A Brief History of the I Formation

The I Formation has been a staple of the USC offense since the 1960’s when John McKay used it with great success.  The I Formation has played a major role in Trojan football in every decade since then in some fashion or other.  Mike Garrett, O.J. Simpson, Anthony Davis, Ricky Bell, Charles White, Marcus Allen, LenDale White, Reggie Bush, and many, many others all frequently ran out of this formation using blast plays, sweeps, draws, tosses, and other run plays.  Here is just a small sampling of the formation and the players who lined up in this formation over the past several decades.

1967 OJ Simpson	1975 Ricky Bell / Lynn Cain	1979 Charles White
1981 Marcus Allen	2004 LenDale White	2005 Reggie Bush

The development of the I Formation is generally credited to Tom Nugent a former college coach who passed away in 2006.  In the 1950’s Nugent experimented at the Virginia Military Academy with moving backs away from the dominant T Formation and lining the backs straight up in an I Formation.  Nugent’s original I Formation reportedly had three backs.  We rarely see that version of the alignment any more but I did notice Florida lining up in the triple I against Ohio State in some short goal line situations in the national championship game on a couple of snaps. 

Tom Nugent took the I Formation from VMI to Florida State and then later to Maryland.  Bobby Bowden latched onto the I Formation and has used it ever since in his offensive playbooks at Florida State.  For Trojan fans more importantly John McKay brought it to USC in the early 1960’s and it has remained a component of the offense ever since in some fashion.  Almost every team today has some form of the I Formation in their playbook in college and the NFL level.  

There are many subtle variations of the I Formation.  As noted above there is the Triple I and the straight two back I Formation.  There is also a version of the three back set where one running back is set off more to one side of the formation and is called the Power I Formation.  At USC the dominant forms of the formation are the straight two back I Formation, the King or Queen set where the fullback is offset to either the strong or weak side of the formation, a 2 TE I Formation, and a 3 WR I Formation where the TE is removed.   Here are just a couple of the more common examples used during the 2006 season.  There are several other variations as well.

Typical I Formation Run Play

A typical I Formation run play might be called something like “I Right 22 Iso”.  Each team would have its on subtle version of the terminology and the exact play details including blocking assignments, and motion etc.  This one would indicate that the halfback or the second back in this instance will run the ball right through the #2 hole in the offensive line.  The fullback will act as lead blocker through the hole and engage a defender such as the middle line backer.  The running back in theory is then isolated on a remaining backer and has a chance to make a gain of a few yards.  With the numbering scheme below you can get a sense of the more famous USC I Formation plays such as "23 Blast" or "28 Toss" for example.  The I Formation is generally considered more of a power formation and is geared towards gaining several yards a pop.  If the remaining backers miss the tackle however then a big gain is possible as the tailback is suddenly loose in the secondary.

Coaches utilize the I Formation however for both passing and running plays since the alignment also involves some element of deception.  When the I Formation is working well the opposition generally has to move an eighth defender towards the line of scrimmage to stop the run plays.  When this happens it helps further open up the possibility of the more deceptive element of the I Formation – the “play action” pass.  In this version the QB fakes the hand-off to the tailback and then looks for a receiver or tailback streaking downfield.  Alternatively the fullback coming out of the backfield is often a safety release valve for the quarterback on these pass plays.  Either way with the defense bent initially towards charging forward to stop the run the receiver is often open or in man coverage a situation a QB will generally look to exploit.  The I Formation thus lends itself to both run and pass situations very nicely.  With all its different tweaks in alignment and motion possibilities it presents some interesting match up problems for most teams.  As Bill Doba Head Coach of Washington State once commented, “If you get Reggie Bush isolated against one of your linebackers and you might as well start just whistling the USC fight song”.

After the offense appeared to sputter at times in 2006 there has been a fair amount of clamor by fans to open up the offense and thrown more down field.  My personal hunch however is that the USC coaching staff is more concerned with an anemic rushing attack that was only 68^th in the NCAA last season and could only mustered 4.0 yards per carry.  In reality the I Formation plays for USC averaged a more healthy 4.8 yards per carry for the first three games of the season and then only around 2.9 yards the remainder of the year.  Improving the effectiveness of the run plays out of the I Formation can have spill over effect for the passing game as noted above.  By enabling a more consistent running game and easing the third down and short situations it will force the defense to play closer to the line of scrimmage and cheat an additional man forward.  When this happens it also helps open up the more explosive downfield plays that everyone desires.  As coaches often comment, “you have to run well in order to throw and throw well in order to run”. With a retooled I Formation attack in 2007 USC just might get the best of both worlds going again on offense in the upcoming season.

For more information on the I Formation I suggest reading former USC Head Coach John McKay's presentation on The Pitch and The Blast