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Hello
football Fans, Double Wing Fans, and soon to be
Double Wing / Gun Wing fans! and thank you for visiting my web
site. Most of this site is focused on the offense I
run and the coaching successes I’ve had with this
amazing offensive system. The successes are a result
of working hard and smart, in a NEW FOOTBALL SCIENCE
and philosophy of offensive football.
More times than not, I've
found "It's not what you have, but what you do with
what you have that makes all the difference".
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2 Gun-Wing teams
clash in 3rd Round Alabama AA Play-offs. Two Undefeated Gun-Wing Teams,
Fiffe and Ohatchee, went at it
Friday night in 3rd Round AA Action.
They maybe the only 2 teams running this
offense in state in their classification.
Draw your own conclusions. |
The Double Wing / Gun-Wing Offense is the most mis-understood
and misdiagnosed scheme in all of football. It can
be
however, an equalizer of sorts,
that is, if coached up and run correctly with the
right Double Wing knowledge in place. This Double Wing /
Gun Wing is a new offensive science and philosophy
for lack of a better description. With
decent talent, you can many times, dominate your
equals. You
can take on better talent, speed and size, and force
it to play your game on your terms. This is
something other offenses may claim to be able to do,
and what I've learned is that most offenses,
especially today, try to gain advantages by
match-ups and getting their best players in space to
take advantage of the lesser athletic team's talent
and speed. Well that is a
great plan if you have the better faster players, but what
that does, if you aren't the most gifted team, is
leave your talent vulnerable and on islands where
the better talent can abuse and take advantage of
the lesser. The Double wing creates a different
kind of space (environment if you will) that
utilizes the entire width and length of the field
which will probably require some explaining when
viewing the Double Wing's tiny footprint on the
almost acre that is a football field. I
digress...
How many times have you seen a team
getting beat by a talented team, and the coach of the lesser team keeps trying for the miracle come
back throwing the ball profusely, trying to get his
athletes in space, and they end up getting their
heads beat in 60-0 or worse with a running clock.
It's possibly because the coach doesn't have a plan that is
working within his player's capabilities, and
therefore putting his players in terribly mismatched
situations. Yes, that other team is better, but by
spreading his talent, passing more and stopping the
clock, throwing interceptions, and making no first
downs, it's giving the better team more offensive
series, and feeding more and more opportunity for
the better team to beat them up with. You see it hundreds
of times every Friday night across the country as
coaches line up and go through all the motions
trying to do
what the Colleges and Pros are doing on Saturdays
and Sundays, with the latest offensive trends but only one difference, Numbers of
gifted talented players that are selected and
recruited etc!!! Even then it comes down to the best
athletes winning! Where I've coached, and most
of us have
to coach, you have to play with what comes out for
football at your school or league, and you may not have the
receivers, a true passer, great running backs, that
option quarterback, or prototype linemen
to take on teams with plenty of them. Well, You ain't
gunna match up in those cases. It's logic for
starters, and plain common sense after that.
(That sounded like a Yogi)
Now
these inequalities exist in the small and larger schools as
well. What I also see on
Friday nights are teams that lose by 10 to 20 points
that I feel like were good enough to win with the
right scheme and coaching. I see coaching schemes
that cost teams games by the hundreds because the
players aren't suited for a particular scheme, but
have good enough talent and could win with maybe
what I do.
Taking on and
coaching teams at the very bottom has been my
coaching life's story for some reason. Maybe in my
case because of the small window I fit into, or it was because
most of the jobs available to me, were at the bottom and
struggling. In the high school realm, not being a
teacher in the system, I've had to scrap and scrape
and take the bottom to desperate teams whose
leadership would hire outside the box such as
myself, to get the high school
positions I've had. Of course entering the High
School Coaching ranks with no high profile track
record left me only a few risk takers, in
terms of who was going to hire a no-name like I was,
to the high school coaching world anyway. Well, I
made the best out of each situation and made some
loud noise by bringing, at the time, unthinkable
winning to my respective schools. So at lease then I
had a high school track record with my name on it.
That helps some! And I am actually "sitting on
ready" for another project right now for 2020!
