weaknesses.
Any easy indicator that this series may not be for you is if your guards aren’t very athletic and have trouble moving in space. That’s going to create a problem for this series on day 1 because they’re going to need to get in front of the running back to set up the running lanes that this entire series is built on.
Want more?
Watch more clips from Coach Weathersby's incredible presentation on The Traditional Wing-T 101 HERE.