Does the Pistol offer a viable running game vs human competition?

[AbsoluteFury]

I'm thinking of using it but don't want to waste my time if the running plays take too long to hit the holes vs. human players

[gigem]

Absolutely. I ran the pistol in an OD with Penn State and in year 2 could not be stopped on the ground. The key is the O-line, you need a fast, run blocking O-Line. There is lots of pulling by guards and centers, so good acceleration and speed are critical.

The counters are by far the best running plays, While the read options are a consistent 5 yard loss, but with the potential for an occasional big gain. The stretch plays and dives are also really consistent 3-5 yard gains.

As for playbooks that utilize the pistol my the 2 favs are:
Indiana - Half Pistol, Half shotgun formations.
Generic Pistol - has the most pistol formations, while not as much read option

[BlastX21]

I'll disagree although I admit I have not practiced with it a whole lot. I find that any kind of pistol run other than a counter is unreliable because 1. There always seems to be 1 lineman who gets blown up, and 2. The handoff is too slow just like on shotgun runs, giving the d-line more time to penetrate.

It may be somewhat effective against humans who will not load up the box every time you call a run like the CPU does, but I think the slow handoff really kills it, at least for me.

[silkysmooth]

I love running Power Option from Pistol Formations. I use Ohio St's playbook and it's awesome with a mobile QB to attack the edge and either cut up field for a few yards or pitch if the pitch man is open. I run it a lot around the goaline since QB sneak is so terrible this year. I find that triple option is a little slow developing for my tastes but sometimes the QB keeps and literally has the entire side to himself. Once in a while I'll run a Dive play and it will get me solid yards. Same with the counter. I mostly use the Pistol to pass though.

[Popcorn Sutton]

You can definitely use it for a good power running game. I'm TCU (using Nevada's Playbook) in an SEC OD and I have the 2nd leading rusher in our league and the 6th best passer in the nation. If you can run against the SEC defenses, both human and CPU (alabama) then you can run it against anybody.