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Jacks adapting to Wallace's flexbone offense
When Stephen Wallace played football for Eastmont High School and later at Western Washington University, those teams ran pro-style offenses, so one would think that Wallace would feel comfortable running a similar type of offensive set as a head coach, right?
Well, anybody who has watched the Quincy High School football team play this season knows that the Jackrabbits' offense is a far cry from anything from what would be considered pro style (one quarterback, one tailback, one fullback, one tight end two wide receivers).
Breck Webley lines up directly behind quarterback Jackson Hodges, but Webley is considered the fullback. There is no traditional tailback; instead, two 'slotbacks' — Manny Ybarra and Trevor Hyer — flank the offensive tackles, on a direct parallel line with Hodges. Most of the time there's only one wideout and no tight end.
It's called the flexbone formation, and it has led the Jacks to a varying degree of success offensively this season. It's a system that Wallace firmly believes in, but it took him a while to embrace it.
Actually, Wallace did install a pro-style offense during his first year coaching at Bridgeport. However, he soon started to look for alternatives to fit his team's talents better.
"I was always a part of the more traditional pro-style offense, which required highly skilled linemen and depth at the skill positions to create a balanced pass/run attack. My first year as a head coach at Bridgeport I installed a typical pro-style offense, which I was most comfortable with due to years of exposure," Wallace told Jack Tracks. "We had a talented backfield, which made the offense effective, but we lacked a true quarterback and our offense began to struggle as the season progressed.
"The following year we had about five or six solid, young, freshman/sophomore running backs and again had no one who wanted or knew how to play quarterback. I began researching run-oriented offenses and came across a new, trendy shotgun/spread-option attack offense, Florida/Tim Tebow style. I thought it would allow us to run the option and still provide our quarterback with good vision for throwing short passes."
The Gator offense help Bridgeport rise to respectability, but Wallace soon began to realize its limitations as well.
"Over the next four years our Bridgeport offense averaged over 290 yards per game rushing, but we never established a passing game," he said. "The shotgun constantly created problems with running up the middle in short yardage situations, and it allowed linebackers to have a good view of our quarterback/fullback mesh, which hurt our option attack."
Before Wallace was named as Quincy's coach last summer, he began to tinker with the offense. "I studied countless option-oriented playbooks for something that would be quick to install and would give our players the best opportunity to be successful during years when we were young, lacked size or depth at our skill positions," he said. "I came across an old Georgia Southern flexbone playbook, which led me to studying Georgia Tech."
At that point, Wallace's mind immediately flashed back to when he first became familiar with the flexbone offense. Paul Johnson, Georgia Tech's head coach since 2002, was Navy's offensive coordinator in 1995 and 1996, Georgia Southern's coach from 1997 to 2001 and has run the flexbone formation at all three schools.
"My exposure to the option offense came about 15 years ago when I watched a much less talented and undersized Navy team give highly ranked Norte Dame one of its hardest games of the year," Wallace said. "Later that year I watched Nebraska’s option offense tear through a very good Washington defense."
Wallace concluded that the flexbone formation would work with a Quincy team that entered the year without an adequately-sized, experienced offensive line or super-talented wide receivers.
Arguably, the two most difficult positions on offense to develop quickly are wide receivers and quarterbacks.
In the flexbone formation, intelligent and athletic personnel can adapt to playing quarterback without having to throw the ball very well. The quarterback must be able to read a run defense in order to exploit the holes. His read will determine how to develop an option play. Good flexbone quarterbacks are capable of manipulating overpursuing defenses.
Hodges has definitely proven he can be an effective rusher in this offense, but heading into next season he must improve his throwing accuracy; the junior's performance in last week's 31-25 loss to East Valley — a season-high 133 passing yards and perhaps most importantly, no interceptions — was a sign that he's starting to advance that part of his game in this offense.
“Jackson was superb against East Valley, not only passing-wise but rushing also,” Hyer told the Post-Register last week. “I think a lot of it had to do with how well he was running the ball. Being able to set up the pass with his rushing I think helped out. I also think his accuracy was so good because we practiced all week the one pass play that went for three huge gains, and we passed every quarter instead of just throwing it up in the last quarter. Having a little more balanced offense this game allowed Jackson’s arm to stay loose.”
The fullback must be strong enough to break tackles and draw the attention of linebackers and defensive linemen. Good flexbone fullbacks are usually the best ball carriers on the team and receive the majority of rushing attempts. A flexbone fullback is usually smaller and faster than a typical fullback seen in conventional offenses.
Webley's size and skill set fit the flexbone fullback requirements beautifully. Before leaving the East Valley game in the first half with a concussion, rendering his status as question mark for tonight's season-ender against Ephrata, the senior was having an outstanding season, rushing for almost 900 yards.
The slotbacks must be balanced athletically, capable of trailing the quarterback, and good receivers. If the slotbacks are not of equal talent, then a defense can predict which direction the play will develop. Slotbacks typically need to be capable pass receivers because they receive a great deal of high velocity pitches and are primary receivers during passing plays. One of Quincy's slotbacks — Hyer — is a converted wideout.
The offensive line must be quick enough to get to linebackers and safeties and strong enough to block the defensive line.
"Our line has been beat up this year; therefore, last week was the first time we were able to really change up formations and examine the defense for a weakness, which resulted in our offense passing for more yards then we rushed," Wallace said. "That's the first time that's happened in my coaching career."
In fact, several things happened in last week's game that had Wallace thinking that his players are becoming more comfortable with the offense as the season goes along.
"As with any offense, there was a learning period, but last week I believe was a small glimpse into what can be accomplished with the offense," Wallace said. "We were able to utilize multiple formations in an attempt to find a weakness within their defense. East Valley was a bigger and stronger team, but we were able to run our option effectively because our running game is based on taking what the defense gives us.
"Jackson was able to quickly read that they were going to stop Breck on the dive option and try to have one guy stop both him and our pitch back. Jackson began pulling out of the dive mesh and gave a good hard pitch fake, which resulted in the defender opening up a running lane for him to make some nice plays. Once we had their focus on our running attack, we were able to take advantage of their aggressive defensive backs and hit some nice deep passes.
"I credit my new coaching staff with the development of our passing game, something I was sorely missing during my years at Bridgeport. They have greatly improved and added to the overall concept of our offense. This spring and summer we will continue to work on our offense, and with a great core of our team returning, I believe next year we will be able to provide our fans with some exciting offensive games."
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