At one time, the single wing offense was like today’s extended offense. Invented by Pop Warner in 1907, it was the most common crime in its heyday. There was a time when there were more teams running Single Wing than not, at all levels of football. In the 1930s and 1940s, over 80% of college and professional teams ran the single-end offense.
Why do we see so few teams running the single wing offense today?
Why did he die?
There are many theories, these are just some of the most popular and logical ones:
With so many teams running Single Wing, the “familiarity factor” made it easier to defend. Just like today, the first time you see something like a 5-wide offense it takes you by surprise, but after you’ve played 5-wide teams 4-5 times it becomes much easier to defend. Imagine defending the same offense 8 out of 10 games for 20 years straight and practicing against it every day (assuming your team has run Single Wing on Offense). The familiarity factor would be quite high.
The Squad Theory
The move to two-platoon football gave rise to specialization which in turn allowed “finicky” players to play the game at quarterback and wide receiver. In the ’50s and before, most players played both ways. Even the great quarterback YA Title played both ways, leading the NFL in interceptions playing safety. Title also excelled as a kicker, playing special teams as most starters did in those days. Players in that day had to be tough, physical, durable soccer players who had to excel in many facets of the game. Today’s NFL and college players play one way and are highly specialized. Today, even many high school squad teams. This specialization allows more practice time to be devoted to intricate offenses and the development of less physically dominant players.
The sinking of the Titanic
The factor of the 1940 NFL title game. With the largest national audience ever tuned in, the Chicago Bears using their new Straight T offense, beat the Washington Redskins and Single Wing 73-0. This sonic thrashing on the national stage led many to think that Single Wing was as good as a slingshot in a gunfight, it was thought to be old-fashioned and “old-fashioned”. Horse and carriage stuff in the days of air travel and indoor plumbing. This may have been the nail in the coffin for Single Wing, as many teams began to abandon Single Wing for the next big thing, the T Formation. Just like today, coaches jump on the bandwagon, jump on the bandwagon with the next big thing that has caught their attention and the fickle hearts of their fans.
The Guardians of the Faith
Fortunately, Single Wing never really died. There were college teams that ran the Single Wing as late as the 1960s. Several very successful high schools never stopped running the offense, including Menominee Michigan’s Ken Hofer. The Maroons have been managing Single Wing for the last 40 years and have gone to the playoffs in each of the last 13 seasons and won 3 state titles with him in just the last 9 years. Giles in Virginia is another who has stayed with the Wing for the last 20 years and has won 2 state titles in the last 6 years. There are a handful of high schools like these that kept the offense alive along with some forward-thinking/retrospective youth coaches where the offense really started to catch fire in the last decade. Add in what Urban Meyer has done with Single Wing and you have a stampede of trainers jumping back on the Single Wing bandwagon. There have been 25 or more Division I college teams running at least one series of single-end plays in their offenses this season. Heck, even the Miami Dolphins got in on the act with Single Wing in their surprising turnaround this season.
modern single wing
While today’s Single Wing still contains many of the basic principles of the 1940s Single Wing; Overwhelming on the point of attack, using angles and leverage, deception and great ball fakes, movement and great passing action. The Single Wing that many of us run today also includes some new features such as: Jet or Fly Sweep Series, Trap and screen games, Mesh or Air Raid passing concepts and much more.
Single Wing Youth Soccer
How widespread is Ala Única at the youth level? Is the familiarity factor going to kill my chances of being successful with it?
Our latest research of marketing executives from several very large companies and surveys of more than 1,000 youth coaches tells us:
There are around 2,500,000 children playing youth soccer today.
There are currently around 120,000 youth soccer teams.
About 2,400 of those youth teams are running the single-wing offense.
So we Single Wingers are still in the minority and the familiarity factor is still low with around 2% of youth soccer teams being Single Winged. But those who embrace the offense are growing and will continue to grow with the advent of watching it on both Saturday and Sunday television. The same goes for the success several of our teams have had in the Pop Warner National Championships and other major Tournaments. With so many teams having such success at youth levels, interest will only increase. But don’t worry about it, my teams have done well consistently over time. We’ve been running it for 11 seasons against a lot of the same teams and a lot of my competition have bought my book, have my DVDs, and visit this same website every day. We have a tracking thing on the website that shows me which cities visit the website every day.
youth soccer training
The moral of the story is expect to see more Single Wing Football wherever you are. But don’t worry, we are still a minority, they still have to stop it and if you bought the book you have at your fingertips the countermeasures of the most used techniques and schemes to stop this crime.
One last thought: Are you a squad? Do your best players play both ways? Are you able to dedicate 5 days a week to practice time just on offense, no defense or special teams? Wow, youth play and dynamics seem to fit more the mold of the limitations that teams had in the ’40s and ’50s, don’t they?