Anyway, with my
philosophy and Double wing offense, I think I have
solid proof to what I was just talking about. I took
over some of those type high school teams that were
getting beat up previously by 40, 50, and 60 points for
the reasons I stated before. Well, that all ended
when I arrived and things immediately started going
the other direction and all because of the Double
Wing Offensive Scheme and a coaching mentality that is
proven, sound, and smart in it's preparation and
execution. A perfect example of a good coach
picking up the Double Wing is Alabama's 2-A
Champions coach Paul Benefield. Paul was a good
coach to begin with, but since his
introducing the Gun-Wing to his Red Devils, they
have dominated the state with 7 State Titles and a
Runner-Up Title of the
10 years they have run the offense. Mount Paran
Christian in Kennesaw Ga another team gained huge
success after going Gun Wing transforming a 2 or 3
win per year team into a 2014 State Champion and an
80%+ winning percentage since it's
implementation.
There are lots of
serious advantages I've experienced coaching the Double Wing, and
some are: #1.
No plays for a loss of yardage.
#2. No QB sacks. As
long as I've been running this offense I can't
recall a single QB sack and that is because there
weren't any. That's pretty phenomenal #3. Very few
punts. Average less than 1 per game.
#4. Very Low risk for
turnovers. The turnovers I've experienced were due
to a ball carriers negligence usually being tackled in the secondary. By
far the lowest risk offense anywhere.
#5. No weekly offensive
game planning. Everything we do in learning the
rules and blocking schemes of the DW are built in
and there is virtually nothing we can't block. There
may be a tad bit of adjustment on the fly in a game
to something bazaar, but I find my kids so well up
on things by game time that it's as simple as
scratching an itch. Plus, there is absolutely no
clue of what you are going to face on Friday nights,
regardless of what a team has been doing previous.
I've probably seen it all if not most of it!
In other words, it doesn't matter what they do.
Probably my favorite part of running this offense!
These are very big
items in winning football games. Take these items
along with not doing knuckle-head things, and
there is your winning formula, and that is just
offense!
The one thing a
coach must know in going into the world of the
Double Wing is that it simply can't mix well with
any conventional offenses. It is an "all or nothing"
commitment. Any compromise of its pure DNA which
means basic operations, alignment and schemes are
just that. "A Compromise" which will weaken the over
all integrity and functioning of this potent design.
I have had coaches call or email and
send me videos as to why their DW isn't working, or is
not as
effective as mine and after watching it, I tell
them, they aren't running the DW. They are running a
hybrid or not taking all the absolutes of the DW
seriously, or simply not coached up themselves on
the offense. I won't go into all the details but
every aspect of the DW is different from all other
conventional offenses and that is why I refer to it
as a new science. It appears old school to a degree
but all elements must be implemented and coached up
to have success with it. You will fail in a hybrid
unless of course you have all the horses, and then it
doesn't matter what you run. Since I've always had
to coach from an inferior personnel position, that
is how I present the DW.
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There are other common sense things (the don't be a
knuckle-head things) that are
incorporated into the winning plan as well but that
is study for another day. The Double Wing
offense has been very instrumental in my being able
to win with kids that have never won, compete with
kids not used to competing, and making football fun
again for kids that may have fallen away from the
game in difficult circumstances.
The double wing
also allows one to have a solid and dependable
offense whether or not you have a good passer,
abundant receivers, strong linemen, or great
runners. In it's team concept, It promotes success
through tight execution and kids determination and
hard work in lieu of having the special kids that
can take a team on their shoulders athletically. Now if you have
that kid or kids, you are going to be really tough
to beat in this offense. Fact is, the worst double
wing team I've had was very tough to beat, but not
because we matched up. And with the best DW team
I've had, I asked a friend on the sideline as we
were playing in a Championship game, tied late in the
4th quarter, I asked, "How many players do you think
that coach on the other sideline would trade for any
of ours"? The answer I got was NONE. We were
competing at the very highest level with kids
visibly on the lesser talent, size, and speed side
of our opponents. But as a unit and with the Double
Wing and this winning formula, we were
really good if not the best in the league.
High school
coaches many times try to think and operate like College
or the NFL. Those schemes mainly require matching up
and getting athletic guys in space and executing
very athletic and talent moves to be successful.
There are times when a coach of a not so talented
team, may get a
player with the ball in space, and it looks like a great play, BUT It closed down very
quickly with the
better faster kids feasting on the lesser talent.
Same scenario on the line of scrimmage. The lesser
kid can't hold the blocks on a better player or even
an equal for
very long thus defenders swarm to the ball blowing
up play after play. To me, these are the scheme issues
that led me to the Double Wing.
