Wildcat Formation - College

College

The wildcat was popularized on the college level by Bill Snyder, head coach of the Kansas State University Wildcats with Michael Bishop as quarterback in 1997 and 1998 when they made a run at the top of the national rankings. Bishop rushed for 1304 career yards in two seasons, including 748 yards on 177 carries during the '98 season. As stated in the previous article, this type of offense was the catalyst for Urban Meyer's offense during the start of his career. It was Meyer's success with quarterback Tim Tebow that helped the formation come to the forefront.

The wildcat has been continued by current Auburn head coach Gus Malzahn, and former Ole Miss Rebels offensive coordinator David Lee when they were offensive coordinators for the Arkansas Razorbacks after seeing the success of Bill Snyder and Urban Meyer. In 2006, Malzahn was the offensive coordinator for the Razorbacks. Malzahn introduced the wildcat into the Arkansas offense. When Malzahn left for Tulsa in 2007, Lee became the offensive coordinator for the Razorbacks. Both Malzahn and Lee ran a variation of the wildcat formation which prominently featured running backs Darren McFadden and Felix Jones. The wildcat formation was sometimes called the "wildhog" (in honor of the Razorback mascot at the University of Arkansas) and subsequently rebranded as the "Wild Rebel" when Arkansas head coach Houston Nutt went to Ole Miss as head coach (Ole Miss' mascot being the Rebels), and a variation involving a direct snap to a tight end has also been called the "Wild Turkey" popularized by the Virginia Tech Hokies.

Several other college teams have used the wildcat formation regularly, including the wildcats of Kansas State, Kentucky, and Villanova, as well as the Pitt Panthers. Pitt had great success with the formation having star running back LeSean McCoy or running back LaRod Stephens-Howling take the snap. The Panthers scored numerous times from this formation during those years. Kentucky has successfully run the formation with wide receiver Randall Cobb taking the snaps. This formation is frequently called the "WildCobb" and is often very successful given the fact that Cobb also started numerous games at quarterback for Kentucky during his first year. Villanova won the 2009 FCS championship with a multiple offense that included the wildcat, with wide receiver Matt Szczur taking the snap. Szczur scored a key touchdown in the Wildcats' semifinal against William & Mary out of the formation, and made a number of big plays out of the wildcat against Montana in the final.

UCF also uses a wildcat formation they call the "Wild Knight". It was originally intended to be run by Rob Calabrese, even after he lost the starting job in 2010 to Jeff Godfrey, but he tore his ACL using the play to score a rushing touchdown against Marshall on October 13, 2010. At the time, most agreed that Calabrese was effective at running the Wild Knight formation.