Talk:T formation

Age of the T
Since some people suggest that the single wing is older than the T, I will note that the T features prominently in Fielding Yost's 1905 primer, Football for Player and Spectator, and that the book is old enough to be available as a free ebook. Since the forward pass and the seven man line were legalized in 1906, the formation predates the legal forward pass. If my memory serves, the single wing and double wing do not. Dwmyers (talk) 12:32, 4 July 2013 (UTC)

Minnesota and the T
The previous version of this article claimed the University of Minnesota used the T-formation in the 1930s and 1940s under Coach Bernie Bierman. Under Bierman, the Gophers ran a single-wing offense. See "Bernie Bierman," College Football Hall of Fame https://footballfoundation.org/hof_search.aspx?hof=1532

Jim Campbell, "Single Wing Power," College Football Historical Society Newsletter, (Feb. 1998), vol.XI, no.II, p. 7. http://www.la84foundation.org/SportsLibrary/CFHSN/CFHSNv11/CFHSNv11n2e.pdf

Bierman never adopted the T-formation and even apparently referred to it as a "flash in the pan." See Lewiston Evening Journal, Dec. 10, 1943, p.13. http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1913&dat=19431210&id=qvYpAAAAIBAJ&sjid=JmcFAAAAIBAJ&pg=1519,4408803

The success of the 1940 Stanford team under Coach Clark Shaughnessey did a lot to make the T-formation popular. See Ron Fimrite, "A Melding Of Men All Suited To A T," Sports Illustrated, Sep. 5, 1977. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1092785/index.htm

Notre Dame coach Frank Leahy adopted it a few seasons later.

See Ron Fimrite, "A Melding Of Men All Suited To A T," Sports Illustrated, Sep. 5, 1977. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1092785/index.htm — Preceding unsigned comment added by Minngator (talk • contribs) 18:57, 27 November 2012 (UTC)

Untitled
This formation is used for a vast amount of trick plays including reverses,runningback passes, and hundreds of play fakes.I've faced it once in my time playing tackle football and it was a tricky offence to figure out. any body else faced it? I'd like to know your experince.66.57.12.120 (talk) 22:44, 4 May 2008 (UTC)jts.4life

The current (12/31/08) article about the T Formation is flawed. The classic T Formation run at Notre Dame and everywhere else I can remember did not have the three backs lined up straight in a row. The full back was lined up a little more from the line of scrimmage than the halfbacks. The difference was about a yard (the fullback's helmet lined up with the rear end of the halfbacks). So the T formation looked like a lower case "t" rather than the upper case "T". For reference you can ask anybody who played football prior to 1960 or you can see it described in images in "Notre Dame Foot Ball - The T Formation" by Frank Leahy (former ND coach) which is online at Google Books (first of many images is on page 19). There were reasons for this offset you can read about in the book.

The formation described in the current Wiki article as well as other places on the internet was referred to as the "Straight T Formation". The only team I remember using it was Texas A&M, I believe in the 70's (This last comment is from memories from long ago, so it's not gospel!). Even in this case, I believe they were using it as a formation for option plays (as a modified Wishbone) rather than for the classic T Formation play set.

Some teams even now sometimes line up in a formation that looks a lot like the old fashioned T Formation, but the fullback is another step or two farther back than in the classic T. Most people refer to this as "a full backfield". Xyoureyes (talk) 22:57, 31 December 2008 (UTC)


 * I will note that the diagrams of the T formation in Dana Bible's Book Championship Football show a tight offensive line, ends split 1-2 yards from the tackles, halfbacks 4 yards behind the linemen, and a fullback 4.5 yards behind the linemen. Dwmyers (talk) 12:32, 4 July 2013 (UTC)

Misunderstanding of Split-T
I went ahead and corrected this in the article. What distinguishes the Split-T is not the split end, which may be used with any formation, but the spread between the offensive linemen. 65.79.173.135 (talk) 17:25, 27 October 2010 (UTC)Will in New Haven65.79.173.135 (talk) 17:25, 27 October 2010 (UTC)