Latest news with #Wishbone
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Darrell Royal's Longhorns featured in Wishbone documentary on SEC Network
In 1990s it was the 'Run and Shoot.' In the early 2000s it was the 'Read Option.' But in the late 1960s and '70s, no offense dominated college football like the 'Wishbone.' Now that two of the primary innovators of the offense are in the conference, the SEC Network is airing a documentary about its history. A form of the Wishbone had been banging around Texas high schools in the late 1950s and 60s as a modified 'T' formation when it was seen by future Texas Longhorns assistant Emory Bellard. About the time Texas head coach Darrell Royal hired Bellard, the triple option was showing signs of success in college football. Royal asked Bellard to come up with a new formation and he combined elements of the modified 'T' with a 'Slot-I' formation and after some initial growing pains, the Wishbone took off. Texas went onto win two national titles running the offense. Oklahoma under Barry Switzer and Alabama under Bear Bryant also adopted a form of the Wishbone and the next seven out of ten national champs ran the offense. Switzer is credited with perfecting the formation and ran it successfully all the way into the '90s. But by then the 'Run and Shoot' was taking over. The SEC Network's documentary "SEC Storied: Wishbone" will air Thursday night, July 17 at 6 p.m. CT and will be available on ESPN+ and re-airings on SEC Network. This article originally appeared on Longhorns Wire: SEC Network Wishbone documentary features Darrell Royal and Longhorns
USA Today
4 days ago
- Sport
- USA Today
Darrell Royal's Longhorns featured in Wishbone documentary on SEC Network
The Wishbone offense revolutionized college football 🤯SEC Storied: Wishbone tonight at 7 PM ET 🎥 In 1990s it was the 'Run and Shoot.' In the early 2000s it was the 'Read Option.' But in the late 1960s and '70s, no offense dominated college football like the 'Wishbone.' Now that two of the primary innovators of the offense are in the conference, the SEC Network is airing a documentary about its history. A form of the Wishbone had been banging around Texas high schools in the late 1950s and 60s as a modified 'T' formation when it was seen by future Texas Longhorns assistant Emory Bellard. About the time Texas head coach Darrell Royal hired Bellard, the triple option was showing signs of success in college football. Royal asked Bellard to come up with a new formation and he combined elements of the modified 'T' with a 'Slot-I' formation and after some initial growing pains, the Wishbone took off. Texas went onto win two national titles running the offense. Oklahoma under Barry Switzer and Alabama under Bear Bryant also adopted a form of the Wishbone and the next seven out of ten national champs ran the offense. Switzer is credited with perfecting the formation and ran it successfully all the way into the '90s. But by then the 'Run and Shoot' was taking over. The SEC Network's documentary "SEC Storied: Wishbone" will air Thursday night, July 17 at 6 p.m. CT and will be available on ESPN+ and re-airings on SEC Network.
