What killed the wishbone/flexbone?

[StallionsModelT]

So Hawaii had a pop gun offense when they were averaging over 40 points a game under June Jones? Hardly. The only similarity w/ the Wishbone is it definitely benefits a team that doesn't have maybe the size or physicality up front to match their opponents. However, you still have the element of the big play and being able to bring your team back into a game, which is extremely difficult to do with the Wishbone.

[SMU 86]

The Wishbone is a pop gun fairy offense you use when you clearly don't have the personnel to line up and defeat your opponent.

Kind of like the Run N Shoot

RS is much more explosive. HS in Texas were dominated by the veer and wishbone until the spread starting whipping them badly. Minnesota finally was dragging into the 21st century and now are running the spread coast offense.

[George S. Patton]

The Wishbone is a pop gun fairy offense you use when you clearly don't have the personnel to line up and defeat your opponent.

Kind of like the Run N Shoot

RS is much more explosive. HS in Texas were dominated by the veer and wishbone until the spread starting whipping them badly. Minnesota finally was dragging into the 21st century and now are running the spread coast offense.

What's wrong with a Pro-Style offense?

And Minnesota dumped the spread and went back to a more run-oriented game this year. But it doesn't help that their current quarterback Adam Webber is not very good. Very inefficient. Has thrown more INTs than TDs, only looks to one receiver in Eric Decker and just doesn't make very good decisions.

Gophers have a real prospect in 6-4 Marquis Grey who has all the tools but lacks the experience. Watching Webber is like watching paint dry -- not very fun.

[StallionsModelT]

The Run and Shoot has been morphed into what is now the modern spread offense which is the base offense for nearly half of college football it seems nowadays. Hell Rich Rodriguez said he took a ton of elements of the Run and Shoot to create a more run based spread offensive scheme. Many of the routes run in the NFL are variations of the "choice" routes which originated in the Run and Shoot. Watch the Patriots, Colts, etc. Meanwhile the wishbone is used by service academies and GT. You tell me which one is the more viable option (pun intended).

[SMU 86]

What's wrong with a Pro-Style offense?

The spread coast is a comination of the spread and the west coast. Mostly the spread style dominates (Minnesota's offense). It is not a pro style offense. It is the spread that. (Don't think the west coast offense caught on the well in college)

[PK]

What's wrong with a Pro-Style offense?

Ask the Cowboys.

[George S. Patton]

The Run and Shoot has been morphed into what is now the modern spread offense which is the base offense for nearly half of college football it seems nowadays. Hell Rich Rodriguez said he took a ton of elements of the Run and Shoot to create a more run based spread offensive scheme. Many of the routes run in the NFL are variations of the "choice" routes which originated in the Run and Shoot. Watch the Patriots, Colts, etc. Meanwhile the wishbone is used by service academies and GT. You tell me which one is the more viable option (pun intended).

I think it really comes down to your QB having absolute command of the offense and making good decisions. The Pats and Colts are marvelous to watch because they have great leaders. Navy is doing well because it has a great leader in Dobbs. Every offense has its place. It's a matter of a coach sticking to it.

We were suspicious of how well Paul Johnson would succeed at Georgia Tech. So far, he's off to a good start. Would he win a national title there? No. But you have a lot mid-level BCS teams that won't win a NC.

I actually like Rodriguez's approach to the spread more than anything. Of course, it was fun watching guys like Pat White, Noel Devine and Steve Slaton run the thing. I think he can get the personnel for it at Michigan. If the Wolverines start popping with it, it could change the Big 10 in a very good way.

[StallionsModelT]

Linebackers with the ability to go sideline to sideline and the implementation of run blitzes and stunts make the wishbone extremely difficult to win with over a large sample size. Its also hell on your QB.

[peruna81]

As the wishbone (and it's derivatives ie.. Houston veer, etc) became more popular, defenses made adjustments...in a few years, D will catch up with the Spread, and there will be a 'new' offense that will be the rage...right now a wishbone/veer/flexbone is legitimate because it is novel, and seldom schemed for by defenses and coordinators other than that week of the game.

Wing-T is a popular offense in smaller Florida high schools ( like Madison County ), and allows speed and precision blocking to make up for size and athletic numbers. It would be interesting to see a mainline BCS school adopt the 'bone again, like GT, and see how it fairs long-term.

[StallionsModelT]

The problem with a mainstream program like a Texas, Oklahoma, LSU, etc. using the wishbone would be in being able to recruit the kids to do it. Look at Texas high school football now. I'd wager that 80 percent of 5A and 4A schools in Texas are running a shotgun spread offense as their base. It may even be higher than that. The ability of kids to attend college level clinics, coaches being able to translate those principles at the high school level, and the fact that spreading the ball around is more "fun" for kids to play will make the spread a staple of offense for quite a while. When teams are putting up scoring numbers of 55, 47, and 60 on a regular basis, its going to be difficult to convince them to go back to a full-house backfield where they might put up 21 points. The game has progressed beyond the relics of the wishbone, veer, etc. There are going to be a few programs that cling to it but the majority of football on the whole has left it in the dust.

[ozfan]

What killed it is the fact that it is not a good offense to have when you have to come from behind.

The games that Navy has lost the last two years has been when the opposing team has scored first.

[SmooBoy]

I don't know, but video killed the radio star.

Jeez, jt and I think alike.

[ALEX LIFESON]

I don't know, but video killed the radio star.

Ahh, The Buggles.

[SMU21TCU10]

The problem with a mainstream program like a Texas, Oklahoma, LSU, etc. using the wishbone would be in being able to recruit the kids to do it. Look at Texas high school football now. I'd wager that 80 percent of 5A and 4A schools in Texas are running a shotgun spread offense as their base. It may even be higher than that. The ability of kids to attend college level clinics, coaches being able to translate those principles at the high school level, and the fact that spreading the ball around is more "fun" for kids to play will make the spread a staple of offense for quite a while. When teams are putting up scoring numbers of 55, 47, and 60 on a regular basis, its going to be difficult to convince them to go back to a full-house backfield where they might put up 21 points. The game has progressed beyond the relics of the wishbone, veer, etc. There are going to be a few programs that cling to it but the majority of football on the whole has left it in the dust.

Yet we keep taking QB's from running teams! (BLM, Kaiser)

[SMU21TCU10]

I don't know, but video killed the radio star.

Jeez, jt and I think alike.

I like the Presidents of the United States of America version better