Roach
Six-man expert
Crowell ran a hybrid O’Brien spread when they won their state championships…
Best J-Bird Offense
- Thread starter TylerEthridge
- Start date
The truth matters
Six-man fan
Well done insider!! Only one thing to add. Walker tippee did not break the record at state but he tied Dwayne miles and
The truth matters
Six-man fan
Trey Ritchie with 8 rushing touchdowns. That record was broken in 2018 by Ben Crockett from Mclean 9 rushing touchdowns in a great game with your bulldogs!!
Everyone Knows More
Six-man fan
Crowell could have ran anything with that group on offense.
Reese Walker was the reason for the state championship. No Reese no championship.
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Roach
Six-man expert
Also no Parsley, no state championships.
Vincent J. Davis
Six-man fan
Played vs Strawn last season. Coach Lee showed me why his teams are always great.. the way they controlled us with tight T with a young rebuilding Strawn team was beautiful to watch from the opposite sideline.. they had a freshman that was balling…. just wish we would’ve won that game on the 1 yard line.. still haven’t gotten over that game.. we were close. Also he loves his kids at Strawn.. if I had a son right now I would love for him to play for Coach Lee!!!!!
Dale Miller
Six-man pro
*you'reYour a bright crayon
Roach
Six-man expert
Re-reading this thread and there are some people that are wrong. Not everyone who has won state ran just a "tight" offense. Grandfalls won with a spread offense with Coach Helms (RIP). Vance is very creative and uses/used a split WR. You can call it J but he used multiple variations I thought were very interesting and creative. The double split was pretty cool to see as well. Heck McLean technically ran some spread, but mainly to give Crockett some more space, but he also did throw some TD's out of it. RS during TE's freshman season looked predominantly spread. I assumed they ran that all 4 years but I could be wrong.
Also consider the fact that nowadays, coaches can and do run multiple offensive sets. So it's not just tight or just spread. Its been a while but I used to love seeing Garden City's offense when Vance was there. That sure was a fun team to watch. Also Whitharral ran spread but also ran strong right/j too. Watch the state game. They definitely were ahead of the times with Coach Hoskins. They were a multiple style offense too.
Also consider the fact that nowadays, coaches can and do run multiple offensive sets. So it's not just tight or just spread. Its been a while but I used to love seeing Garden City's offense when Vance was there. That sure was a fun team to watch. Also Whitharral ran spread but also ran strong right/j too. Watch the state game. They definitely were ahead of the times with Coach Hoskins. They were a multiple style offense too.
coach_jshelton
Six-man fan
making the open field cut block illegal has crippled the true spread
Tigerfan85
Six-man master
That is definitely true and how you can or can not hit the center nowadays. Long time ago they used to bang up the center a few times and those long snaps were harder to do causing lots of turnovers. Can’t hit the center low anymore and that’s probably a good thing. I don’t think it was intentionally trying to hurt players but teams did have the linebacker stand the center up the other linebacker hit him low. Few of those and no telling where the snap might go.
How far off on the line of scrimmage were the cutblocks? I remember my team being penalized for cut blocking in spread downfield. When we ran spread it was either a crackback (now illegal) or just blocking the guy in front of you downfield when the SB took off etc...
Switzer's Ghost
Six-man observer
Worst thing you can do in true spread “option” is have the upbacks cut block, because it takes them away as a receiving threat (i.e. block and release).
coach_jshelton
Six-man fan
spread sweep w/a lead cutblock was a great neutralizer to a defense. The crackback was also effective - both kept the defense honest.
a cut block and release is effective if timed correctly
a cut block and release is effective if timed correctly
I truly believe it was called the Jaybird because right about that time is when the game of six-man started getting more recognition. It just so happened that we ran the unbalanced set that Coach Mitchell ran in his days under his soon to be father-in-law (at May as we all know) and he did an amazing job. If not for an injury his senior year He (May) would have won a State title as the feature back his senior year. Just so happens they won the title the next year (Mitch Lee's senior year). Mike Morales was an amazing athlete. He was our tailback when we went to the unbalanced set (now called jaybird), but when we ran drop pass I would usually go to tailback. In the State game, I was struggling blocking so in the first half I played tailback more than Mike in order to give ourselves a better lead blocker and we threw the ball or at least dropped back and gave me run/pass option more in the first half. So basically, my failure to block lead to me getting to touch the ball more in that first half. It was a very cold and wet night that ironically was a crazy offensive first half and defensive second half. In fact I believe it was 44 to 20 at half. Final score was 44 to 28. It was a bitter sweet victory for Coach Mitchell.
As for the best jaybird or unbalanced offense ever, I won't give my vote, just say that many coaches have tweaked that offense to fit their style and it is so interesting watching the various ways they have found their success in that formation. I myself, ran some J-Gun because it fit our team during that stretch, but it was all still based on what we ran under center for the most part. Anyway, I didn't mean to piggy back on a great story. I truly love Coach Mitchell, I would have run thru a brick wall for him and for Coach Neff. Coach Hart would come visit when he was in town, he was an awesome man.
At the end of the day, as a Jaybird, I hope folks never thought we meant any disrespect to the game when it became known as the jaybird offense, I really just think the popularity of Sixman football was taking off because of the media coverage beginning around that time. Grainger Huntress Started his coverage not long after I graduated, but I feel like Newspaper and TV outlets started covering us about that time. We actually had a guy from the Houston area follow us most of that entire football season or at least the entire play-off run and he had a big article on us and that state game in a magazine or something. He did a great job. Sorry for getting long winded!!! Good memories. Especially as Jayton attempts to re-peat for the first time since 1984-1985. It will definitely be a challenge. Hope to watch it live. Best of luck to both teams.
