History of football terms?????

The only one I know of for sure, for wing-t guys out there is the Sally play. They named it after some hot chick that was working at Deleware.

My mistake I knew it involved a hot chick somewhere LOL

That's a real mixed bag of terms, some recent, some from the turn of the 20th century -- but that's football.



Belly: Both the original Inside Belly series, invented by Coach Larry Siemering at the College of the Pacific in 1947, and the later Outside Belly series (know known simply as the Wing-T Belly series) place the ball in the fullback's belly before handing it to him or having the QB "ride" the ball in the FB's gut before pulling it out.

(Question: Do "Gut" plays refer to the part of the defense being attacked, or to the mechanics of the play itself, as "Belly" does?)

China: No idea.

Cowboy: Answered above. However, other uses of the term (to describe cornerbacks playing on the same side of the defense against Twins receivers, or the hand-held controller for a film projector) derive from the Dallas NFL franchise rather than the University of Wyoming.

Buck: One of my favorite terms in football. From the very earliest days of the game, and certainly before the rules changes in 1906 which established the foundations of modern football, a "line buck" was a play directed at the middle of the defense, where the back "bucked" straight ahead.

Dictionary definitions may help explain the origins of the term:

To force a way through or proceed against (an obstacle): The plane bucked a strong headwind.

To strike with the head; butt.

To resist or oppose obstinately; object strongly to.

Football: (Of a ball-carrier) to charge into (the opponent's line).

The Single Wing featured a deceptive series called the Buck Lateral which started with the fullback taking a direct snap and plunging toward the line; if he kept the ball the play was called a Buck; if he handed off to a pivoting blocking back, who then tossed it out wide to the tailback, it was a Lateral.

A similar series was developed very early on by Wing-T innovators Dave Nelson and Forest Evashevski, who both played in the University of Michigan Single Wing, which featured the Buck Lateral series. Their Buck Sweep series also featured a pivoting ball-handler (the quarterback, which is also how many single wing teams referred to their blocking back) and a fake or exchange with a "bucking" fullback.

Just don't get me started on how terms get mangled over the years -- my favorite example is the "shovel" pass, which many coaches call the "shuffle" or even "shuttle" pass...

What's the over/under on the time it takes Brophy to come up with his definitions?

interesting site with some different ideas about the sport.


www.johntreed.com/fbdictionary.html

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Great link. He sure does shred the use of the word eagle:
After looking it up in several books, I have a sense that the Eagle defense generally has something to do with shifting the defensive tackle or end outside the weak tackle or tight end and putting a linebacker over or on the weak tackle or tight end. Until the football coaching world gets more precise and consistent, the word “eagle” should be dropped.

He also said a coach used eagle as a verb, which confused him. I'm no ol' ball coach, but I know to 'EAGLE' means to reduce down. Most commonly used with 50 front defenses. Now all you ol' ball coaches can call BS on that.

HOw about the 46 defense -- guarantee most coaches don't know why it was called that originally...

Also goes along with that great parent question, "How does that 4-6 defense work with only 10 players?"

How about the hook and lateral?

not ladder.


Named, I'm just guessing, after the fact the the 1st guy ran a hook and then lateraled to a trailer.

Whoa. I thought the key was a 4-3 base with a DT on the Center, and the other DT in a 4I and Plank playing like a backer or 60's roverback. It is a 4-3 adaptation isn't it?
Greg

Reed is an idiot.

Thank you Ted. Last time I said that Derick was on me for a solid month.

Coach Mike

That one gets me into an argument everytime it comes up. Lateral makes complete sense. Why would it ever have been called ladder?

Yes it is an adapted 4-3. The DT are moved into a position to help keep the OL off of the LBers. The DT are taught to do a number of tech to prevent the OL from getting to the 2nd level. The secondary most often runs read/recog. tech on the pass rotues. The Lbers sometime look a little strange because of how they are placed and with the addition of the SS walked down at LBer depth.

It is fairly common around here to hear teams run the "humming bird" punt fake which is a version of the of the direction snap to the up back.

I would be also interested to know where the terms dig and smash comes from.

Coach: Statue of Liberty is named for the motion the QB makes to hold the ball up as though he's passing, resembling Lady Liberty holding her torch aloft, before a back comes along and grabs it out of his hand. Boise State's version doesn't really meet that definition, but was pretty cool anyway.

Flea flicker -- SI.com to the rescue:

How did football's flea-flicker get its name?

Answer: In a flea-flicker, the quarterback typically hands off or laterals to a running back, who after running several steps turns around and laterals back to the quarterback, who then heaves the ball downfield to a (hopefully) open receiver. The play and its name are both credited to legendary University of Illinois coach Bob Zuppke, who intended the phrase to evoke the quick, flicking action of a dog getting rid of fleas. (We got that from the 1967 book Football Lingo, co-authored by none other than SI.com's own Dr. Z, so you know it's right.) Zuppke wrote in a 1951 letter that he introduced the flea-flicker while coaching at Oak Park High in 1910 before he arrived in Champaign, though his description ("a short forward pass ending in a lateral, with interference for the ballcarrier") sounds more like a hook-and-ladder or hook-and-lateral. The prevailing modern version of the flea-flicker might actually be closer to another Zuppke innovation involving a "multiplicity of passes" that he dubbed the "flying trapeze." I'd ask Dr. Z myself, but frankly, the man terrifies me.

sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/pete_mcentegart/10/27/ten.spot/index.html