DOG: Winged Wildcat

You have no doubt noticed a formation being used by a great many NFL teams lately called the "Wildcat" formation. It's resurgence started when Miami defeated New England earlier this year by using this formation and a direct snap to Ronnie Brown who had a field day with it.

When I saw it I said, "Man, that ain't nothin' new. Looks like the old Single Wing to me." So in order to validate my point I started to do some research on the Wildcat. It did indeed validate some points I was making while arguing with the football illiterate here in Crab Cake city. But I learned a whole lot more.

First thing I learned is that almost all offensive formations have evolved from some variant of the single wing. The Wishbone (Darrell Royal at Texas), the Veer (Johnny Majors at Pitt), are variations that were used to win national titles. Even the T-formation which replaced it is a variation. Knute Rockne used to line up his Notre Dame team in a T formation and shift to the single wing prior to the snap thus inventing "men in motion." In fact, things like the triple option, and the naked bootleg have their origins in the single wing.

The single wing was first invented by Glenn "Pop" Warner to give the undermanned undersized Carlisle Indians the ability to compete with the great football teams of the day in 1907. And also to take advantage of the very unique skills of his best player, Jim Thorpe. And indeed, the Carlisle Indians were among the best if not the very best football team in America as a result. Details of this fact can be explored in a book I highly recommend called The Real All-Americans which is a history lesson that goes much deeper than football.

Paul Johnson used a variation of the Single Wing at Navy which produced one bowl team after another for the last 5 or 6 years. He just rung up nearly 500 rushing yards on the Miami Hurricanes with it on Thursday night with his new team, Georgia Tech.

Jock Sutherland won two national championships at Pitt in 1936 and 1937 using it. And Sutherland installed it as his primary offense when he took over as coach of the Steelers in 1946. The old-timers will insist the Steelers would have won an NFL title with it after reaching the playoffs in 1947 had Sutherland not died suddenly in 1948. The Steelers were the last pro team to use it as their primary formation as late as 1953.

Pretty much any play that starts with a center snap that is "tossed" rather than "handed" is considered a single wing formation. So that makes the Shotgun formation, first used by the 49ers in 1960, a single wing variant. The single-wing is an unbalanced formation with more men on one side of the ball than the other. A balanced version with equal players on both sides is called the Double-Wing. It's objective is to fool the defense with ball movement and men-in-motion as well as create double team blocking at the point of attack.

Back in the early days when running the ball was paramount, the single-wing or one of it's descendants was used by practically everyone. But a fellow down at TCU, coach Dutch Meyer, started spreading the wingbacks out as flankers and slot men to create greater passing opportunities out of the formation. This is evidence that Rich Rodriguez did not invent the "Spread" offense that is so prevalent in college football today. It's been around since the 1950s.

Yeah, the Spread is the passing version of the Single Wing! The difference is that in the original Single-Wing the Quarterback was the primary blocking back whereas the Tailback or Fullback were generally the players who handled the ball. Although a direct snap to any of the three was not uncommon.

With the increasing popularity of the Wildcat offense I predict we will see a shift to this style of offense in the NFL. Why? Because high schools and colleges all across the country are using it. And a plethora of talented young players are entering the NFL with the skills to make it work .

I submit to you our own Dennis Dixon could run a Spread or Wildcat series for the Steelers. Darren McFadden (a single-wing high school QB) already runs it in Oakland and did some at Arkansas too. Almost any team has a player capable of taking a direct snap, reading a defense and either running or distributing the ball. Antwaan Randle-El would be perfect. And in college you have Pat White at West Virginia and Tim Tebow at Florida who would be great Wildcat tailbacks. Well, Tebow, I guess, would be more of a fullback.

Someday we'll come full circle. But you read it here first. The Wildcat is here to stay!