Inside Penn State’s Playbook: T Formation
Editor’s Note: Every Monday Evening From Now Until the End of Spring Ball, FTB Unpacks All the Interesting/Unique/Quirky Play Calls We Saw During Mike Yurcich’s 1st Season as the Nittany Lions’ OC
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Shoehorned in the southwest corner of Beaver Stadium – a space that prior to 2000-2001 renovations was nothing more than a poorly-guarded corral of riding lawn mowers — the Penn State All-Sports Museum is a must-stop for any Nittany Lions fan looking to kill a few hours on a Football Weekend Friday.
This place has got everything: large pictures of James Franklin, small pictures of Bill O’Brien, a weighted dummy for lifting in the wrestling section to remind you how weak you are next to a scale (for some reason) to remind you how fat you are, a bench chair from Rene Portland’s embarrassing blowout loss in the 2000 Women’s Final Four, bowl trophies, useless trivia, John Cappelletti’s Heisman, and enough interactive touchscreens to keep Clorox stock (NYSE: CLX) viable in a volatile market.
Oh, almost forgot…the All-Sports Museum also contains former Penn State coach Rip Engle’s offensive playbook from the 1950s, a cool nugget current OC Mike Yurcich shared with beat reporters on a Zoom press conference last October. The way Yurcich spun the anecdote made it sound like museum curators let him thumb through Engle’s playbook, because inside of it he was shocked to find a shovel pass concept from 70 years ago that 100 percent mirrored his own.
“You know, every time that you think you thought of something new, it was probably run 100 times before,” Yurcich told reporters.
What’s funny is that the dustiest of antique offensive alignments Yurcich showcased last fall probably can’t be found in Engle’s playbook…because the formation’s conception pre-dates Engle’s hire by a half-century!
That would be the T Formation — a tactical set-up crafted by Walter Camp that revolutionized the game of football around the same time home refrigeration revolutionized food storage.
According to our charting, Penn State lined up in the T Formation on four occasions last season, the first being this 4th down conversion vs. Villanova.
Because Penn State doesn’t have any true fullbacks on its roster, Yurcich used 3-TE personnel (what we called ‘TRIDENT’ in postgame write-ups last year) each time he showed T. Tight ends bookend the LOS outside the offensive tackles while another tight end (always 86-Brenton Strange) lines up in the backfield sandwiched between two ballcarriers. If you re-watch the Villanova run we clipped above, you’ll notice that Penn State goes up-tempo between plays but doesn’t snap the ball immediately. Instead, QB Sean Clifford briefly takes his hands out from under center and looks toward the sideline. We suspect (though we’re not totally certain) that the initial signal from the sideline tells the offense to line up in the T Formation, and that the actual direction to run the off-tackle play – be it left or right – isn’t determined until the “check with me” once Yurcich has a chance to survey the strength of the defense.
For example:
Simple math. Splitting the field right down the helmet of Villanova’s NT, we have 6 Wildcats to the ‘Field’ (wide side of the field) and only 4 Wildcats to the ‘Boundary’ (short side of the field). So Yurcich runs to the right. 44-Tyler Warren does an A+ job collapsing the defensive front and sealing the edge. 84-Theo Johnson misses a tough down block on the 5-Tech DE, thus limiting this play to two yards because of the defense’s successful backside pursuit of 21-Noah Cain.
Though not a total carbon copy, Yurcich’s T Formation Off-Tackle best resembles the version legendary coach Pop Warner diagramed in his 1912 book, A Course In Football For Players & Coaches.
Unlike Warner’s play, Yurcich puts the QB under center. However, like Warner’s play, Yurcich has the back heel of his “fullback” align with the front toes of the two sidecar running backs – a small wrinkle not seen in standard T Formations.
After successfully using the T to move the chains on 4th down vs. Villanova, Yurcich rolled the dice a week later in a 4th and Goal situation against Indiana:
So what happened here? Well, for starters, it appears Indiana specifically game-planned for this ancient but exotic look after seeing it on film. From the end zone angle, let’s count the Hoosiers on each side of the NT – 5 and 5 evenly distributed. No advantage for Penn State. Even so, Penn State still has a hat-for-a-hat if this play is blocked properly. But it’s not. 24-Keyvone Lee’s backfield mates, Strange and Cain, both whiff on the edge, allowing All-Big Ten LB Micah McFadden to scrape over the top from the backside and keep Lee from pushing across the goal line.
Undeterred, Yurcich busted this play out for a third time a month later vs. Ohio State.
Again, split the field down the OSU linebacker’s helmet right over the center – 6 Buckeyes to the field, 4 to the boundary. Run left. Walk-in TD.
What’s interesting, though, when comparing this T Formation Off-Tackle run to the pair we saw earlier is how much longer it takes to communicate which direction the play is headed when 105,000 lunatics are screaming their faces off.
Just look:
Everyone in white on the LOS has to make eye contact with Clifford to get the play because it’s so hard to hear at this end of The Horseshoe, nudged up against the student section. Clifford also turns and shouts directions at the three guys behind him. He never had to do that at Beaver Stadium.
Last but not least, let’s get tricky, shall we?
Hotsy-Totsy, a forward pass!
Given the magnitude of this situation — 4th and Goal, Michigan up 14-6 in the 4th Quarter – and given the fact that Yurcich had put this formation on tape three times already in 2021 and done the same thing each instance, major credit to Wolverines DB 5-DJ Turner for staying to true to his coverage assignment and not cheating to stop the run.
With that established, major-er credit goes to Warren for making a tough, high-degree-of-difficulty, contested catch at a pivotal moment.
