Buck-lateral series

The term buck-lateral was used almost exclusively to describe a football play or a series of plays used in the Single-wing formation. Since the Single-Wing formation lost prominence by 1950, the football play referred to as the Buck-lateral is almost gone from football's vocabulary. However, prior to this time, the buck-lateral play gave fullbacks the option to run, lateral, or hand-off the ball to another player. Running the buck-lateral required an offensive scheme that needed the fullback to possess many specialized skills, as opposed to today's fullback who mainly blocks and carries the ball infrequently.

How the play got its name

Before the invention of the Single-Wing offense by Glenn Scobey Warner, offenses used simple plays designed for runners to attack the defensive front behind massed line blocking. This battering ram approach usually involved the biggest runner, the fullback, as his main role was to "buck" or smash the middle of the defensive front.

The term lateral describes a short toss from one back to another that does not advance the ball. A ball that goes forward to another player is called a forward pass. The pass and the lateral are both allowed to advance the ball when the offense is operating behind their line of scrimmage. Once beyond the line of scrimmage the lateral is the only means of transferring the ball to another player.

The Buck-lateral was a play designed for single wing fullbacks to receive the toss from the center, and start toward the central part of the line to make the play look like a typical smash or buck. However, at some point the fullback would pause and do one of several options, including handing-off or lateraling the ball to another back.

Warner's Carlisle formation, or Single-Wing, added additional misdirection and trickery to allow for runners to gain yards by deceiving the defense. The Single-wing also allowed the offense to put more blockers at the point of attack than the defense could muster.

The Buck-lateral series

The buck-lateral play was actually a series of plays that all started out the same way with the fullback taking the direct snap from center, then directing his forward movement toward the middle of the line of scrimmage. The play had two basic options, with permutations added to confuse the defense. The fullback could basically either keep the ball to pound the middle of the line, or he could give the ball to one of the three other single-wing backs, usually the quarterback.

To understand the mechanics of the play, one has to understand basic terminology of the single-wing formation.

File:Singlewingformation vs5.gif

Single-wing formation similar to Pop Warner's playbook.

The tailback was stationed four and one-half yards behind the short-side guard. In a typical formation, the fullback would line up three and one-half yards behind the long-side guard. One and one-half yards behind the tackle or guard, would be the quarterback or blocking back. Finally, the wingback aligns himself to the outside of the opposing defensive tackle. He is only one yard off the line.

In most offenses the tailback was the main ball handler and generator of offense; however, the fullback could also take the direct snap due to his proximity to the tailback. In fact whenever the ball was snapped, one of the two backs would take the snap while the other feigned taking the snap to confuse the defense.

The simplest version of the buck-lateral was when the fullback faked hand-offs to the quarterback, or even the wingback sweeping across from the flank. The fullback could hide his fakes by literally turning his back to the defense as the faking backs passed by. The buck-lateral keep would see the fullback finish his fakes, then turn up the middle, hoping the defense would follow one of the decoys.

Coaches created different versions of the buck-lateral depending on the versatility of the fullback. In one version the fullback might hand-off to the quarterback, who then might actually keep the ball or even lateral the ball to the tailback. In another version, the fullback could give the ball to the quarterback, who then might initiate a reverse by giving the ball to the wingback coming back against the flow of the play.

The buck-lateral was especially deceptive and effective, but hard to execute. The single-wing fullback had to have the skills of a modern-day quarterback in handling the ball. Plus, he had to be able to take the punishment associated with bucking the middle of the defense where the bigger, stronger defensive players were stationed.

When the fullback took the snap, defensive players expected the play to hit the center of the line because the traditional roll of the fullback was to grind-out yardage between the tackles. Defensive players who rushed to stop the fullback at the guard-center gap might be totally surprised if the fullback diverted the ball to the nearby quarterback who was heading in another direction.

Consequently, single-wing teams that could master the buck-lateral series of plays could be successful by always making the defense guess to where the ball was going. Of course, if the defense loses sight of the ball during the fakes or laterals, then the defense is at an extreme disadvantage.

Today's coaches would call the buck-later a "gadget" play, because it was designed to thorougly confuse the defense by making it's members lose sight of the ball with fakes, counter action, and laterals. Nevertheless, trick plays were also harder to execute and demanded considerable more practice time than less complicated plays.