Veer / Wing-T Game Cuts

Running Wing-T from the Veer

I've written before about blending the Wing and the Veer as I have seen Coach Roark do in his offense over the years. I've also ran across some other material concerning this on the web and posted a link to it as well. I've finally got around to digitizing a few game cuts. I added them to the original Wing-T / Veer post which you can find here. The game cuts are from the 1998 State Championship season... which, unfortunately, was before I arrived here at M.H.S.!

Coach Smith

Happy Birthday to Me!

Well, I turned thirty-nine today and it got me thinking. How much stuff do I have that's 39 years old? Seems like that's awful old to be gettin'...

Socks? Nah, the elastic would be dust by now and they just might cover a toe or two. I definitely don't have any 39 year old socks.

Underwear? See above concerning socks.

Coins? A quick search of the change-jar yielded a 1959 penny... Which certainly matches and exceeds my 39 year old requirement. Unfortunately, the 1959er is green, scratched-up and looks pretty ragged. Compared with the newer pennies that are shiny and robust with the exuberance of youth, it looks pretty old and pathetic.

Comic books? I used to read comics all the time as a kid. In fact, I continued reading and collecting them thru most of college. After that, I starting reading "graphic novels." These are, of course, just big comic books, but the snazzier title allows post-adolescent males to continue their vice without owning-up to the reality that they are now giant nerds. I found a comic dated in the early seventies (oldest I have)... It is brittle, yellowed with age, crumbly, creased, dog-eared, scribbled-on, and the cover is half-gone. Indiana Jones once searched for such ancient relics.

Automobile? Are you kidding? If I had a classic car like that, it would be kept garaged and pampered... Heck, I doubt if I would dare drive it that often for fear some worn-out part would fail, leaving me stranded and in search of some hard-to-find and doubtless expensive replacement part.

Well, that leaves me pretty flat. In fact, after considering all this, I may just lay quietly in bed, hoping that nothing bumps into it else some body part shatter or crumble...

Nahhhhhhhhh!

ps, check out this great pic of some kid on HIS birthday. I ran across it looking for that Bday cake clip art. I think he is giving his birthday JUST the right amount of deep reflection and careful thought.

Coach Smith

2005 Carson Newman Clinic Notes

A Tale of Two Clinics... (well, one, actually!)

Before heading down to the Orlando Nike Coach of the Year Clinic, I went to what has become my favorite clinic of all time: the Carson Newman / Sports Belle Football Clinic.

This year's clinic was no exception - it was filled with many high school coaches looking to improve themselves both as coaches and as Christians. The tone was enthusiastic, relaxed, and optimistic. You will not find it filled with guys looking to duck out in order to sample the local night-life.

I was especially glad to finally make the acquaintance of two coaches I had met online through Veersite - Mark Poston and B.I. Salyers; both are dedicated option coaches and nice guys to boot. I only wish there had been more time to hang out and talk. Mark's crew even had to leave early in order to navigate through a winter storm in Virginia!

I consider Carson Newman's Clinic to be the best football clinic in the South East... And if you like the option, the CN coaches break-out sessions at the end of the second day are not to be missed. I wish I could go and hang out with those guys during their camp... I know I would learn a huge amount of Veer football in a very short time!

I'm posting a link to the Clinic notes (in Adobe PDF format) here.

Please understand that I only typed-up the notes that I myself were most interested in. I'm much too slow a typist to go through and get them all!

ps. My wife's great-grandmother died this weekend, so I'll be out of touch for the first half of the week. I'll try and check my gmail account, but I may not be able to do so.


Coach Smith

More Wing-T / Veer Info

I found a mirror of the old B.C. Warrior website. Interestingly, the coach submitting the Veer section has as his base formation Splitbacks with a wing. The link is below - click it and scroll down to the bottom of the page.

Option from the Wing-T


Here is the main section of the B.C. Warrior mirror site. It's a little hard to find your way around in it, but each directory had an .HTM file - click on that and it will make it much easier to navigate in that section.


Thanks to CoachD86 over on Megaclinic's Option forum for the link!


Coach Smith

The Passing Game from Split Backs: Y Cross & Y Stick

A while back I posted some pass patterns under the heading, "Improving the Passing Game." Here is a closer look at one of the patterns - the Y Cross.

On our staff, the Y Cross is referred to as being from the (Hal) Mummy Package. From what I have gathered, Mummy used it well, but the play itself has been around since the early eighties and perhaps even before that. I have seen it in Homer Rice's Air Option book and I've seen it in various West Coast Offense playbooks. Sometimes it's called Y Cross and sometimes it's not.

The premise is the weak side flood. X pushes off the deep cover and then either settles underneath an overlapping safety, runs past a hesitating or slow safety, or runs an out around 15 (12 for high school??) against a cover 3 -nobody's-getting-behind-me-safety. The A back free-releases for the flat at 3-5 yards depth looking over his outside shoulder. He should be prepared to stretch the coverage to the sideline. The Y comes across at 10-15 (8-12 for high school?) and looks for an open area behind the weak side linebacker and underneath the safety or safeties. The Z aligns himself slightly tighter to the Y than normal and runs a post reading the middle of field. If it is open he continues the post, if it is covered he can break it off into a dig route if the ball hasn't been delivered. My read vs. a 3 deep would be A to Y to X and vs a 2 deep it would be A to X to Y. (But then again, I like possesion passing on first and second down! The progression on the diagram would be better for a 3rd and 10, I'm sure) The Post can be tagged if determined that it will be open. The sister to this play is the strong side flood, Y Stick. It's reads are almost the same - B to Y with the secondary coverage and personnel dictating whether the Z or the X will be third in the pass progression. Y stick is closer to a 3 step drop than a 5 step drop, however.