Please Tell Me--Why Go Wild Over the Wildcat?

Is it because we have grown tired of talking about and cheering for the exciting and effective one-back, shotgun formation, spread offense? Or is it because we don't know any better and something new to us just has to be the buzz?

I am talking, actually don't want to be talking about, the Wildcat offense--the latest gadget/innovation that has risen to popularity amongst fans and sports pundits faster than you can say West Coast Offense. There is some uncertainty as to who really gets credit for its modern day origin (or re-birth). When current Carolina Panthers running back DeAngelo Williams was tearing it up collegiately at Memphis a few years ago he said they started it. At about the same time when Darren McFadden was brutalizing SEC defenses at Arkansas, before heading onto the Raiders, they brought a lot of attention to their version, the Wild Hog. In the NFL, supposedly the Dolphins want to claim the innovation title by having used Ronnie Brown in this attack.

So what's this all about? Folks, it's really much ado about nothing. I'll tell you why.

Way back, pre-WWII days, when football was a much simpler game and played without face-masks there was an offense where the ball was snapped directly to the running back. Heck, even in 1967, when I was a chubby 12 year old playing tackle football for my team, the Geneva Packers, our QB got hurt and couldn't take a direct snap from the center, who happened to be me. Our coach decided we would just snap it directly to the backs and off they went. I certainly didn't think that was a big deal. Was I a party to pioneering the Wildcat offense in 1967? Maybe. Who knew?

Decades later, in an effort to help the quarterback read his receivers and the defensive pass coverage better, along with pre-aligning him for a drop-back pass, the Shotgun formation permeated the game. Today it is a part of every offensive playbook on the college and pro level, and most high schools use it to some degree.

So WHY ARE people going wild over the Wildcat? It is primarily a run formation where someone besides the QB lines up in the shotgun formation and takes the snap from center and runs the ball. Big deal. Some offenses try to deceive the opponents by lining the QB up as a wide receiver and use the WR or RB as the QB to execute this "wild, exotic formation".

Bottom line, the Wildcat formation is nothing more than a shotgun formation that has someone besides the QB getting the ball and running it. Yes, that's it--there is no more. When Houston Nutt was head coach at Arkansas he found that McFadden could also pass the ball pretty well. So, run and pass he did. That was something different. That was something effective as well as exciting. That was something that kept defensive coaches up at night wondering how to defend it.

We are only two weeks into the college football season and one week into the NFL season. Yet, in pre-game shows, during the game broadcasts themselves, and throughout the week, chatter surrounding the game is bound to bring up some reference to the Wildcat. Please, find something worthwhile to talk about.

Growing up, I remember young kids would get a little scared at some of the Sci-Fi movies and they would be comforted by an adult or older sibling saying, "Don't worry, it's just a movie." For opposing defenses, unless the offense proves they can, and will, pass the ball effectively out of the Wildcat formation, I send similar words of comfort your way--"Don't worry, it's just another run play."