December 1, 2010 • Football

Football: Unbalanced stack turbocharges the double wing

After amassing 30 points per game and more than 400 yards per contest with the double-wing offense, teams finally figured out to stack eight or nine players in the box.

Going with a play-action pass is a great response, but for coaches who love the rushing attack, we introduced the unbalanced stack into our double-wing offense and haven’t missed a beat.

When running the unbalanced stack, consider these five points:

Mindset. Your players need to believe they can pick up tough yards against any defense.
Personnel. The best blocker is the fullback (FB), and the blocking back (BB) should be your second-best blocker.
Alignment. The linemen are foot-to-foot on the line of scrimmage. The FB is on the inside shade of the tight end (TE) at a one-yard depth. The BB is two or three feet behind the FB. The RB is four to five yards back.
Huddle. The offense breaks the huddle quickly, lines up in the proper formation, gets set and runs the play at the quarterback’s first sound.
Plays. The toss or the power-pitch is the key play in this offense.

Breaking down the double wing

DIAGRAM 1: Double wing vs. eight in the box. Here is the typical double-wing alignment with eight defenders in the box.

DIAGRAM 2: Unbalanced stack I right (Green). The strong-side features both offensive tackles (OT). Leave a single TE and offensive guard (OG) on the weak side.

Also, the FB is aligned on an inside shade of the TE at a one-yard depth. The BB is set back two or three feet from the FB and is behind the TE.

DIAGRAM 3: Unbalanced stack I left (Black). The OTs shift to the left side, as do the FB and BB. All alignments are the same.

DIAGRAM 4: Toss vs. odd front. The FB kicks out the first person head-up or outside the TE (in this case, it’s the defensive end). The BB hits the most dangerous man — in this example, the free safety.

The QB checks for outside pressure while the backside of the line pulls.

DIAGRAM 5: Toss vs. even front. The responsibilities are the same in that the FB kicks out the first person head-up or outside the TE (in this case, the LB).