Old School Bone

Having run the bone for a number of years and at one point enjoying a run of 33 victories with only 3 losses, I will always believe it is one of the best offenses ever devised. When Ken Hatfield, a college coach, invented the split bone, it altered the style of the bone play quite a bit. But, the real key to me is having the RIGHT PERSONNEL to run the pure wishbone. We ran the veer out of it for 8 consecutive seasons with excellent results, having some NFL stars of today on those teams at the HS level. I am of the opinion that although option football was originally designed to make it possible for smaller 0 lines to play with the huge D lines ( option blocking puts 2 on one defender ) you have to have either really big linemen or super quick smaller ones. As in any attack, it all starts with the OFFENSIVE LINE and their ability to carry out their super critical blocks, just as the wideouts who know that 90% of all option plays that break big break in the outer 1/3 of the field and that their blocks are the ones that will spring the back for the big gainers!!! You have to have a crunching FB(dive back) who can hit the hole at full speed while starting at only 4 yds. off the ball, as well as, a TB who can fly!!!

Then, you don't have to have a QB who is the greatest athlete in the world, but he had better be the SMARTEST! A QB who can READ IT IS THE MOST VALUABLE ASSET ON THE TEAM WHEN RUNNING THE BONE AND THE VEER ATTACK!!! A TRUE OPTION TEAM IS ONLY GOING TO THROW 10-12 TIMES A GAME, BUT WHEN HE IS CALLED TO MAKE THE PASS COUNT, HE MUST BE ABLE TO THROW WITH DEADLY ACCURACY AND THAT IS A TASK WHEN YOU HAVE RAN THE OPTION 25 TIMES AND THEN MAKE ONE CRITICAL THROW WITHOUT HAVING ANY KIND OF THROWING RHYTHM ESTABLISHED.

These are some of the absolute pre-requisites that I arrived at after having ran the wishbone veer attack. Of course, a QB who can also run is invaluable when running the triple, as it makes the defense now have to really concentrate on who is the best and the second best runner and how to best stop them!!! Any team going that doesn't run a very strict disciplined assignment defense when facing you, and provided you are good at what you do, you will absolutely kill come game night!!! Count on it.

Coach Easton