Alabama will pick up every super high school football stud in the world. The SEC will scoop up all the others. Fights will break out along the Brazos, the Rio Grande and the Red rivers where Billy Bob Jack is headed to bestow his numerous talents of gridiron endeavors. Kansas State will reap the benefits of the worst recruiting class of the season. And Kansas will talk about how this crop of players offer a bright future.
Yeah, you’ll be reading all about it when the national college football signing date opens Wednesday and runs through April 1.
Like political polls, these announcements have no true bearing on the outcomes of what actually will happen in the arenas of combat. They’re something the zealots have to nibble on while they wait for the next season.
Recruiting is such an inexact science. It used to be that coaches went out and grabbed the quarterback because he was generally the best player on the high school team. Then they would take a fullback to make him a linebacker and pull in various big ol’ guys for line positions. Then the quarterback would be changed to a wide receiver, a defensive back or a halfback.
Not now. Coaches will look at players simply labeled as athletes, of course, but generally they have a good idea for their special needs.
I began to understand the nuances of recruiting when a coach explained to me why the single wing lost favor among the high schools and colleges. The NFL was looking for prototype quarterbacks. For the most part, stand in the pocket and throw crisp passes. Of course, starry-eyed high school quarterbacks believed they were headed to the pros, without a doubt.
Interesting, though, because nowadays the teams have wildcats, pistols and direct snap formations for the quarterbacks. Ah, but no running in the NFL, except for an occasional zone read or a scramble.
Too bad about the single wing, so much fun to watch. I recall watching old films on the signature play of the single wing: the buck lateral series. Oh, there were tailback spinners and wingback reverses. The single wing would use deception and power.
I still think the single wing could be an option for some teams. Give the opponents something different to look at, not just the stereotypical offenses of today.
Clay Stapleton, the ol’ Iowa State war horse, certainly believed in that philosophy. And he made it work. He had only a few players out for football in 1959 and the “Dirty 30” scrapped and fought in the football soil to beat touted Oklahoma. But even Stapleton gave up the single wing.
He came across a gun-slinging quarterback in Tim Van Galder and joined the ranks of the drop-back quarterback formations in the mid-1960s. Van Galder, now an Iowa State Athletics Hall-of-Famer, said Stapleton basically changed the offense for him. Instead of throwing 3-5 times a game, the Cyclones began throwing 15-20 times a game.
Red Sanders certainly gathered acclaim for his single wing attack, even though Pop Warner provided a lot of incentive for the formation. Sanders coached UCLA to a 66-19-1 record and helped the school earn its only national championship in football in 1954. He also created quite a stir when he died of a heart attack in 1958 at a Los Angeles hotel room while being with a prostitute. The story took awhile to get out because the press protected such celebrities in those days.
The Kansas City area produced many single wing coaches of note: the Patterson brothers, Norris at William Jewell and Cecil at Southeast High School; Park Hill High School officials named its football stadium after Shorty Preston; Ted Chitwood used speed with his single wing at Raytown High; Volney Ashford at Missouri Valley College built a juggernaut.
Ray Ricono, a friend of mine at Northeast High School, went on to play at Missouri Valley, from 1957 to 1962. He played on two MCAU championship teams, playing tailback out of the single wing.
Historians will recall the Taylor brothers, Corky and Roger, when they played at Southeast. Oh, were they terrific — big and fast and well suited for the single wing.
The single wing offense begins with a direct snap or toss from the center, usually to the tailback or fullback; however, the quarterback could also take the ball. The tailback is very important to the success of the offense because he must run, pass, block and even punt. Unlike today, the quarterback usually blocked at the point of attack. As with his modern day counterpart, a single-wing quarterback might also act as a field general by calling plays. The fullback is chosen for his larger size so that he can “buck” the line. This means that the fullback can block or carry the ball between the defensive tackles. The wingback can double-team block with an offensive lineman or even run a pass route.
The single-wing formation was designed to place double-team blocks at the point of attack. Gaining this extra blocker is achieved in several ways. First, the unbalanced line places an extra guard or tackle on one side of the center. Second, a wingback stationed outside end can quickly move to a crucial blocking position. Third, the fullback and especially the quarterback can lead the ball carrier producing interference. Finally, linemen, usually guards, can pull at the snap and block at the specified hole. Line splits are always close except for ends who might move out from the tackle.
There’s a coach still using those single wing fundamentals but they don’t call it the single wing. And that’s Kansas State’s Bill Snyder. He played for Norris Patterson at William Jewell. He studied the game plan hard.
If you’re a fan of football systems, you know that Snyder’s offense puts considerable pressure on the defensive corners. He still pulls tackles to make a play go.
He probably would like to have one of those old-time tailbacks for his offense today. He sure won’t be able to recruit one of them, simply because they’re just not around.
According to the Topeka Capital-Journal, K-State’s football signings will include: