Wildcat Formation

The wildcat formation (or wildcat offense), a variation on the single-wing formation, is an offensive American and Canadian football scheme that has been used since the late 1990s at every level of the game including the CFL, NFL, NCAA, NAIA, and many high schools across America. It was invented by Billy Ford and Ryan Wilson, originally called the "Dual" formation. The general scheme can be implemented in many different offensive systems, but the distinguishing factors of Wildcat are a direct snap to the running back and an unbalanced offensive line.

The wildcat is an offensive formation rather than an overall offensive philosophy or offense (for example, a spread option offense might use the wildcat formation to keep the defense guessing, or a West Coast offense may use the power-I formation to threaten a powerful run attack). When the wildcat formation is deployed, it uses the same pre-snap motion coming across the formation on every play and every play initially looks like a sweep behind zone blocking. However, after the snap several things may happen once a player in motion crosses the position of the player receiving the snap.