One good play-action concept isn’t enough. Defenses adjust. Safeties start cheating. Linebackers stop honoring the drag. You need answers off the same look.
Coach David Weathersby diagrams the waggle tree inside his Wing-T pass game, starting with the base buck waggle and then layering three variations that attack whatever adjustment the defense makes. Same backfield action. Same selling point. Four different ways to make the defense pay.
Video: David Weathersby – Waggle Diagrams
Buck Waggle: The Bread and Butter
This is the starting point. Everything else in the waggle tree branches off this concept.
After the buck fake, the quarterback’s progression is simple: peek deep first, hit the drag second. The tight end runs the drag, and the QB should be hitting him by his third step. If the drag isn’t open and the QB sees green grass, he moves.
But the play Coach Weathersby keeps coming back to is the backside post. When the safety and corner on the backside don’t honor it, you’re hitting it right now.
The hot route is the fullback in the flat. If you’re getting pressure, the flat opens up. Hit the fullback and get out. It’s a built-in pressure answer that doesn’t require a check or a new call.
Coach Weathersby goes into the full QB progression and what each read looks like in the clip above.
Waggle Switch: Get Your Best Athlete the Ball
This is a one-word tag. Call “waggle switch” and it flips the wing back and the tight end.
Now the wing runs the drag instead of the tight end. The reason is practical: if your tight end is more of a tackle type, a kid who can block but isn’t a natural pass catcher, you’re wasting the most dangerous route in the concept on a player who can’t finish it. Meanwhile, your wing back might be one of the best athletes on the field.
Coach Weathersby points out the bonus that makes this variation dangerous. If you run regular buck waggle well, the safety starts following the tight end on the drag no matter where he goes. It becomes automatic for the defense. When you call waggle switch, the tight end runs somewhere else, the safety goes with him, and nobody covers the wing on the drag. That’s a big play waiting to happen.
Waggle Screen: Selling the Fake for Chunk Yards
This one requires commitment to the sell.
Everybody runs waggle. Every route, every fake, everything looks exactly like buck waggle, except the dive back. He fakes his block, counts one-two, and gets out in the flat. The backside tackle, center, and front-side tackle do their own one-two count, then release and get out in front of the dive back to set up a wall.
They’re blocking the corner and the linebackers, and if the waggle action pulls the defense the way it’s designed to, there’s open grass with blockers out in front.
Coach Weathersby notes the key: this only works if you can run waggle effectively and sell it. The screen lives off the defense respecting the waggle. There’s more detail in the clip on how the blocking sets up out in front.
Jet Waggle: The Low-Cost Entry Point
Here’s the variation for coaches who want the waggle concept but don’t have the staff or the practice time to install buck.
Buck is an expensive play. The footwork, the fakes, the timing. If you’ve got one or two coaches and your kids haven’t gotten buck down yet, Coach Weathersby says don’t force it. Run the waggle off jet motion instead.
The concept is the same as buck waggle, but instead of the buck fake, you’re faking the G play off jet motion. The dive back goes in jet motion, you fake the G, and the QB rolls out into the waggle progression.
Coach Weathersby also covers the strong-side adjustment. If you have a tight end on the play side instead of a split end, the tight end runs a corner route instead. The coaching point: he has to get to the same spot the split end would have been in. The only way he gets there from a tight end alignment is by running the corner.
The defense has to respect the waggle every time they see buck or jet action, and each variation punishes a different reaction. The safety jumps the drag, the switch is open. The defense overplays the routes, the screen hits underneath with blockers. The buck fake is too complex for your roster, the jet waggle gives you the same answers at a fraction of the install cost.
The waggle isn’t just a play. It’s a category.
This overview is from Coach Weathersby’s full clinic, The Traditional Wing-T Part 6: Wing-T Pass Game.
The complete clinic covers the full passing structure inside the Wing-T system, including play-action concepts, bootleg progressions, buck pass, offensive line pass protection rules, route timing, and how each passing concept ties back to the run game. If you run the Wing-T or want to add play-action teeth to a Wing-T run game, this is where the pass game lives.
Link: David Weathersby – The Traditional Wing-T Part 6: Wing-T Pass Game
