How Bill Walsh Contributed to the Triple Gun Offense
In the winter of 1998 I had the unbelievable opportunity to have dinner with the late but certainly great Bill Walsh. This was every coach’s dream. We talked for four hours about everything from his Italian wife to Rommel to boxing and oh yeah – football. He was easy to talk to and had a great sense of humor. Though he was brilliant; he was far more down to earth than I expected a genius to be. He was just a guy who happened to know more about the game of football than almost anyone on this planet. It was a great night. He questioned me on my thoughts on offensive football.
He asked me how I taught the triple option, and also asked me if we threw the quick game. When I told him about my use of “unless rules” – he smiled and said he taught the passing game the same way. I shuddered when he asked me about the quick game. This was like Einstein asking a junior high teacher about math. And my anxiety was magnified by the fact that we had our Quarterback boot if the initial pattern was covered. Should I lie and give a conventional answer or tell the truth and risk the end of the conversation and leave Bill Walsh thinking I was a lunatic. Anyone who knows me knows what I did – I asked the waiter to bring more bread. I bought myself time hoping to change the subject but Coach Walsh wanted an answer so I told him. He stared at me for what seemed like an hour and a half and said “that’s brilliant, where did you get it?” I explained how I took what my quarterback at Mercyhurst College (Eddie Ricci) did on his own and put some rules to it and there it was. He liked it and the conversation flowed freely about football from then on.
I had the opportunity to spend more time later that winter with Coach Walsh, Sam Rutigliano, and Brian Billick talking football in Ft. Worth. They were all great and I took a ton of notes. The result was a spike in our pass game efficiency that was phenomenal. I always believed in combining the option with the dropback pass but now I knew how to do it more effectively.
In my book Tony DeMeo’s Triple Gun Offense: An Evolution of Option Football I go into all the details of these meetings, but one thing Coach Walsh emphasized was: “Protection always comes first”.
Tony DeMeo’s Triple Gun Offense: An Evolution of Option Football is available in Paperback at Amazon .