Boston Globe
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Al fresco and bilingual, ‘¡Qué Diablos! Fausto' gives the devil his due
Its world premiere production is being produced by Rhode Island Latino Arts in partnership with Trinity Rep, and staged by Teatro en El Verano. All of the company's productions, which have included translated and adapted versions of George Bernard Shaw's 'You Never Can Tell' and F. Scott Fitzgerald's 'The Great Gatsby,' are free to the public and take place at various outdoor locations throughout the state. The site of my viewing of '¡Que Diablos! Fausto' was an intimate grassy knoll in Payne Park, Pawtucket. Get Globe Rhode Island Food Club A weekly newsletter about food and dining in Rhode Island, by Globe Rhode Island reporter Alexa Gagosz. Enter Email Sign Up Valles's rendition tells this timeless tale of ambition, exploitation, and redemption with just six talented actors. Fausto is depicted as a skilled but flawed Rhode Island urgent care physician (an abundantly charming and physically agile Alexander Crespo-Rosario II) operating out of a strip mall, whose altruism and poor financial decisions leave his business on the brink of collapse. Desperate to save his practice and achieve greatness, and despite his sharp-witted assistant La Margie's (a very charismatic Marina Tejada) advice to the contrary, he makes a pact with the demoness Mephistopheles (a wonderfully seductive Ashley Aldarondo-Martinez). Advertisement Once Fausto trades his soul for wealth, power, and fame, he eagerly partakes in an assortment of sins (nicely personified by Mireya Hoffens, who also plays an angel representing good, and Ashley Soto, who also plays a devil representing evil). But the deal excludes love, which becomes Fausto's deepest desire. All the while, the celestial being Seraphim (Michael Green, whose comic timing is masterful) attempts to save Fausto's soul. Advertisement The playwright's strategy for addressing Marlowe's complex, 17th-century approach to spirituality and religion, humanist stance on individual morality, and attention to symbols that bring out elements of divine conflict is to stage it as if it were one of those live-action, educational children's television programs that once dominated PBS on Saturday mornings in the 1990s. It's an intriguing choice. Much like 'Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?' and 'Wishbone' – which were cleverly disguised and very entertaining lessons about grammar, science, classic literature, and American history – '¡Que Diablos! Fausto' is a smart and simple family friendly affair. There are a few lines from 'Wicked' and 'The Godfather' along with stealthy references to ICE interspersed throughout the script. Everything is set in perpetual motion by Armando Rivera's direction, which allows for actors to walk among and mingle with the audience. The acting is appropriately broad and animated. Dustin Thomas's contemporary costumes – which includes masks and headdresses – are bold and colorful. The painted images on Tiago Pereira's three-panel scenic design is humorously exaggerated to the point of being cartoonish, and the many props are larger-than-life cardboard cutouts. Lovanni Gómez's clever sound design includes snippets of songs by Britney Spears, the Spice Girls, and others to underscore key moments in the action. And there's a puppet. Advertisement All this results in a rather engaging night of Marlowe-lite. This bilingual production makes a classic play accessible to communities who don't speak the language of the original work, and it delivers it through the lens of Latinx voices and vision. And while the Saturday morning mindset, broad humor, and pop culture references come close to diminishing the original play's sober themes, it only succeeds in turning the dark 'tragical history' referenced in the original title into a mild-mannered morality play. The thing is, bilingual presentations like this – without the benefit of projected subtitles that translate Spanish into English in real time – are challenging. The dialogue needs to balance out the co-existence of English and Spanish without being excessively redundant, which becomes lengthy and tiresome for everyone. A graceful ballet of sorts between both languages, that seamlessly segues from one to the other and often in the same breath, is ideal. Despite the best efforts of the cast, the script for '¡Que Diablos! Fausto' offers more of an awkward two-step that keeps both groups of native speakers in the audience a little off balance and in the dark too much of the time. And so the aforementioned familiarity with the German legend or having seen Marlowe's play would certainly come in handy here. ¡QUÉ DIABLOS! FAUSTO Book by Christopher Marlow. Translated and Adapted by Jesús Valles. Directed by Armando Rivera. Advertisement Remaining performances of Teatro en El Verano's touring production take place on Tuesday, July 15 at La Galería del Pueblo, Central Falls at 6:30 pm; Sunday, July 20 at 195 District Park, Providence at 5:30 pm; Tuesday, July 22 at Roger Williams Park, Providence at 6:30 pm; Sunday, July 25 at Dexter Park, Providence at 6:30pm; July 25 Sunday, July 27 at The Edward King House, Newport at 4:00 pm; and Friday, August 1 at Southside Cultural Center, Providence, at 4:00 pm. Tickets are free.
USA Today
11-07-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
What will Oklahoma's offense look like in 2025?
