The Multi-Option I-Bone Offense

by: Joey Lozano
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In late 1983, while working as a publicist for the Alamo Community College District in San Antonio, Texas, I met Dr. James R. Smith, a local veterinary dermatologist who would forever change the way I looked at football. As if his occupation were not interesting enough (at that time, there were only four veterinary dermatologists in all of Texas, and only about 25 in the entire country), Dr. Smith would later give me another reason to find him interesting. On late afternoon in February 1984, between sets of incline bench presses at the local health club where we met, Dr. Smith told me that I could not guess who he had been talking on the telephone with earlier that day. When I agreed I probably could not, he said “Barry Switzer,” who was, at that time, the head football coach of the Oklahoma Sooners. When I asked if the reason he was talking to Switzer was related to Dr. Smith’s work as a dermatologist, he replied “no, I invented a multiple offense for college football, and that’s what we were talking about.” As one might imagine, I was intrigued by what type of offense Dr. Smith had created. And because I was looking to pen my first freelance article for a local monthly magazine, I asked Dr. Smith if he would be willing to be interviewed for a possible feature article. He agreed, and I arranged to interview Dr. Smith the next day. He made sure to tell me to bring a writing pad.

When Dr. Smith and I met the next day, he explained to me that while he was a preveterinary medical student at Texas A&M University, he attempted to walk on as quarterback to the Aggie football team, which was coached by Emory Bellard, who invented the famed Wishbone offense while serving as offensive coordinator under University of Texas Head Football Coach Darrell Royal. In 1975, during the week of the Aggies game against the arch-rival UT Longhorns, it was Smith’s job as the attack team quarterback to run the Texas Wishbone against the first-team Aggie defense, which was manned by such All Southwest Conference plays as linebackers Ed Simonini and Robert Jackson, defensive linemen Edgar Fields and Tank Marshall, and defensive backs Pat Thomas and Lester Hayes.

Smith vividly recalled to me his experience running the Wishbone against the stalwart Aggie defenders, several of whom would go on to play in the NFL. He noted that every time he approached the second option key on the defensive line for the critical keep-or-pitch decision, “there was someone there to take my head off, whether I pitched the ball or not.” This was true whether the play was run to the right or left of center, or to the tight-end or split-end side of the formation. The Aggie defense had the Wishbone dissected perfectly, and kept each play to little or no gain, as they would several days later when they defeated the Longhorns..

Smith said as a result of his experience in practice that week, he determined that the Wishbone, which the Aggies also were running at that time, was too predictable, lacked versatility, deception, passing capability, and scoring potential, findings which would later cause the ‘bone to fall out of favor at not only Texas. Texas A&M, and Oklahoma, but many other football programs as well. Of particular concern to Smith was that in the Wishbone, a talented runningback was limited to attacking only one side of the defense from option plays and sweeps. However, Smith felt that the threat of the triple option which was at the core of the Wishbone, was still a powerful offensive weapon. He therefore set out to create an offense which would retain the threat of the triple option, offer greater deception, versatility and passing capability, as well as enabling a talented runningback to attack either side of the defense on option plays and sweeps.

After several months of tinkering, Smith came up with the formation which would form the crux of his new offense and which he felt would meet the aforementioned characteristics. As he drew the formation on the notepad I had brought with me, I noted it looked like a cross between the Power-I and the Wishbone. Smith dubbed the formation “the I-Bone,” shown in Figure 1. He explained that from this formation, a team could run all the option and non-option running plays of the Wishbone, Houston Veer, and I offenses, and with greater deception and versatility than is available from those offenses alone. He also incorporated motion into the I-bone so that the fullback, halfback or tailback could go in motion to either side of the field as a pass receiver, blocker or decoy, employing the passing attack off triple-option play action. And the use of a I formation would enable a team to put their best runningback in the tailback position, enabling him to attack either side of the defense from option plays and sweeps. Such a tailback could also be utilized on off-tackle and in-line running plays. Dr. Smith told me that he hoped to be able to get a major college football team to implement the I-Bone, so he wrote to Switzer after Oklahoma’s 1984 Orange Bowl loss to Miami.

