Wildcat: A Series We Can Improve On In 2010

I think everyone who read this blog, or anyone who has watched college or pro football the last few years, is familiar with the single wing Motion series that is popularly known as "Wildcat". For those of you still unfamiliar with the play series, take a look at the video below:

Now, the Aggies actually showed that they have a Motion series in their playbook just like Wildcat in 2009:

Now, the play here is stopped for a short gain because LT Stephen Barrera fails to block the UAB DT inside, and because we have LG Michael Shumard attempting to lead Gray inside (Barrera played LG in his game, Shumard played LT, I think they switched on the goal line). Given that the UAB OLB widened when Jerrod motioned outside, we'd be better off having Barrera slant down inside to seal the DT, and Shumard pull around him outside, trapping the DE outside so Gray can slip into the end zone between their two blocks. As it is, Shumard leads Gray right into a pile that the UAB DL has managed to force in the middle of the field. There is also the issue that Cyrus was too quick on the trigger, taking the ball and surging forward before he had meshed with Jerrod in motion, meaning there was no outside sweep threat, which means the whole point of motion was lost on this play.

This Wildcat Motion series can work, and be a very effective tool in the offensive playbook, but we need to change some things to make it more effective in 2010. Instead of having one TE on the line and one WR split out, I would bring that WR inside and align him off the wing on the weakside, giving us a balanced formation on both side, making it more difficult for the defense to figure out which side we would run Power to. A WR aligned as a wingback would also give us one more man to seal the DE inside, or move the second level and block a LB, and the more people you have blocking at the point of attack on a running play, the better.

With the addition of Kalvin Guyton to our offense in 2010, we have another powerback who can help us run Wildcat, but we need to tighten up our mesh, and work on our blocking scheme if we want to improve our execution of this series in the upcoming season.