Oklahoma Sooners head coach Brent Venables had to make a bold hire this winter. Venables knew he'd be looking for a new offensive coordinator just seven games into the 2024 season. He also knew at the end of the regular season that his back was going to be against the wall in 2025. So, Venables took a chance on a young up-and-comer from Washington State to revamp OU's offense. Ben Arbuckle will call the offensive plays in Norman after the Sooners lured him away from Pullman. Oklahoma's new offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach has total command of that side of the ball, and a relatively blank slate to work with after last year's dumpster fire. Arbuckle will turn 30 in September, making Venables' hire a pretty risky one. But what will the OU offense actually look like once the Sooners take the field in late August? Oklahoma has typically been at the forefront of offensive innovation over the years. Whether it was the Split-T, the Wishbone, the Air Raid, or the Spread, the Sooners traditionally have been early adopters. From Mike Leach through Jeff Lebby's tenure, the Sooners have regularly had some of the best offenses in college football. Each of the modern spread offenses has plenty in common with each other, but it's easy to see the differences on the field between the Veer-and-Shoot and the Air Raid, or the differences between the more traditional Spread schemes and an offense that runs multiple schemes. Tempo is another big factor. After Lebby's two years in Norman, the Sooners were lost on offense in 2024, posting their worst numbers on that side of the ball since 1998, the year before Leach was hired as the offensive coordinator. That brings us back to Arbuckle, who has a heavy Air Raid background. He'll get the Sooners back to a system that has brought them plenty of success in years past. The Canadian, Texas native played quarterback in high school in the Texas Panhandle. He initially wanted to play collegiately for UTSA, but ended up taking a two-year hiatus from the sport. Arbuckle returned to play two seasons (2016-2017) at Division II West Texas A&M, starting a few games. He got into coaching after that and spent the 2018 and 2019 seasons at FCS Houston Baptist as an offensive quality control assistant. It was there that he met his biggest influence, Zach Kittley, who was the offensive coordinator for the Huskies. Kittley and Arbuckle coached quarterback Bailey Zappe together for those two seasons at HBU before Arbuckle returned to West Texas. He was Seminole High School's offensive coordinator for the 2020 season, before returning to the collegiate level in 2021. It was then that he reunited with both Kittley and Zappe at the FBS level at Western Kentucky. Arbuckle was a quality control coach for the Hilltoppers, as the offense put together an excellent year in Kittley's Air Raid scheme. Zappe moved on to the NFL and Kittley was hired as Texas Tech's OC after the season. Suddenly, Arbuckle was in the driver's seat in 2022, calling plays for the first time and serving as the co-OC for Western Kentucky. He and new starting QB Austin Reed had enough success that Arbuckle was hired as Washington State's offensive coordinator after the season. The Cougars wanted Arbuckle's Air Raid at WSU. In 2023 and 2024, Arbuckle called plays for the Wazzu, first with future No. 1 overall NFL draft pick Cam Ward under center, then with John Mateer at the controls last year. Arbuckle took the open job at OU after last season, brought Mateer with him, and now brings the Air Raid back to Norman. Kittley, now FAU's head coach, is clearly Arbuckle's biggest influence, and Arbuckle's system looks the most similar to what Kittley has done in his various stops along the way. But Kittley is a young coach as well, so the tree goes much further up for Arbuckle than just him. Kittley's coaching career began on Kliff Kingsbury's staff at Texas Tech from 2013 to 2017, before he landed the OC gig at HBU. For part of his time in Lubbock, Kittley worked with Patrick Mahomes as an assistant quarterbacks coach. Kingsbury (Washington Commanders' OC) is one of the Air Raid's most prevalent names, but that staff also included Sonny Cumbie, who worked closely with Kittley. Both Kingsbury and Cumbie (Louisiana Tech's head coach) played for Mike Leach, and Cumbie briefly coached under him. Both coaches are Air Raid disciples who had a big influence on Kittley. That Texas Tech staff in the mid-2010s also included Eric Morris (North Texas' head coach), another recognizable Air Raid figure. Kingsbury can trace his success back to coaches like Dana Holgerson, Kevin Sumlin (who is on a slightly different branch of the same connected tree), and, of course, Leach, who was one of the original pillars of the Air Raid along with Hal Mumme. That duo invented the offense in the 80s and 90s. As you can see, it's not that