The above scenes show what Bill Curry, who obviously was not briefed in advance by the VMI staff, referred to during the Army-VMI broadcast as a “modified shotgun.” VMI used the formation perhaps 1/4 of the time and had only limited success, but in fairness, the Keydets were overmatched, as they so often are.

What VMI did appears to be somewhere between our Wildcat and Nevada’s “Pistol”, which was preceded, if not inspired, by the formation shown above, run briefly by Princeton in the mid-60’s. Note the in-line arrangement of the fullback and tailback, inspired, I am guessing, by the I formation, which had grown quite popular by then. We have run plays in practice from the Wildcat-I, and it has potential. For those of you coaching little kids and having problems with the center-quarterback exchange, the Wildcat/VMI approach offers you an alternative. The short snap isn’t hard for the QB to handle, and the center can make the snap without having to duck his head (just make sure that he snaps it LOW and SLOW).

Copyright 2006 Hugh Wyatt. All rights reserved. www.coachwyatt.com