You've heard the
expression "Play within Yourself"? Well,
to me, that is a
good way to look at coaching football. Coach within your team
and it's skills and not worry so much about what the
NFL and the Big Colleges do, along with flashy
clinic speak. Clinics are wonderful
and I've never met a coach that lost on the white
board, but a good coach will sieve through it all,
and take what can be useful. For one thing, you don't
have unlimited coaching time. Second, you don't have
recruits. I suggest put in a system that your kids can do and
be successful in or at least something within their
grasp. What happens mostly is coaches are wanting to
keep up with the latest coaching schemes and
offensive trends from what they see in college and
Pro football, as well as all the clinics. Well,
those schemes will work if you have the best
players, because you will probably be facing
something similar in scheme, on every game day. It's no
accident the service academies run what they run.
They can't compete on a recruiting level so they
have to scheme lesser talent and leverage to
compete. The double wing is along those same lines,
but with far less risk and none of the indecision of
the read game. It is very player friendly.
An example of
forced scheming: I had
been hired by a large HS team a good while back, and I
was asking the existing OC about the offense and what was
going to be implemented. He said, "Coach, We
are going to throw the football !". Well, OK, I was to
work with the QB's being my experience etc. so we
were going outside throwing all the routes and
working hard on the passing game. I took very
careful notes as we went along. We had a 20%
completion ratio VS AIR. I repeat VS AIR...No
defenders, no rush, perfect weather, good footballs,
etc, etc. Thankfully, shortly after those work outs,
and before I was officially signed on,
I was called and hired for an Offensive Coordinators
position at another big school, so I didn't stay
there, but that particular team went 1-9 that season,
with a team that could have easily competed at the
top with a
decent scheme and coached up offense. They had
good linemen and good strong and fast running backs
and a great Defensive man coaching the "D" but I
guess the OC's intoxicating lure to throw the ball and
look like a big time coach, was
either just too much, or that was all of an offense
the OC knew, which I'm thinking was the case. That
HC, the great "D man", was fired after the next
season. I feel like the kids really lose in
situations like that, and this type scenario is in
huge abundance. It's really frustrating to see.
With a well
executed Double/Gun-Wing, average athletes can excel and
actually play and look far better than if they were
in traditional spread type offenses that rely on
more talent and speed in space, by athletes with
more advanced skills. In the DW, average
running backs and receivers look very good because
the scheme works for them, and protects them,
where as in many traditional & spreads, you are basically
in a match-up game, one on one many times, which is
never a good idea when you're NOT the best ONE! And
a super bad idea when all of their 11 are better
than yours. I could go into more detail and
particulars but enough for now.
Anyway, this
offense requires a coach that knows the small DW
details, the adjustments to all that will be trying to defend it, as well as one that has his
total confidence in it.
He must also
understand the football physics and critical points, and is willing to coach like the energizer
bunny to get all the cogs in the gearbox in order. I
don't mind being a rare commodity as a Double Wing
coach in fact I prefer it, because I've had to play
this offense a couple of times and I got to tell
you, I'm with them, I Hate Playing it. It is a
nightmare, and I'd rather have to deal with anything
else other than this thing. One of the best
Defensive Men I've ever coached against, Keith Regan,
a 40 year veteran defensive wizard did the best job
of slowing my DW down that I remember, and his
description of my double wing goes simply like this, " It's Wicked". I'll
take that all day long, for when a great defensive
man calls your offense Wicked, That is a high
complement! As a High School Head Coach in 5 years, I have put
up over 23,000 yards of offense in 59 games with
teams from the very bottom of their respective
leagues. That averages out to be 390 yards per game.
To me, those figures alone speak for this special offense.
And that is
my humble little take!! LH
IT'S A TEAM THING
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For Info on Coach Harrison's
Coaching Availability,
please contact Coach via Email, Text, or
Phone! |
This just
in:
California
Double Wing team Tustin High Tillers, after many years of
averaging 8+ wins per season and coming off of a 9 win
season, has decided to go "Modern"
as the article puts it, PRO Style in 2018, and run a
more Pro game incorporating more passing and Spread
schemes due to outside fodder and noise about the Double
Wing not being good for recruitment etc.. They said there would be NO parts of the Double
Wing remaining in their new system..... Well, Tustin pulled
an impressive 4-7 record as the experiment proved
not so Win Friendly.
*2019 was another impressive 5-6. "Not sure if
that's the way to open the recruiting flood gates to
Tustin" or to the colleges. I personally don't think
you diminish any type recruiting by consistent
winning and I certainly don't think the Double Wing
is hiding any great athletes!. But that's just me.
Oh well, As long as everyone's happy. Onward...
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