much of a stretch to say that Mike Leach, who brought the system to Norman 26 years ago, has influenced Ben Arbuckle's mentor and turned Oklahoma's new OC into the coach he is today. Arbuckle will have to learn the same lesson Riley did when he ran the Air Raid at OU. Running the football can't be an afterthought, as it often can be for Air Raid coaches. The sooner Arbuckle learns that lesson, the better, because it took Riley about half of his first season. But for OU fans wondering what their new offense will look like, it's something Sooner Nation has seen a couple of times before. Quick passes and deep vertical routes are the hallmarks of this system, with Arbuckle needing to bring some of the gap run schemes that made OU so fearsome in the late 2010s into the fold as well. The quarterback must be an accurate decision-maker who can also push the ball down the field. Great wideout play is paramount, and the offensive line has to be rock-solid. The Air Raid has more traditional WR splits than the Veer-and-Shoot. It's a scheme that will often feature four or five wide receivers. But, Arbuckle knows he has to mix things up and keep SEC defenses guessing. Simply throwing the ball on every down won't get the job done. While Mateer's presence will help, Arbuckle likely faces a learning curve in his first year on the job. However, we've seen the Air Raid work multiple times before at Oklahoma, and Arbuckle has three years of play-calling experience under his belt. While the job at OU is daunting, there's also more talent to work with than Arbuckle's ever had. One thing the Sooners won't lack is an identity. Arbuckle is an Air Raid guy through and through. He's running his own system that he's been calling for three years and was trained in by Kittley. None of those statements were true of Oklahoma offensively last year. After last season's offensive disaster, a coach with a distinct system, roots in a strong offensive coaching tree, recent play-calling experience, and a real plan for his offense is a welcome sight for Sooner fans who are ready to get the taste of 2024 out of their mouths as soon as possible. Contact/Follow us @SoonersWire on X, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oklahoma news, notes, and opinions. You can also follow Aaron on X @Aaron_Gelvin.
Yahoo
07-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Conan Gray Announces New Album ‘Wishbone'
Conan Gray surprised fans this morning by announcing that his fourth album, Wishbone, will be released on August 15th. The lead single, 'This Song,' is set to drop next week. Gray shared the news in a lengthy post, revealing that he had been slowly writing new music on his own, late after shows and between tours over the past two years. 'I'd come back home and write all the things I felt nobody wanted to hear,' he explained, 'maybe even the things i didn't want people to hear.' More from Rolling Stone Is 'The Giver' Chappell Roan's Next Single? She Just Previewed It Again How Daniel Nigro Reinvented Pop With Chappell Roan and Olivia Rodrigo Blink-182 Crack Dick Jokes, Melanie Martinez Enters 'Portals' at Lollapalooza Day Four He had kept the new tracks a secret for some time from his friends and his label, not sure if these were songs he would release. 'But over time, I began to feel something I'd never felt before,' he wrote. 'I started to need the music. I listened in airports, in long cab trips, blaring in the shower. In heartbreak, then in joy. I started to play it for my friends, and they started to need it too. In car ride requests with the windows down, in a split pair of wired headphones on the subway home. It became an egregiously niche soundtrack to our own lives in real time, singing just for us.' After playing the songs for frequent collaborator Daniel Nigro, Gray began to record the album. 'It felt like the music was reminding me who I am, at an experimental time in my twenties where 'who I am' had no definition at all,' he continued. 'My driftwood childhood in texas. My lucid summers in London. My blue striped bed sheets in my college apartment.' Gray added that every song was written by himself, in his pajamas, in his bed. Nigro, along with Ethan Gruska, Noah Conrad, Elvira Anderfjärd, and Luka Kloser, produced the album. The fantastical album cover depicts Gray dressed like a sailor floating on a pillow and holding a large wishbone of the album's namesake. 'Here's so much left to say, but I'll say it in the music,' he wrote. In a postscript to the message, he added that 'a wishbone never breaks even.' Gray released his third LP Found Heaven last April. He subsequently went on tour that summer in support of the album. He'll be playing Governors Ball in New York this June. Best of Rolling Stone The 50 Greatest Eminem Songs All 274 of Taylor Swift's Songs, Ranked The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
