Wing-T Football Plays

The Wing-T can be a very effective offensive system to run at certain levels. Wing-T football plays use an offense’s speed and the deception of the plays to try to gain the upper hand on the defense. Instead of using 2 wide receivers, 2 running backs, and a tight end, the Wing-T uses just 1 wide receiver, 1 tight end, and 3 running backs.

The three running backs are the halfback, the fullback, and the wingback. Usually the fullback lines up behind the quarterback, the halfback lines up in the backfield, and the wingback can either line up in the back field or at either end of the line of scrimmage.

Three Wing-T football plays that work very well are the dive, the counter, and the waggle.

Let’s face it, in the split second when the ball is snapped, the offense has the advantage. This is because the offense knows when the ball is going to be snapped and the defense doesn’t. There is a split second when the quarterback calls out the cadence and calls for the ball to be snapped. In that split second the offense fires off the ball and the defense can’t move until they see the ball move. The dive play takes advantage of this brief advantage.

The dive play is the quickest hitting of all Wing-T football plays. The offensive line fires into the defensive line. The ball is quickly handed to a running back – usually the full back – and he runs straight into the line either just to the left of the center (dive left) or just to the right of the center (dive right). Then the running back simply drives forward for as many yards as possible.

This play usually only gains a few yards but it can be broken for a long gain. The dive is usually used to wear down the defense with a slow, methodical drive and it’s also used to set-up other Wing-T football plays.

One play the dive sets-up is the counter play. When the defense is starting to guess the dive is coming, that is a perfect time to run a counter. For the counter all that happens is the ball is faked to one side as a dive to the full back. Then the ball is handed to the second back, usually the half back, and he runs to the other side of the line. This Wing-T football play will be very successful if the defense pursues one way to stop the dive and then the play goes the opposite way.

The waggle play is a one of the popular Wing-T football passing plays. The quarterback will fake the handoff to the running back and then he will curve out one way of the other behind the line of scrimmage. If you were to draw a line where the quarterback starts and then where he goes, the line would resemble a dog’s tail. All of the receivers would run their patterns to the same side of the field where the quarterback waggles to. The waggle works particularly well when the defense is sold on the fake to the running back.

There are many effective Wing-T football plays that an offense could run. These plays include both running and passing plays. Many of the Wing-T football plays build on each other and are effective because of the plays that come before. Three great Wing-T football plays are the dive, the counter, and the waggle.