Single Wing Offense Formations

BySteve Parker
Unbalanced Single Wing Offense Formation Diagram

Since there has been so much buzz around the Single Wing Offense in the least week or so because the Kansas City Chiefs ran a Single Wing play in the NFL Super Bowl, I thought I would start a Single Wing blog series. The Single Wing Offense series will review history, formations, plays, famous coaches and the evolution of the Single Wing offense into modern football run by many high school, college and NFL teams.

In this blog post article series on Single Wing formation, I will start drawing up the different Single Wing Offensive Formations and reviewing the strengths and weaknesses of each variant and why they may have moved from the original formation. If you have a single wing formation that is not listed below please contact me or leave a message below.

  1. Single Wing Offense Formations Part 1

The popularity and invention of the Single Wing Offense is usually credited to Glenn “Pop Warner. The offense became very popular while he was coach at the Carlisle Indian School 19-7 -1914 where he coached Jim Thorpe one of USA’s greatest athletes.  The Single Wing Offense was used extensively in the early parts of football but faded in the late 40s. According to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the 1952 Pittsburgh Steelers were the last NFL team to use the Single Wing Offense as their main formation. They dropped the SW for the T formation in 1953.

Below is the video highlight of the KC Chiefs of the SW play, but many teams this year like the Titans, Ravens, Saints, and Vikings ran Single Wing formation variation plays. In the NFL’s 100 year history the football gods decided to remind us how football is really played. History repeats itself in a spectacular fashion and the “egos” of pro football coaches allowed themselves to have faith in the past.

KC Chiefs Single Wing Play from Super Bowl 54

Single Wing Offense Formations Variations

  1. Pop Warner’s Single Wingback
  2. Y Formation
  3. V Passing
  4. Yale Single Wing – “Beast”
  5. Notre Dame Box
  6. Tennessee Formation
  7. Harvard’s Short Punt Formation
  8. Single Winged T
  9. Penn State SW
  10. Idaho SW
  11. Princeton SW
  12. LSU SW
  13. Warner Double Wing

I am sure there are more variations to the Single Wing Offense. If you have a historical Single Wing Formation not listed above, please make a comment below or email me.

Stay tuned over the next few months as the Single Wing Offense series grows.

Remember to Play for Fun and Winning is Funner.

Thanks
Coach Parker

.

Check out my Power Wing Beast Offense Playbook based on the Yale Single Wing.