The
Notre Dame Box
Notre Dame Box is a variation of the single-wing formation used in
American football, with great success by Notre Dame in college
football and the
Green Bay Packers
Green Bay Packers of the 1920s and 1930s in the NFL.
Green Bay's coach, Curly Lambeau, learned the
Notre Dame Box
Notre Dame Box while
playing for
Knute Rockne
Knute Rockne in the late 1910s. Rockne learned it from
Jesse Harper, who learned it from coach Amos Alonzo Stagg.[1] It
contained two tight ends, and 4 backs. The formation often featured an
unbalanced line where the center (that is, the player who snapped the
ball) was not strictly in the center of the line, but close to the
weakside.
Players line up in
T formation
T formation then shift to a box formation.[2] The
Notre Dame Box
Notre Dame Box differed from the traditional single-wing formation in
that the line was balanced and the halfback who normally played the
"wing" in the single-wing was brought in more tightly, with the option
of shifting out to the wing. These two changes made the backs'
formation resemble a square (hence "box") and made the formation less
predictable, allowing offenses to run more easily to the "weak" side.
Additionally, the halfback became a more viable runner than in the
single-wing and the quarterback, normally just a blocking back in the
single-wing, could become a passer since the center could snap the
ball directly to him. The
Notre Dame Box
Notre Dame Box relied on a great deal of
deception, caused by backs shifting frequently, rather than the pure
power of the single-wing. Teams would often adopt the Notre Dame Box
if they lacked a true "triple threat" tailback, necessary for
effective single-wing use. Rockne's innovations with this formation
involved using complicated backfield shifts and motion to confuse
defenses, and adapting it as a passing formation. The formation was
originally designed as a brute-force running formation, since it had 7
players to one side of the center and only 2 on the other.
Although modern use of this offensive formation is largely defunct and
exterminated among college and professional teams, several high school
football teams across the United States have revived the Notre Dame
Box offense and have been highly efficient and successful. Three
notable high schools that successfully implemented the Notre Dame Box
offense extensively are Western Harnett High School in Lillington,
North Carolina,
Nauset Regional High School
Nauset Regional High School in Eastham, Massachusetts,
and
Isabella High School in Maplesville, Alabama.
Contents
1 Professional use
2 Modern use of the Notre Dame Box
3 See also
4 References
Professional use[edit]
The Packers, using the
Notre Dame Box
Notre Dame Box almost exclusively, won three
straight NFL titles from 1929–1931. From 1936 through 1945, Green
Bay made use of the
Notre Dame Box
Notre Dame Box to exploit Don Hutson's receiving
ability. Bringing the halfback in tight allowed Hutson to split out
from the line, making him an even more potent threat. Hutson,
impossible to cover one-on-one by any defensive back of his day,
averaged a touchdown every five times he caught the ball, a mark that
no receiver has rivaled in NFL history. Green Bay added three more
championships employing the
Notre Dame Box
Notre Dame Box after 1933 (when official
championship games began), beating the
Boston Redskins
Boston Redskins 21-6 in 1936,
defeating the
New York Giants
New York Giants 27-0 in 1939, and beating the Giants
again in 1944 by a score of 14-7. Green Bay tailbacks of those years
were among the first NFL passers to post "modern" numbers. Arnie
Herber was the first NFL player to pass for over 1,000 yards in 1936,
throwing for 1239 yards and 11 touchdowns. Of that, 526 yards and 8
touchdowns were to Hutson. In 1939, Herber and
Cecil Isbell combined
for 1856 yards passing and 14 touchdowns. In 1941, Isbell broke
Herber's single season record with 1470 yards passing and 15
touchdowns; he bettered his own marks in 1942 with 2021 yards passing
and 24 touchdowns. 1942 was also the year
Don Hutson
Don Hutson shattered his own
NFL records with 1211 yards receiving and 17 touchdowns, all in 11
games.
The Chicago Bears's and Clark Shaughnessy's Stanford Indians success
with a modernized version of the
T-formation
T-formation in the 1940s eventually
led to the demise of the Notre Dame Box, as well as all single-wing
variants. The Packers finally switched to the T-formation, after Don
Hutson had retired, in 1947. No major NCAA or NFL team has used this
formation since and much of the knowledge (i.e. playbooks and, if it
ever existed, film) associated with this formation is no longer
available.
Modern use of the Notre Dame Box[edit]
Use of the
Notre Dame Box
Notre Dame Box in modern times has been limited in part due
to changes in football rulebooks regarding motion. The frequent shifts
in the backfield that are employed by the system are still legal, but
teams must now set themselves in a formation for at least one second
before snapping the ball or sending a player into motion. This motion
player must be moving backward or laterally.
Canadian football
Canadian football never
adopted these changes, and (even though it is not used in that variant
of the sport) the original version of the system is still legal.
In the late 1990s, Western Harnett High School of Lillington, North
Carolina was featured on
ESPN
ESPN after their program experienced a major
turnaround credited to their employment of the Notre Dame Box.[3] The
head coach of that team, Travis Conner, later moved on to Jacksonville
High School in nearby
Jacksonville, North Carolina
Jacksonville, North Carolina and installed the
Notre Dame Box
Notre Dame Box there, as well. He then moved onto Bunker Hill High
School and completely transformed their football program, with the new
system Bunker Hill produced 3 top 10 rushers with the leader being
Reggie Davis who rushed for a single season near 2,000 yards.
In 2010, Keith Kenyon took over the head coaching duties of the
Varsity Football team at
Nauset Regional High School
Nauset Regional High School in Massachusetts.
His single wing offense is largely based on the Notre Dame Box
formation. Since his arrival, he has taken a downtrodden Nauset team
to a playoff contender in his first 2 years. Nauset went 6-5 in 2010,
8-3 in 2011, and 9-2 in 2012 due to the success of the Notre Dame Box.
Also during the 2011 season, Nauset played in the Atlantic Coast
League Championship game on
Thanksgiving Day
Thanksgiving Day against rival, and
eventual undefeated D-II State Champion, Dennis-Yarmouth, for a chance
to qualify for the playoffs. In 2012, Nauset once again played for the
Atlantic Coast League Championship against Plymouth South. Nauset came
into the game undefeated, but ultimately lost 13-12 on a last second
hook-and-ladder pass, barely missing out on the MIAA State Playoffs
for the second year in a row. Before coach Kenyon arrived at Nauset in
2010, the football team had a combined record of 5-46 since 2005,
including back-to-back winless seasons in 2005 and 2006, and also a
27-game losing streak from 2004–2007. Kenyon's single wing Notre
Dame Box undoubtedly turned around the Nauset football program and
turned them into one of the most dangerous and prolific teams in
Eastern Massachusetts.
The formation is very prevalent in the north of England, and is used
by many teams in
BUAFL and
BAFL
BAFL due to the lack of talented passers as
well at the unpredictable weather conditions.[4]
See also[edit]
List of formations in American football
References[edit]
^
https://books.google.com/books?id=5pPYAODf6ZAC&pg=PA204&lpg=PA204#v=onepage&q&f=false
^
http://www.stetson.edu/law/lawreview/media/remebering-a-great-dean-harold-l-tom-sebring.pdf
^ Old-Time Football Earns Western Harnett National Attention ::
WRAL.com
^ ZoomInfo Cached Page
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