Coach ,

Tubby Raymond called his wing-t offense an “order of football.”  Every piece of it fit into a well organized structure. 

Rick Stewart was a disciple of the Wing-T and learned it inside and out. With that strong understanding, he’s been able to innovate within that framework, and the results have been outstanding for him.

Coach Stewart has taken four losing programs to playoffs within the first two seasons after taking over. With no scholarship athletes on his rosters, he points to his systems to be able to give his players a chance for success vs. superior talent.

Most recently, Stewart coached a team in Pennsylvania that was 3-7, 2-8, and 4-6 prior to his arrival. The team went 9-1 and was #6 in the entire state in total offense. The school only won 9 games twice: 1982 and 2009.

His track record of turnarounds is due in large part to his offense.  He’s taken the tried and true wing-t and added modern elements of the spread including pistol, RPO and even elements of the Air Raid. 

This allows him to attack defenses with the traditional Wing-T plays while being able to use read game and RPO tools to further stress the defense.  

The Wing-T typically sees a loaded box.  In order to alleviate that stress on the offense, Stewart has married the traditional wing-t with the concepts that move spread offenses up and down the field with ease.

To do this, he’s studied what makes those concepts work and made adjustments to the traditional plays in the Wing-T.  For example, he likes keeping the slots relatively tight to the tackles in order to have the threat of 4 running backs at any time, yet he is still able to utilize them as receivers in Air Raid passing concepts.

He explains in this video of why he’s implemented these additions to the offense. (Click images for videos):

To further stress the defense, he has a way to read every single defender in the box if they choose to, including on what he calls “inverted midline.” He explains in this video:

Here he is talking about run-run options. As stated, he knows the exact adjustments that need to be made in order for the plays to be successful. In this example he gives the coaching points for reading the Mike linebacker to make him the conflicted player. 

What I like most about what Coach Stewart does is he still relies on the structure and strong understanding of “why” that drives the traditional wing-t. He innovates through making small changes and evolving rather than overhauling everything.

He knows a ton of football and through his networking and development of other coaches through his network “All Access Coaching,” he knows the ins-and-outs of every concept that he puts into his offense.

The results speak for themselves, and if what he does interests you, he has an ever increasing library here.

Happy Birthday Coach Stewart!

Always be growing!

Coach Grabowski