T Formation Offense; 5 Top Off-Tackle Tested Plays to Win – Part 3

BySteve Parker
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T Formation Offense

This is part three in a T Formation Play series; the T Formation Offense; 5 Top Tested Off-Tackle Plays. Read Part One and Part Two. The T Formation Offense and its variations is one of the oldest football formations.

Below are another 5 T Formation Offense off-tackle plays from Maryland, Notre Dame, Oregon State, Minnesota formation run by Michigan State and top football coaching book author Coach Drew Tallman. Again we sill start with the Split T from Coach Jim Tatum at Maryland. During WW2, Coach Tatum coached under Don Faurot while at the Navy’s Iowa Pre Flight School; the Seahawks.

T Formation Offense; 5 Top Off-Tackle Plays

This is Jim Tatum’s Split T Formation Offense off-tackle play he coached at the University of Maryland. While at Maryland from 1947 to 1955 his winning record percentage was over 80%. They played in several bowl games in the 1950s.

This is Coach Tallman’s Fullback Off-tackle play from the Split T Option Offense. Although the play diagram below does not represent the large gap splits by the OLM, they lineman would use intelligent gap splits to split the Defense. This play is based off the HB quick open dive play.

Coach Frank Leahy of Notre Dame (1941-1953) ran a more traditional Tight T Formation Offense. ND had 6 undefeated teams under Leahy. OLM gap splits were one foot and the TEs maybe one yard.

This is Oregon State’s Coach Red Smith and Dee Andros’ Power T Formation Offense off-tackle play.

This is the Side Saddle T Formation. In this T Formation Offense the Quarterback slides from under Center to over the OG or one of the OTs. He essentially becomes a Sniffer back but also can do some Spinner plays while behind the Guard. This Minnesota T formation was run in the Michigan State Multiple Offense system.

This is a very interesting formation especially for youth football. I use what I call Alpha or Beta blocker calls for moving blocking backs up and down the LOS. This could easily be used with this formation. And in the next Part of this series, we will see Home Rice in his Explosive Short-T book show us how it was done at Kentucky.

Check out my New T eBook – Look Inside

This is the end of Part Three in the T Formation Variations Plays Off-Tackle Play comparison series. Stay tuned for Part 3. Read Part 1 – Part 2. Here’s another T Formation play; 44 Blast.

Below are the T Formation Offense plays resources that helped me write this article.

T Formation / Offense Resources

  1. The Modern T Formation with Man-in-Motion – Shaughnessy/Jones/Halas – 1946
  2. Championship Football – Dana X Bible – Prentice-Hall 1947
  3. Notre Dame Football – The T Formation – Leahy – Prentice-Hall 1949
  4. Football: Secrets of the Split T Formation – Faurot – 1950
  5. Oklahoma Split T Football – Wilkinson – Prentice-Hall 1952
  6. Coaching Football and the Split T Formation – Tatum/Giese – WMC Brown 1953
  7. Michigan State Multiple Offense – Munn – Prentice-Hall 1953
  8. Offensive Football – The Belly Series – Olivar -1958
  9. The Explosive Short-T – Homer Rice – Prentice-Hall  1963
  10. Power T Football – Smith / Andros – Parker Publishing 1971
  11. Complete Guide to Football’s Option Attacks – Tallman – Parker Publishing – 1977
  12. American Football How the Game Evolved – Herget – 2013
  13. Evolution of the Game – Chronicle of American Football – Francisco – 2016
  14. Wikipedia
  15. Power T Football

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Do you run youth a T Formation Offense variation of a few T Plays in your youth offense? Is the Off-tackle play your favorite power run play? What youth football offense do you use for your little league football team? Is there an offensive formation you would like me to diagram for another youth football plays ebook in pdf? Let me know.

Please leave me a comment below or contact me anytime. I love talking youth football and the T Formation Offenses and T plays for youth football and of course the Power Wing Beast Offense playbook.

Remember to Play for Fun and Winning is Funner!
Coach Parker
Fort Worth, Texas

PS: Stay Safe!!