Eugene "Stoney" Willis was an American football quarterback and is the first documented player to use the shovel pass in a competitive football game.
A QB of Western Maryland College. Willis used the play in a game against Boston College. The play was featured in a large photograph appearing in the Boston Herald on November 12, 1932.
The wishbone offense, whose introduction to Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I-A) college football is credited to Emory Bellard is named after its base formation of a quarterback, a fullback aligned four to five yards behind the quarterback, and two halfbacks aligned on each side of the fullback and one yard to two yards deeper. The result is a backfield alignment that resembles the shape of a wishbone. Also called the triple-option, this base formation allows three basic running options: the fullback receiving the hand off, the quarterback pitching to either halfback, or the quarterback running the ball himself. While the wishbone's success reached its zenith in the 1970s, it remains popular at the high school and small college level but is nearly extinct at major college programs.
The typical flexbone formation. This variation of the wishbone adds spread-like qualities to the standard triple-option configuration and is popular among service academies.
There has been a resurgence of option offenses in major college football. When implemented properly, option offensive schemes can be very successful, as demonstrated by the success of the Nebraska Huskers, Oklahoma Sooners, Georgia Southern and Syracuse Orange in the 1970s through the early 2000s. Despite its success, though, many teams favor more pro-style offenses that attract athletes who may want to play in the NFL, where option offenses are less popularized.
Recently Urban Meyer and other coaches have developed extraordinarily competitive schemes using an option attack out of the shotgun formation. Meyer visited Kansas State University's Bill Snyder and learned the principles of his system. These combine elements of the West Coast offense. and the single wing with sorted elements of the flexbone and the wishbone. Meyer used his spread option offense with great success at Bowling Green, Utah, Florida and Ohio State where he won the 2014 College Football Playoff championship. Meyer's version is based on the spread attack developed by then-West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez. Rodriguez earned pioneer status for incorporating wishbone principles, such as the zone-read and option pitches, into the primarily passing-oriented spread offense.
