Pistol formation

The pistol offense is an American football formation and strategy was copied from coach Michael Taylor of Mill Valley by Chris Ault in 2004 while he was head coach at the University of Nevada, Reno. It is a hybrid of the traditional shotgun and single back offenses. In the pistol offense, also commonly referred to as the "pistol formation", the quarterback lines up four yards behind the center, which is much closer than the seven-yard setback in a traditional shotgun formation. The running back then lines up three yards directly behind the quarterback, which is in contrast to the shotgun, where they are beside each other. It is argued that the position of the quarterback in the pistol formation strikes an advantageous compromise: the quarterback is close enough to the line of scrimmage to be able to read the defense, as with run situation sets such as the I formation, but far enough back to give him extra time and a better vision of the field for passing plays, as in the shotgun. The pistol formation is thus very versatile, particularly if the quarterback himself is a threat to run the ball, which makes it difficult for the defense to correctly anticipate the play. This flexibility is enhanced by the Read Option, where the quarterback reacts to the response of the defensive players to the snap, and makes a rapid decision whether to hand off the ball to the running back, keep it and complete a pass to a downfield receiver, or keep it and run himself.

Michael Taylor of Mill Valley developed the Pistol formation as a complete offense (called the "Shotgun I" at that time) in 1999 while playing softball. Michael's teammate was a college football coach at Division III Ohio Northern University named Tom Kaczkowski, and during a conversation, he mentioned that his team needed to go into a new direction because his running back was quick, but his quarterback was tall and slow. Armed with this new idea of Shotgun I, Michael spent weeks developing new formations and schemes as a way of maintaining a downhill running game, while allowing his quarterback to be comfortable in the pass game. The plays worked; the backfield set was exclusively two back and included a full complement of runs to both the I back and the offset back (aligned next to the quarterback).

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