Figure 1

After writing a feature article about Dr. Smith and his offense for a San Antonio city magazine, I joined him in his efforts to implement the I-Bone. Our first step was to write an article about the I-Bone for Texas Coach, the official magazine of the Texas High School Coaches Association. We received 60 responses from high school football coaches all over the country who wanted to learn more about the I-Bone. Over the next several years, I researched numerous books on option football in an attempt to learn the necessary terminology, blocking rules, and backfield techniques necessary to implement the I-Bone in a football program. Once the research was completed, we published a 100-page paperbound manual about the I-Bone, which we marketed through direct mail and magazine advertisements. Over the next couple of years, approximately 500 high school and small college football coaches purchased the manual. Orders were even received from coaches of American football teams in Europe.

Unfortunately, Dr. Smith died of a heart attack several years ago, and never experienced the pleasure of seeing a team run the I-Bone offense he created. I discontinued selling the manual after interest in option football waned over the years. However, the World Wide Web has grown to include numerous football coaching websites and magazines like Ameircan Football Monthly. And with the popularity of offenses like the flexbone and the zone read, option football is once again enjoying a resurgence in popularity. In addition, there are many young coaches today who may not be aware of Smith’s I-Bone offense. Hence this article for American Football Monthly.

The remainder of this article will provide an overview of the I-Bone offense.

THE I-BONE OFFENSIVE PACKAGE

The I-Bone is a four-back attack with a split end. The basic formation is the full-house set as illustrated in Figure 1. The fullback aligns himself so that his heels are three yards from the ball. The halfback aligns either directly behind the offensive guard or straddling the guard’s outside foot, about four yards from the ball. The tailback is directly behind the fullback, from five and one-half to seven yards away from the ball. Any of these alignments may be adjusted either forward or backward, depending on factors such as individual quickness or speed of the runningbacks. The quarterback always lines up directly behind the center’s tail so that he can take the snap.

Figures 2 through 7 below illustrate the I-Bone’s triple option and counter option plays. Player assignments and line blocking rules are explained in succeeding chapters. One set of blocking rules is used on all triple option plays, regardless of who the diveback and pitchback are. One set of line blocking rules also applies to all counter and counter option plays, regardless of which back is the diveback or the pitchback. And the same blocking rules are used on all trap plays, regardless of which back carries the ball.

The frontside I triple option:

Figure 2

The inside Houston veer triple option:

Figure 3

The outside Houston veer triple option:

Figure 4

The backside Wishbone triple option:

Figure 5

The I counter option to the tailback:

Figure 6

The Houston Veer counter option:

Figure 7

Knowing that defenses would use some of the same tactics they used to shut down the Wishbone, Dr. Smith also incorporated motion into the I-Bone offense, by sending either the fullback, halfback or

Figure 8

tailback in motion to either side of the formation as a pass receiver, lead blocker, or decoy. Diagram 8 shows the fullback going in motion as a lead blocker in the Houston Veer triple option. Figure 9 shows the halfback going in motion as a receiver in a post-wheel combination with the split end off of frontside-I triple option play action. Figure 10 shows the tailback going in motion to block the backside defensive end and draw the defense away from the Wishbone triple option play to the opposite side.

Figure 9

Figure 10

I welcome comments from coaches about the I-Bone offense that Dr. Smith and I developed. Please send any comments to me at elozanojr@austin.rr.com. I also am trying to determine if there is enough interest in the option football coaching community to warrant re-publishing the original I-Bone playbook that Dr. Smith and I self-published in 1991. I have been re-working the playbook with the latest football diagramming and word processing software to provide a more professional-looking playbook than the original book, which was created with DOS-based software. If you believe that coaches would be interested in a book explaining the I-Bone offense in details, please pass your comments to me via e-mail.

I hope it has been of interest and some use to you. Dr. Smith’s goal when he created the I-Bone was not to make money, but rather to make a meaningful contribution to the sport of football, which provided him with so much enjoyment over his life, both as a player and fan. I share his goal of making as many coaches as possible aware of the I-Bone in hopes that it may be of use in their football programs.

Joey Lozano is a writer and program specialist at the Texas Education Agency in Austin, Texas, and a former journalist. Send comments or questions about this article to him at elozanojr@austin.rr.com.

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