Why is the Wishbone offense used less frequently in college football?

Answer 1

This is somewhat of a difficult question since there are probably a few different correct answers. So I will give multiple answers: 1) One of the main reasons cited by its former practicioners is the desire by highschool athletes to emulate what they see on Sunday by pro offenses as well as be the center of attention on offense, by being the featured back or wide reciever. The Wishbone is the consumate team offense and that is difficult for todays ego-centric star athletes to commit to. With may top highschool athletes wanting to play in the pros, it is difficult to recruit with the promise of grinding it out down after down. 2) Another reason cited is the speed of todays linebackers and linemen. Much of the Wishbones sucess is predicated on getting to the corner "first with the most" ie getting 3 on 2 or 2 on 1 situations that allow the halfback or the quarterback to turn upfield and gain large chunks of yardage. This is made much more difficult when the defense has linbackers that maybe are just as quick or nearly as quick as your halfbacks and quarterback. 3) The punishment that the quarterback takes. On virtually every down in the 'bone the quarterback will get tackled. If he gives to the fullback he will be tackled because the defense doesnt know if he still has the ball. If he sprints to the corner and tosses it he will be tackled because the defense doesnt know if he will continue upfield. If he continues upfield he will be tackled--unless he scores or runs out of bounds. In fact it is even beneficial for the team effort for the quarterback to make the defensive back commit to tackle him and then at the last second pitch the ball to the halfback. No doubt todays quarterbacks are star players and very valuable to the team. Coaches, fans and highpriced QBs are no longer ready to support an offense where the QB gets punished game in and game out. 4) Difficulty in coming from behind. Being a run first offense, it is difficult to stop the clock or gain 30 to 40 yards on a single play. Although this seems to be a stupid reason to scrap the offense unless you plan on being behind frequently. 5) Fans are constantly inundated these days with multiple forms of fast paced entertainment. The pass happy offenses seem to keep their attention. Terry Donahue from UCLA gave this excuse for not running the 'bone. Of course this does not explain the popularity of Baseball and may be a dubious excuse. IMHO there is nothing better than watching your team exploit a helpless defense by gaining 3,4,10,5,10, 60 yards--TOUCHDOWN; posession after posession. But that is a consistent reason given by many coaches. If you like watching the 'bone, many highschools still use it or use a variant of this exciting offense.