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As I finish my 20th season as a highschool head football coach, with 17 seasonsat the same school, I often wonderwhere I might be or what direction my careermight have taken if I did not make some of

the decisions I made years ago about myphilosophy and approach to this great game.I was very fortunate to have played for greathigh school and college head coaches whotaught me to believe in what we were doing.These two coaches had very diff e r e n tapproaches in regard to offense but did avery good ob in presenting their packages totheir teams and getting them to believe in thetotal package.

!s I earned my first opportunity tobecome a head football coach, I was suddenlyfaced with making decisions aboutwhat kind of football program I was going toplace my name beside. In making thesedecisions, I knew if I made the wrong choicesit would make it very difficult for me to surviveas a head coach. I remember well beingvery hesitant about making these choices.

!s I pondered these, I remembered what Ihad learned from my former coaches aboutmaking decisions, and presenting them insuch a way to your players that they believei t "s the greatest thing in the world.In my second year as a head coach Imade a decision that I believe today, hasbeen one of the key factors which attributedto the success I have enoyed over thelast 20 years as a head coach. This decision

was to install the #elaware $ing%Toffensive system. I was intrigued as adefensive coordinator, prior to becoming ahead coach, with teams who ran the $ing%T offense. This offense presented moreconflicts and mis%direction to defend thanany other scheme. Initially, I was not sureas to the impact of this offense on a year toyear basis because I knew that talent andtypes of athletes would vary.I came to &c'achern (igh )chool afterbeing a head coach for only three years.&c'achern was a school that had note*perienced much football success in itshistory. The principal was new and seemed

determined to turn the school around. (efelt that a competitive athletic program wasa key factor to a school"s climate and success.The principal reminded me of myhigh school and college coaches. (e was aformer football player, educator and coach.(e did a great ob in making me believethat his plan was an important tactic intransforming this school to a level of staterecognition. I presented the $ing%T offenseas the key element to build our program

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around. This plan was presented to theprincipal, the assistant coaches and to theplayers as a blueprint for football successand tradition. The offense coupled withstrategies of sound discipline, athletic andacademic training, became the core of ourprogram.

In my effort to learn as much informationas possible about the $i n g % T o ffense, I wasfortunate to have opportunities to visit the+niversity of #elaware and their great off e nsivestaff. rom the very beginning it wasobvious that they believed in what they weredoing and they felt this was the best off e n s efor their program. The #elaware staff presenteda true order of football. The off e n s eallows tremendous versatility, which allowedyou the fle*ibility to build your off e n s earound your player"s abilities. The planimplements a power running attack to controlthe tempo of the game, a wide openpassing attack that includes a play action

package, as well as a deep drop back attackwith the ability to stretch defenses both verticallyand hori-ontally. This offense alsoincludes a well%conceived option attack. ! l lcomponents of this program have beenimplemented at &c'achern (igh )choolduring various seasons.#uring my tenure at &c'achern I havehad the good fortune of having some outstandingplayers in which to build teamsaround. ery few of these players havegone on to become household names inthe world of college and professionalsports. &any of these high school playersmay never play football again after high

school. This offense has given these playersa system in which they can succeedwithout being special athletes with tremendousskills. This offense has given our programthe ability to reach our lower footballprograms and begins to teach its foundationsand fundamentals as early as the/pound ball/ years. The $ing%Toffense hasgiven our program an identity that is recogni-edthroughout this state.elow is a chart that list wins and losses,and points scored over the last si*teenseasons. lease keep in mind that thishigh school had not had a winning seasonin the previous 1 years.McEachern High SchoolVarsity Football1984-1999

Year Won Lost Avg Score1984 7 3 20.7

Proceedings 78th AFCA Convention 2001 Jim DorseyHead CoachMcEachern High choo!

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Po"der #rings$ %a&

'(i!ding a Program to(rvive the )ong Ha(! *iththe *ing+, -.ense198! 4 2 14.3

198" 12 1 50.2198# 13 1 22.61988 10 1 26.71989 12 1 2.199$ 4 3 30.11991 11 3 26.7199% 4 3 26.199& 4 3 26.01994 4 3 15.6199! 10 2 26.199" 11 2 2.6199# 10 2 26.1998 15 1 35.01999 12 1 33.4'otals 167 32 26.7

!s you can see we have enoyed consistentsuccess over 16 seasons. 8ot all ofthese teams were great9 certainly somewere better than others were. :n two occasionswe graduated all 11 starters onoffense and were able to return to the playoffsthe following year. $ithout this systemand teaching the foundations of discipline,teamwork and sound academic practices,the ;uality and proper mindset of our risingplayers would not be possible.

! good e*ample, which demonstratesthe benefits of this system and how it willwork presented itself with the arrival of amaor college ;uarterback prospect to our

school. ! tall, talented, young man with agreat arm yet somewhat limited runningability was to be our ne*t ;uarterback. &ycoaching staff and I were faced with thedecision to either abandon the $ing%T andgo to a west coast approach on offense tohighlight this young mans talents, or to takeour offense and adapt it to him and his abilities.In searching for the right answer wekeep coming back to the investment wemade in our offense throughout our programand how this would affect us after this;uarterback graduated. $e made the decisionmaintain our $ing%T :ffense. #uringthis ;uarterbacks"senior year we played forthe state championship title and he threwfor more than 2,00 yards. The best resultsof our decision came the ne*t year whenour talented ;uarterback was gone and wewent ended our season with thirteen winsand one loss. $e passed for less thaneight hundred yards with a very ine*periencedyoung ;uarterback, but he hadbecome a well%prepared student of the$ing%T offense.

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The elements of this offense are soundand interrelated throughout its variousseries. :ne of the most intriguing aspectsis how the blocking schemes are consistentregardless of the formation. This becomesmost important not only to the offensivelineman but to the running backs as well

because they perform many importantblocking assignments in the e*ecution ofthe system. The use of formations is thefoundation of creating situations that willallow you to out flank your defensive oppo %nents. !s you incorporate the diff e r e n tseries of the offense with the various formationsyou create alignment problems forthe defense and give the illusion that youhave a very involved offensive package.$e all know that the presence of a wingin any offensive formation is troublesomefrom the standpoint of creating defensivecontain problems but also having the abilityto release into vertical pass routes from

that position ;uickly. The maority of thewing%t formations employ two wing positions,which compound the problem. #rawnbelow are the various $ing%T formationswe employ