Football for Player and Spectator

A good friend of mine is the offensive coordinator of his son's football team this season. He is no football neophyte, in fact he was a very good (all-state) high school wide receiver and he played a couple of years at a decent D3 program in Michigan. He called me this weekend looking for some ideas beyond the standard "QB under center with 2 RBs" concept that dominates his league.

After we talked a while, he thought it would be fun to try to teach his kids the basic spread offense running plays. So I pointed him to the 2002 West Virginia playbook that had been rolling around on the internets last summer. As I was searching for the PDF of the WVU playbook -- I ran into the incredible football playbook website : FAST and FURIOUS FOOTBALL.

This site is a absolute football coaching treasure chest. My favorite item is the 1905 illustrated book by Field Yost titled FOOTBALL FOR PLAYER and SPECTATOR. What it lacks in inspirational messaging and charisma it makes up for in the scientific approach to running Yost's 1905 offense. Sadly, the 1905 season delivered the first loss for Michigan football since Yost took over following the 1900 season.

There are tons of other items available on the site, including Fritz Crisler's 1947 single wing offense, Bo Schembechler's 1985 defense, and the 1997 National Champions defense.

Edit: Our friend Greg at MVictors reminded me in the first comment that he posted about Yost's book all the way back in March of 2008. He also provides a great link to the google books version of the manuscript, which has all the pages and clear images. Very cool. Thanks Greg !!!