The "New" Wing-T Revolution

UPDATED and REVISED

February 24, 2004

The "NEW" Wing-T Revolution: The Speed Package

High School coaches have been making pilgrimages to Newark, Delaware for what it seems for ever. With the retiring of long time head coach Harold "Tubby" Raymond and long time assistant Ted Kempski the tradition of the Delaware Wing-T is at a crossroads. What will happen with the Delaware tradition of the Wing-T? It is too soon to tell right now, but one thing is for certain the former coaching staff at Delaware has left their mark on American Football. The Wing-T at Delaware has always been a work in progress, which has evolved into Delaware's latest Wing-T Revolution, the Speed/Jet Package. Incorporated into Delaware's offensive package in the late 1990's it has become the latest and most talked about Wing-T addition for sometime. Almost every Wing-T and some non-Wing-T teams are running some form of the Speed/Jet Package. The Speed Package is not a radical break from the traditional Wing-T offensive system but rather it still incorporates the same principles and foundations created by Tubby Raymond and former Delaware head coach Dave Nelson during the 1950's. The Speed Package is based on full sprint motion from one of the two half backs crossing the formation directly behind the quarterback while incorporating some modern zone blocking schemes. Once the ball is snapped almost all of the traditional Wing-T plays can be executed. The speed of the man in motion places the defense in even greater conflict because of the speed of the motion. Like everything in the Wing-T the Speed/Jet Package can be modified to fit your own personal needs and abilities. There are several new plays that can be added that complement Speed/Jet Package as well as several different blocking schemes. I have added a brief look at the Speed Sweep package that Delaware used in the past season. As mentioned earlier almost all of the traditional Wing-T plays can be run using the "Run to" or Speed Motion.

Update 2/24/03: While Delaware seems to get most of the credit for the creation and development of the traditional Wing-T offense, there is some debate on who should get the credit for the development of the Speed/Jet series. After sitting on a clinic hosted by former Delaware offensive line coach Greg Perry, I learned that the Speed/Jet Series was a hard sell to former Head Coach Tubby Raymond. Coach Perry mentioned that for many years members of the Delaware staff would travel to Georgia for high school Wing-T summer camps. Starting in the late eighties and early nineties some of the high school coaches began to discus a new series that they had added into their offensives. Like many coaches when they first see it on paper they think it cannot work until they see it on film. For a few years the Delaware staff that attended the camp tried to convince Coach Raymond to give the new series a try. According to Coach Perry Delaware experimented with the series in their spring practices and found that the defense had a hard time stopping the play for anything less then 15 yards an attempt. Well that was enough to convince anyone. While talking to Coach Klausing about this topic he told me along with the Georgia high school coaches getting credit you have to also give credit to Herschel Moore from Cumberland University in Tennessee. Cumberland University was running the Speed/Jet series years before the University of Delaware. In fact when the Delaware staff decided to give the new series a try they went down to Cumberland University to learn more about the offense.

The Base Delaware Extended Motion Package:

Delaware's External Extended Motion Package:

Speed/Jet Sweep Coaching Points:

1. Do not block anything inside the 5 Technique! They can not stop the play.

2. Coach the halfback to get to the "Jungle," five yards from the sideline. The play is a sideline play.

The running the path of the HB on the Speed Sweep. He should head for the Hash, Numbers, Sideline.

"Run to" Red 29 Speed Sweep (Speed Sweep run to the Split End Side using a balanced formation against a hard corner.)

"Run to" Red 29 Speed Sweep (Speed Sweep run to the Split End Side using a balanced formation against a soft corner.)

"Run to" Louie 29 Speed Sweep (Speed Sweep run towards trips side using an unbalanced formation.)

"Run to" Roger Z 29 Speed Sweep (Speed Sweep run away from the unbalanced side with the Split End.)

"Run to" Red 21 Speed Sweep (Speed Sweep run to the tight end side.) Note: Probably a better play run with "end over."

"Run to" Roger Bunch 21 Speed Sweep (This formation was developed by Delaware to reduce the defense and give the running back more "green" to the outside. "Bunch" places the right halfback up on the line of scrimmage being covered by the tight end with the split end off the line of scrimmage outside of the tight end. The tight end and split end both have splits of 2 yards.)

Roger Bunch 21 Sweep (Even though this is not a Speed play the Bunch formation usually makes the defense concerned with the outside which opens up the traditional Delaware Buck Sweep.)

"Run to" Roger A Bunch 21 Speed Sweep (The "A" call places the fullback in an off set position behind the offensive tackle to the left. "C" would place the fullback behind the offensive tackle to the right. The fullback would take two steps up and then run full speed behind the quarterback.)

"Run to" Red 47 Option (The triple option with the Speed motion by the HB.)

"Run to" Red 47 Counter Option (Good misdirection play off of the speed motion. Line blocking is the same as trap option.)

"Run to" Red 81 Down Option (The down option run with Speed Motion. The wingback becomes the pitch back after dropping off at a 45 degree angle to get in pitch relationship.