![]() ![]() The split end moves around and is similar to the modern H-back/Percy Harvin type save that he does a good deal more blocking (everyone did) compared to modern offenses that rely on spacing rather than concerts of blocks. The fullback is the featured runner and the tailback more of a lead blocker although he also gets some action in the run game, particularly on their tosses. The Wing-T offense Permian used is philosophically similar to a lot of modern smashmouth spreads despite the under center alignment and lack of spacing. First, here’s a quick glossary of some of these positions and alignments. He was big by Permian standards, about 6-1, 200, and we’ll come back to him in a moment. I underlined the players who had prominent roles in the book but left out senior James “Boobie” Miles on this chart, who was a main character in the book and was going to be the starting fullback until he tore up his knee in a preseason scrimmage. Here’s how the 88 Panthers tended to line up on offense and defense:Īnd the players lined up in these various positions, some of which are no doubt familiar to modern eyes and some of which are less so: The Wing-T is still a favorite amongst high school football coaches and is the inspiration for the Gus Malzahn offense. The 1988 team that Buzz lived among, as well as most of the other teams I’m aware of from that period, were a Wing-T squad. To their opponents they were hardly vulnerable and overstressed young boys, they were an unstoppable machine. From their breakthrough 1965 season to the 1995 campaign the Permian Panthers won their district 22 times, went to the state finals 11 times, won six state championships, and won two “mythical national championships” (1972, 1989). The result was a community that put insane resources and attention towards grooming and fashioning their boys into a dominant high school squad. Nothing except football, which served as a mascot much in the same way that Notre Dame football embodied some of the success of Irish immigrants in the US. The Saudis were cranking out oil and landing some crushing blows to the West Texas economy, which for Odessa was nearly entirely centered around drilling the Permian basin, and even when things were booming the communities had nothing to rally them or serve as an extension of themselves to the greater state or region. The Permian machineĪ significant portion of the book’s appeal was in capturing how vulnerable these young teenage boys were out there on Friday nights carrying the weight for an entire West Texan community. Here’s a broad view of some of the strategy and tactics at play and how they played into this story of pressure and glory in Texas high school football. At least up until the big moment when they changed up their defense to stop a shotgun spread passing team and the script degenerated into nonsense.īuzz Bissinger did a solid job tying the tactics of the Permian Panthers to the story arcs of the main characters and the social commentary narratives he was weaving throughout the work but he missed or ignored a few things I found interesting about that team. ![]() ![]() “Remember the Titans” did a great job tying football tactics together with the characters and plots in the story to bring them together so that the football scenes served the story arcs. Last offseason I spent some time breaking down the actual football strategy and tactics in “Remember the Titans” which was super amusing for me and also for at least some of you. Many of you may not have read the book but enjoyed the movie based on it, or the TV series inspired by the success of the stories and the feel of the work. That’s high praise that I’m personally poorly qualified to give but the breadth of subjects and characters he’s able to cover are stunning. Buzz Bissinger’s book about the 1988 Odessa Permian high school football team is one of the greatest sports books ever written. ![]()
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