Post by elp525 on May 29, 2009 12:23:37 GMT -5
Formation was grounded at times with RB at helm
Dave Hyde | Sports Columnist
May 29, 2009
We use the word "innovative" too often in sports. We write about innovative strategies and innovative coaches. We call training staffs innovative for treating a player to health and entire franchises innovative for thinking a little differently.
This week, NBA analyst Hubie Brown even described a play run for Orlando's Rashard Lewis as "innovative." It was successful. Maybe creative. Certainly timely. But innovative?
You see, "innovative" should be reserved for Paul Brown having players keep playbooks, Magic Johnson being a 6-9 point guard and what's going into the Petri dish at Dolphins camp in the heat of May.
On Thursday, out of pads, in an otherwise uneventful practice, quarterback Pat White lined up as the lone back in the Wildcat formation - the WildPat, if you will. A couple of weeks ago, in a previous practice open to the media, White lined up as receiver for one play.
No one stopped practice either time. No one pointed and yelled. But these represent the innovative Next Step. They're the football equivalent of Capt. James Kirk scanning the skies and saying of the U.S.S. Enterprise's next destination, "Out there, somewhere."
Last season, while introducing the Wildcat, the Dolphins entered each game with only three Wildcat plays available to them, coach Tony Sparano said Tuesday. Just three!
That's all they had time to prepare in the midst of a season. It's also how limited their options were with a non-passer like running back Ronnie Brown operating it.
"Then, one of the things we did where we hit that little rut with the Wildcat in the middle of the season, we said, 'OK, let's go back to Day One,' '' Sparano said. "We went back to where we ran it well at New England. That helped."
In other words, they went retro-Wildcat instead of expanding it. Still, it was successful enough that: other teams copied it; Madden video players created new plays using it; New England coach Bill Belichick said he wanted to find a Wildcat quarterback ; Michael Vick's return was written in Wildcat terms; and Dolphins coaches received calls from other coaches about it.
"Tony has a rule,'' Dolphins offensive coordinator Dan Henning said. "It's that information comes in but doesn't go out."
So no discussing the Wildcat with other coaches?
"Not at all,'' Henning said.
The mystery adds to the fascination of what's to come. And to the fun of wondering how the pieces will fit. Sparano always said last year the Dolphins were "just scratching the surface" of this formation. The addition of White to become its Magellan shows why.
White ran the wide-open "spread" offense 90 percent of the time at West Virginia, passing for 1,659 yards and rushing for 1,219 last season. In doing so, he seemed to confound NFL talent evaluators.
Denver, White said, was the only team that worked him out individually at quarterback. New England was reported to do so, too.
"They only worked me out as a returner and receiver,'' he said.
The Dolphins didn't work out White privately so as not to tip their hand that the variety of his talents was just what they wanted. And, since the draft, White has been thrown so much information that, like most rookies, "I thought I was drowning for a while," he said.
He's feeling better now. He's also as quiet about the Wildcat as everyone around the Dolphins, only saying in general terms that it, "expands the spread." More options?
"I think so,'' he said.
On Tuesday, in a pad-less scrimmage, White took the center snap, scrambled left and threw on the run over the middle for a completion. He faked a handoff to a cutting receiver and threw incomplete in the flat. After another incompletion, he threw a deep completion down the sideline that sent some players whooping.
And that was it. Four plays. Two minutes. You could have blinked and missed the pass arriving to the Wildcat. The innards of innovation often aren't loud or sexy. On Tuesday, it was as quiet as the Dolphins continue to be about the Wildcat.
Dave Hyde | Sports Columnist
May 29, 2009
We use the word "innovative" too often in sports. We write about innovative strategies and innovative coaches. We call training staffs innovative for treating a player to health and entire franchises innovative for thinking a little differently.
This week, NBA analyst Hubie Brown even described a play run for Orlando's Rashard Lewis as "innovative." It was successful. Maybe creative. Certainly timely. But innovative?
You see, "innovative" should be reserved for Paul Brown having players keep playbooks, Magic Johnson being a 6-9 point guard and what's going into the Petri dish at Dolphins camp in the heat of May.
On Thursday, out of pads, in an otherwise uneventful practice, quarterback Pat White lined up as the lone back in the Wildcat formation - the WildPat, if you will. A couple of weeks ago, in a previous practice open to the media, White lined up as receiver for one play.
No one stopped practice either time. No one pointed and yelled. But these represent the innovative Next Step. They're the football equivalent of Capt. James Kirk scanning the skies and saying of the U.S.S. Enterprise's next destination, "Out there, somewhere."
Last season, while introducing the Wildcat, the Dolphins entered each game with only three Wildcat plays available to them, coach Tony Sparano said Tuesday. Just three!
That's all they had time to prepare in the midst of a season. It's also how limited their options were with a non-passer like running back Ronnie Brown operating it.
"Then, one of the things we did where we hit that little rut with the Wildcat in the middle of the season, we said, 'OK, let's go back to Day One,' '' Sparano said. "We went back to where we ran it well at New England. That helped."
In other words, they went retro-Wildcat instead of expanding it. Still, it was successful enough that: other teams copied it; Madden video players created new plays using it; New England coach Bill Belichick said he wanted to find a Wildcat quarterback ; Michael Vick's return was written in Wildcat terms; and Dolphins coaches received calls from other coaches about it.
"Tony has a rule,'' Dolphins offensive coordinator Dan Henning said. "It's that information comes in but doesn't go out."
So no discussing the Wildcat with other coaches?
"Not at all,'' Henning said.
The mystery adds to the fascination of what's to come. And to the fun of wondering how the pieces will fit. Sparano always said last year the Dolphins were "just scratching the surface" of this formation. The addition of White to become its Magellan shows why.
White ran the wide-open "spread" offense 90 percent of the time at West Virginia, passing for 1,659 yards and rushing for 1,219 last season. In doing so, he seemed to confound NFL talent evaluators.
Denver, White said, was the only team that worked him out individually at quarterback. New England was reported to do so, too.
"They only worked me out as a returner and receiver,'' he said.
The Dolphins didn't work out White privately so as not to tip their hand that the variety of his talents was just what they wanted. And, since the draft, White has been thrown so much information that, like most rookies, "I thought I was drowning for a while," he said.
He's feeling better now. He's also as quiet about the Wildcat as everyone around the Dolphins, only saying in general terms that it, "expands the spread." More options?
"I think so,'' he said.
On Tuesday, in a pad-less scrimmage, White took the center snap, scrambled left and threw on the run over the middle for a completion. He faked a handoff to a cutting receiver and threw incomplete in the flat. After another incompletion, he threw a deep completion down the sideline that sent some players whooping.
And that was it. Four plays. Two minutes. You could have blinked and missed the pass arriving to the Wildcat. The innards of innovation often aren't loud or sexy. On Tuesday, it was as quiet as the Dolphins continue to be about the Wildcat.
