Matt & Seth Show: Bring Back the Single-Wing
Matt Demorest, Realtor and Lender and I have brought back our (sometimes-)weekly video short. The purpose of these is to show you something on film that you as a fan will be able to pick up on when you see it in the future. Or to just show you what people are talking about.
This week we get into the Single-Wing. Why was it a big part of football in the first half of the 20th Century, how did defenses adjust to it, what more can you do with it, and how can Michigan use this offense in 2024 to maximize hybrid skill player like Orji, Mullings, Bredeson, Edwards, and Loveland? We go back to 1904, 1948, and examples of Alabama, Michigan, and Washington running it in this year's Playoff. If you're in the housing market, Matt's the guy.
There is nothing after the jump because it's video content.
February 15th, 2024 at 4:38 PM ^
Great piece, thanks Seth and Matt! Will never forget the 2002 MHSA state Division 1 finals, East Kentwood vs Detroit Catholic Central. East Kentwood ran what looked to me like the Wing T, but it seemed to share many of the same concepts. Their qb was a magician, he was a master at fake belly handoffs, pitches etc.Their jerseys were nearly the exact same hue of brown as the football, and even in the best seats you couldn't be sure who actually had the ball until the D flowed to them. I thought East Kentwood was going to score 50 points. Derrick Brooks of DCC had other ideas and almost single-handedly brought them back to victory, Fantastic championship but I walked away most impressed with the losers. Similar to a service academy, I have no idea how a team could get ready to face that with one week of preparation.
February 16th, 2024 at 11:21 AM ^
That's the offense my high school team, Marine City, put in place my senior year. In my day we had orange home and white away jerseys. Even so in one of our away games, the refs blew the play dead when the ball carrier was running untouched 10 yards downfield with no one else near him. (Unfortunately a side effect of all the tricky and deception was kind of nerfing the offensive line's necessity to run the ball, meaning I was less useful to the team that year than I had been the year before.)
They did switch to black home jerseys to add to the deception sometime while I was in college.
February 15th, 2024 at 4:42 PM ^
Great job, guys!!!
February 15th, 2024 at 5:08 PM ^
I'll be shocked if the staff goes this direction in 2024, but I'm definitely intrigued.
February 15th, 2024 at 5:44 PM ^
I don’t care how successful it may be, I can’t endorse what amounts to a “Sephiroth” package.
February 16th, 2024 at 8:32 AM ^
I'm kicking myself I missed a key point. Remember I said the center comes off the line and reads whatever the running back is doing. That's how you defeat the single wing offense right? What the Mad Magicians did was make that read impossible. The ball was moving around so much the guy could not figure out what direction to go in and they couldn't play it the way they wanted to.
That's the relevant part for today too. You can run this until the middle linebacker figures out what you're doing. You saw the Washington play where Paige makes the stop: Colson is flying off the wrong direction. But you need that misdirection to make it work because defenses have known how to defeat this for 130 years.
I'm sorry I was recording this a little too tired and started yammering instead of sticking to the script.
February 16th, 2024 at 10:29 AM ^
My high school team ran the single wing offense in the early 1960s. Players were wearing leather helmets in those days and the British Invasion was just beginning to change rock 'n' roll.
February 16th, 2024 at 11:14 AM ^
The Pistol and Spread formations are very close - if there are shift and motion.
If Alex Orji and Donovan Edwards are together with Max Bredeson in the same backfield, a lot of those tricky multiple handoffs and misdirects could work.
February 16th, 2024 at 12:59 PM ^
I’m dating myself here, but my 1970’s high school team would break out the single wing on our last offensive series of the first half. We assumed, correctly, that the opposing coach would then devote the entire halftime break to teaching his team how to defend it.
We would never use it in the second half.
February 16th, 2024 at 1:19 PM ^
Fun topic but a truly terrible idea.
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