Can the Wishbone Offense Work in 2025?

The wishbone didn't lose a game. It lost a recruiting war. For two decades, the wishbone and triple option were the most dominant systems in college football. Oklahoma crushed Big Eight defenses with it. Nebraska used its DNA to grind teams into submission. Georgia Southern won championships with it. Then, almost overnight, it was gone — and nobody held a funeral. In this video, we dig into the real reasons the wishbone era ended. It wasn't Miami beating Oklahoma in the 1987 Orange Bowl, though that moment changed a lot of minds on the sidelines. It was the recruiting math. It was NFL draft positioning. It was a series of NCAA rule changes that specifically eroded the cut blocking that made option football work on the perimeter. It was sub-package defenses built for the passing game that happened to also be perfect against the triple option. We also look at Paul Johnson's remarkable 11-year experiment at Georgia Tech, where he ran the flexbone triple option in the ACC — against Florida State, Clemson, and Miami — and won at a consistent clip that the sport never gave him enough credit for. And we look at what's actually happening right now. In 2024, Army went undefeated in conference play, won the American Athletic Conference title, and finished 11-1. Navy went 11-2 and ranked 23rd in the AP Poll. The triple option is alive. It's just not for sale. Plus — bonus coverage breaking down exactly WHY the triple option requires more practice time, more timing, and more trust between players than almost any offense in football. The quarterback-fullback mesh. The pitch. The reads. It's more complex than it looks. Topics Covered: Why the wishbone disappeared from major college football How Miami's passing attack changed the sport's identity The NCAA rule changes that targeted cut blocking Paul Johnson's Georgia Tech legacy Army and Navy running the triple option in 2024-25 The physical and technical demands of the triple option explained #CollegeFootball #TripleOption #WishboneOffense #CollegeFootballHistory #PaulJohnson #ArmyFootball #HardcoreCollegeFootballHistory 00:00 Intro 01:31 HOW THE WORLD CHANGED 07:06 THE EXCEPTION? 10:55 LIVING PROOF 14:30 THE VERDICT 17:46 BONUS - Why the option is complex