The Multiple-Option I-Bone Offense

7/30/2019 The Multiple-Option I-Bone Offense

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GREAT ARTICLE ABOUT I-BONE OFFENSE

Below is an article written by Joey Lozano about late football coach Dr. James R. Smith and his

I-Bone Offense. Give it a read!

The Multiple-Option I-Bone Offense

By Joey Lozano

Austin, Texas

In the spring of 1984, while working as a publicist for the Alamo Community College District in

San Antonio, Texas, I met Dr. James R. Smith, a local veterinary dermatologist who would

forever change the way I looked at football. As if his occupation were not interesting enough (atthat time, there were only four veterinary dermatologists in all of Texas, and only about 25 in the

entire country), Dr. Smith would later give me another reason to find him interesting. On late

afternoon between sets of incline bench presses at the local health club where we met, Dr. Smithtold me that I could not guess who he had been talking on the telephone with earlier that day.When I agreed I probably could not, he said Barry Switzer, who was, at that time, the head

football coach of the Oklahoma Sooners.

When I asked if the reason he was talking to Switzer was related to Dr. Smiths work as adermatologist, he replied no, I invented a multiple offense for college football, and thats what

we were talking about. As one might imagine, I was intrigued by what type of offense Dr.

Smith had created. And because I was looking to pen my first freelance article for a localmonthly magazine, I asked Dr. Smith if he would be willing to be interviewed for a possible

feature article. He agreed, and I arranged to interview Dr. Smith the next day. He made sure to

tell me to bring a tablet.

When Dr. Smith and I met the next day, he explained to me that while he was a preveterinarymedical student at Texas A&M University, he attempted to walk on as quarterback to the Aggie

football team, which was coached by Emory Bellard, who invented the famed Wishbone offense

while serving as offensive coordinator under University of Texas Head Football Coach DarrellRoyal. In 1975, during the week of the Aggies game against the arch-rival UT Longhorns, it was

Smiths job as the attack team quarterback to run the Texas Wishbone against the first-team

Aggie defense, which was manned by such All Southwest Conference plays as linebackers Ed

Simonini and Robert Jackson, defensive linemen Edgar Fields and Tank Marshall, and defensivebacks Pat Thomas and Lester Hayes.

Smith vividly recalled to me his experience running the Wishbone against the stalwart Aggie

defenders, several of whom would go on to play in the NFL. He noted that every time he

approached the second option key on the defensive line for the critical keep-or-pitch decision,there was someone there to take my head off, whether I pitched the ball or not. This was true

whether the play was run to the right or left of center, or to the tight-end or split-end side of the

formation. The Aggie defense had the Wishbone dissected perfectly, and kept each play to littleor no gain, as they would several days later when they defeated the Longhorns..

Smith said as a result of his experience in practice that week, he determined that the Wishbone,

which the Aggies also were running at that time, was too predictable, lacked versatility,deception, passing capability, and scoring potential, findings which would later cause the bone


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to fall out of favor at not only Texas. Texas A&M, and Oklahoma, but many other football

programs as well. Of particular concern to Smith was that in the Wishbone, a talented

runningback was limited to attacking only one side of the defense from option plays and sweeps.However, Smith felt that the threat of the triple option which was at the core of the Wishbone,

was still a powerful offensive weapon. He therefore set out to create an offense which would

retain the threat of the triple option, offer greater deception, versatility and passing capability, aswell as enabling a talented runningback to attack either side of the defense on option plays andsweeps.

After several months of tinkering, Smith came up with the formation which would form the crux

of his new offense and which he felt would meet the aforementioned characteristics. As he drewthe formation on the notepad I had brought with me, I noted it looked like a cross between the

Power-I and the Wishbone. Smith dubbed the formation the I-Bone, shown in Figure 1. He

explained that from this formation, a team could run all the option and non-option running plays

of the Wishbone, Houston Veer, and I offenses, and with greater deception and versatility than isavailable from those offenses alone. He also incorporated motion into the I-bone so that the

fullback, halfback or tailback could go in motion to either side of the field as a pass receiver,

blocker or decoy, employing the passing attack off triple-option play action. And the use of a Iformation would enable a team to put their best runningback in the tailback position, enabling

him to attack either side of the defense from option plays and sweeps. Such a tailback could also

be utilized on off-tackle and in-line running plays. Dr. Smith told me that he hoped to be able to

get a major college football team to implement the I-Bone, so he wrote to Switzer afterOklahomas 1984 Orange Bowl loss to Miami.

After writing a feature article about Dr. Smith and his offense for a San Antonio city magazine, Ijoined him in his efforts to implement the I-Bone. Our first step was to write an article about the

I-Bone for Texas Coach, the official magazine of the Texas High School Coaches Association.

We received 60 responses from high school football coaches all over the country who wanted to

learn more about the I-Bone. Over the next several years, I researched numerous books on optionfootball in an attempt to learn the necessary terminology, blocking rules, and backfield


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techniques necessary to implement the I-Bone in a football program. Once the research was

completed, we published a 100-page paperbound manual about the I-Bone, which we marketed

through direct mail and magazine advertisements. Over the next couple of years, approximately500 high school and small college football coaches purchased the manual. Orders were even

received from coaches of American football teams in Europe.

