Formation Maze

Back again like I left something. 2 games into the season and no talk about the actual games, yes, no talk of actual games yet. It is coming but for now we run around the Maze with formations. I have read and heard that it does not matter what formations you run on your team, just make sure you run them well. This is true. I think it is safe to say we all know that there are many keys to winning in this game. You must recruit well, gameplan well, and schedule well.

I say have the right formation for your philosophy should be added to the list. I hear you saying all the formations are the right formation, you just said you can win with all of them. I know what I said but hear me out. If you are a coach who believes in throwing the ball to the Wide Receivers, then you want to have a lot of them on the field, so why not go with either Trips or Shotgun. Those two formations have the most number of receivers on the field at any given time. If you like to have Running Backs on the field then you have the Notre Dame Box and Wishbone to use. If you like some sort of balance of people on the field then go with either I-Formation or Pro Set. Just make sure you pick the right formation for your philosophy or if you want to experiment then just mix and match and find what works for you. All of this is also true for defensive formations, pick one that works with your philosophy.

Below is a chart of the number of coaches who run the offensive formations.

From the graph above we can see that the most popular formations are Pro Set and Trips. I personally like both formations and have used both. People have jumped off the Wishbone train, which is a shame, there are always undecided RBs you can get for cheap. There are 4 coaches who using that to their advantage for recruiting, well I hope they are. I know coach ebel uses Shotgun and is always telling other coaches to do the same and it seems like there are a few that have been listening and are now Shotgun coaches.

I know there are coaches who use multiple formations and that will be covered in another Maze run. For today just enjoy the graph above. After seeing that you might now start thinking to yourself well what defensive formation should I be running to stop the most popular formations because you will come up against them at some point in time.

Here we can see what defensive formation are the most popular and we have the 4:3 and Nickel leading the way. Which is to be expected, they match up well with the most popular offensive formations. You have some coaches who are more out there and they use the other formations left available to them. This gives them the option to show something different to the other coach and maybe knock the other coach off his gameplan but showing something different. I am not sure if that ever works.

Now the question you are asking yourself is which formations should you run after seeing the graphs above. My answer is just run the formation that works best with your philosophy and if you do not have a philosophy, then get one quick because I think it helps. And the best philosophy to start off with is a winning philosophy and tweak it accordingly. Until the next time take it easy.