Faurot, Donald B.
Football
b. June 23, 1902, Mountain Grove, MO
d. Oct. 19, 1995
A 1925 graduate of the University of Missouri, where he played quarterback, Faurot coached Northeast Missouri State to a 64-14-3 record from 1926 through 1934. His 1932, 1933, and 1934 teams won all of their games, compiling 26 consecutive victories.
Faurot returned to his alma mater as head coach in 1935. In 1941, a year after the modern T formation had been introduced by Clark Shaughnessy at Stanford, Faurot created a new version, the split T, so called because the offensive linemen split apart rather than being packed closely together, forcing similar splits in the defensive line.
Instead of turning away from center and bringing the ball back for handoffs, the quarterback in the split T slides along the line in either direction. There are only two basic plays, a handoff to a halfback diving into the line and an option. The quarterback watches the outermost defender, either an end or a linebacker. If the defender moves toward the quarterback, he pitches the ball to a trailing halfback. If the defender covers the halfback, the quarterback keeps the ball and cuts inside to run downfield.
The 1941 Missouri team led the nation in rushing yardage per game and won 8 regular season games while losing only 1, but lost to Fordham 2-0 in the Sugar Bowl. Faurot served in the Air Force during World War II and coached the Iowa Pre-Flight team that was second in the nation in total offense in 1943.
He returned to Missouri in 1946 and coached there through 1956, compiling a record of 101 wins, 79 losses, and 10 ties in his 19 seasons.
Within a few years after its introduction, the split T became the most common offensive formation in college football, although professional teams never adopted it because it's not an effective passing formation. Other coaches had more success with it than Faurot because they had better material.
The split T's most productive proponent was Bud Wilkinson at the University of Oklahoma. Wilkinson said in 1950 that the formation was "the most original and significant contribution to offensive football in the past ten years." The idea of the option led to other types of option attacks such as the belly series, the wishbone T, and the veer.