Unfortunately, Dr. Smith died of a heart attack several years ago, and never experienced thepleasure of seeing a team run the I-Bone offense he created.I discontinued selling the manual after interest in option football waned over the years. However,

the World Wide Web has grown to include numerous football coaching newsletters magazines

and websites. And with the popularity of offenses like the flexbone and the zone read, optionfootball is once again enjoying a resurgence in popularity. In addition, there are many young

coaches today who may not be aware of Smiths I-Bone offense. For these reasons, I have

resumed the efforts Dr. Smith and I undertook 25 years ago to make high school and college

football coaches aware of the I-Bone offense. The remainder of this article will provide anoverview of the I-Bone offense.

THE I-BONE OFFENSIVE PACKAGE

The I-Bone is a four-back attack with a split end. The basic formation is the full-house set as

illustrated in Figure 1. The fullback aligns himself so that his heels are three yards from the ball.The halfback aligns either directly behind the offensive guard or straddling the guards outside

foot, about four yards from the ball. The tailback is directly behind the fullback, from five and

one-half to seven yards away from the ball. Any of these alignments may be adjusted eitherforward or backward, depending on factors such as individual quickness or speed of the

runningbacks. The quarterback always lines up directly behind the centers tail so that he can

take the snap.

Figures 2 through 7 below illustrate the I-Bones triple option and counter option plays. Playerassignments and line blocking rules are explained in succeeding chapters. One set of blocking

rules is used on all triple option plays, regardless of who the diveback and pitchback are. One set

of line blocking rules also applies to all counter and counter option plays, regardless of whichback is the diveback or the pitchback. And the same blocking rules are used on all trap plays,

regardless of which back carries the ball.

The frontside I triple option:


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Figure 2

The inside Houston veer triple option:

Figure 3

The outside Houston veer triple option:
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Figure 4

The backside Wishbone triple option:

Figure 5

The I counter option to the tailback:

Figure 6
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The Houston Veer counter option:

Figure 7

Knowing that defenses would use some of the same tactics they used to shut down the

Wishbone, Dr. Smith also incorporated motion into the I-Bone offense, by sending either the

fullback, halfback or

Figure 8

tailback in motion to either side of the formation as a pass receiver, lead blocker, or decoy.

Diagram 8 shows the fullback going in motion as a lead blocker in the Houston Veer triple

option. Figure 9 shows the halfback going in motion as a receiver in a post-wheel combinationwith the split end off of frontside-I triple option play action. Figure 10 shows the tailback going

in motion to block the backside defensive end and draw the defense away from the Wishbone

triple option play to the opposite side.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xqD6PghFZ68/TLID_8eVoeI/AAAAAAAAALQ/oNzIT18Krxo/s1600/I-Bone+Fig+8.jpghttp://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xqD6PghFZ68/TLID4uRfdcI/AAAAAAAAALM/F-gTQSvUcYc/s1600/I-Bone+Fig+7.jpghttp://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xqD6PghFZ68/TLID_8eVoeI/AAAAAAAAALQ/oNzIT18Krxo/s1600/I-Bone+Fig+8.jpghttp://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xqD6PghFZ68/TLID4uRfdcI/AAAAAAAAALM/F-gTQSvUcYc/s1600/I-Bone+Fig+7.jpg


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Figure 9

Figure 10

I welcome comments from coaches about the I-Bone offense that Dr. Smith and I developed.Please send any comments to me at [email protected]. I also am trying to determine if there is

enough interest in the option football coaching community to warrant re-publishing the original

I-Bone playbook that Dr. Smith and I self-published in 1991. I have been re-working the

playbook with the latest football diagramming and word processing software to provide a moreprofessional-looking playbook than the original book, which was created with DOS-based

software. If you believe that coaches would be interested in a book explaining the I-Bone offense

in details, please pass your comments to me via e-mail.I hope it has been of interest and some use to you. Dr. Smiths goal when he created the I-Bone

was not to make money, but rather to make a meaningful contribution to the sport of football,

which provided him with so much enjoyment over his life, both as a player and fan. I share hisgoal of making as many coaches as possible aware of the I-Bone in hopes that it may be of use to

them in their football programs. Thank you taking time to read this article, and for all the work
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xqD6PghFZ68/TLIEVz7azLI/AAAAAAAAALY/wqRu6G9wlBY/s1600/I-Bone+Fig+10.jpghttp://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xqD6PghFZ68/TLIEL_DMBtI/AAAAAAAAALU/toPrxT8oQFE/s1600/I-Bone+Fig+9.jpghttp://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xqD6PghFZ68/TLIEVz7azLI/AAAAAAAAALY/wqRu6G9wlBY/s1600/I-Bone+Fig+10.jpghttp://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xqD6PghFZ68/TLIEL_DMBtI/AAAAAAAAALU/toPrxT8oQFE/s1600/I-Bone+Fig+9.jpg


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you do helping young people grow and mature into responsible, productive citizens.

Joey Lozano is a writer and program specialist at the Texas Education Agency in Austin, Texas,

and a former journalist who covered high school football in North and South Texas. Send

comments or questions about this article to him at [email protected].

The Multiple-Option I-Bone Offense

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