Published: Thursday, Nov. 19, 2009 / Updated: Thursday, Nov. 19, 2009 08:31 AM

Panthers coach Fox: Father of the Wildcat offense

CHARLOTTE -- When you think about offensive innovation in the NFL, the Miami Dolphins' Wildcat and its copycat offspring are the hottest thing in years.

Which makes it a little strange to think that it started with Carolina Panthers coach John Fox and had early plays drawn specifically for quarterback Brett Basanez.

While you wrap your mind around those two for a moment, it is worth pointing out that the scheme Dolphins offensive coordinator Dan Henning has called so successfully in Miami had its roots in Charlotte in 2006, when he was still calling plays for the Panthers. While that connection, and his job title, have sent much of the credit Henning's way, those who were around at the inception tell a different story.

“Now that Miami's doing it, the Wildcat's all the big thing. But the creator of it is John Fox,” Panthers running backs coach Jim Skipper said. “All of a sudden, Dan goes to Miami, and they expand on it, but we were probably the first team in the league to run it.

“Dan was the coordinator, but I'd say John deserves the credit. You can push it any way you want to push it, but that's where it originated from, was John.”

For the record, both Fox and Henning declined interview requests for this story, and it's worth noting that neither have ever claimed it as their own.

To tell the story of the Panthers' version of the Wildcat, you have to go back to the dark days of 2006. Instead of following up on their NFC Championship game run of the year before, those Panthers floundered, hovering around .500 all year and never establishing an identity. Amazingly, it got worse on Dec. 4 in Philadelphia, when quarterback Jake Delhomme broke his thumb and missed the next three games.

The first two were lifeless blowouts at the hands of the New York Giants and Pittsburgh (combined score 64-16), and it might have gotten worse considering backup quarterback Chris Weinke took a nasty shot to the ribs and wasn't 100 percent healthy or able to throw downfield.

The local fans were getting restless, and Henning seemed to be the target-du-jour. Fox was asked about the criticism of the veteran coordinator for being too conservative that week, and he replied: “If anything, we haven't been conservative enough.”

So when it was time to get ready for the Dec. 24 game at Atlanta, Fox decided to get a little radical, to step out of his defensive box and drop the bomb on his assistant coaches first. During their game-planning meeting on Monday, Dec. 18, Fox first unveiled his back-to-the-future plan.

“He hit it with us that Monday night, and then when we got back together Tuesday morning, we all had a general idea of how it was going to go down,” said then-defensive line coach Sal Sunseri, now an assistant at Alabama. “With the situation we had at quarterback at the time, the whole idea was to put the ball in the hands of the best players on the field. It really limited what the defense could do to us, especially since they weren't ready for it. When you haven't practiced against something and you see something new, it puts you in a panic mode.

“So basically, it was a way to become aggressive on offense. The way it turned out, it was a major tool of disruption.”

While all those Xs and Os were flying around, players had no idea what was in store until Wednesday morning, when they convened for meetings. Frankly, when you're 6-8 and have just the faintest playoff hopes, it was bordering on clock-punching. But when the plan was laid out, eyebrows went up, everybody woke up and realized this was something they could have some fun with.

“Yeah, it did have kind of a ‘what-the-hell' quality,” former Panthers center Geoff Hangartner said. “I think guys were pretty fired up about it.”

To say the plays had never been run before in practice wasn't quite accurate, either. From time to time, the scout offense would run crude versions of the single-wing runs at the Panthers' starting defense. Linebacker Na'il Diggs said he remembered “just a handful,” of the plays, and Sunseri laughed and said he thought it was Fox's way of checking whether the defense was paying attention.

“When we first saw it (on the practice field), nobody knew what the hell was going on,” Sunseri said. “So we'd just get in an eight-man front and play zone.”

The Falcons should have been so lucky.

The Panthers made an early statement against Atlanta that afternoon, something the Panthers knew they were going to do.

“I remember the last team meeting the night before the game,” Hangartner recalled. “Fox basically stood in front of the room and said, ‘Guys, we're going to run the ball until we get a first down, and then we're going to keep running.'”

The Panthers didn't have to resort to too much trickery early, as they ran well out of their standard sets, with DeShaun Foster and DeAngelo Williams taking turns plowing through the Falcons' defense.

Then on third-and-1 from the Falcons 19, the history of NFL offense changed. Williams lined up in the shotgun formation and scooted around the right end for 6 yards, but it wasn't without peril.

“Basically, I was panicked,” Hangartner said. “See, a shotgun snap to DeAngelo was tough, because he's so short. And I'm not saying that to be funny, it's just hard getting it to the guy and then pulling and going into run-blocking mode, when you're used to pass-blocking at that point.”

That hurdle overcome, it was the first evidence of what would become the modern Wildcat, even though that's not what it was called in the huddle.

See, when the Panthers drew up the plan, they called the formation that had Williams alone in the backfield “Tiger,” since he went to Memphis. The more complicated version, when little run-around quarterback Basanez was on the field, that's the one they called “Wildcat,” since he went to Northwestern. That one never saw the light of day in Atlanta (more on that one in a minute), but they went back to the “Tiger” nine more times in front of a confused Georgia Dome crowd.

The first eight times were all on third downs, and the Williams converted seven of them. The last one was the longest run of the day, a 13-yard gain on a second down in the fourth quarter, but it was wiped off the boards by a holding penalty on rookie tight end Jeff King (who scored the game's only touchdown on a 1-yard pass from Weinke to start the second quarter and end the Panthers' first drive).

King said that as complicated as it may have looked, the calls were “essentially the same plays we were already running, just out of a different formation.” Fullback Brad Hoover said that as revolutionary as they felt at the moment, truth be told there were only three or four distinct play-calls in play.

That didn't help the Falcons, who looked shocked when they saw it.

By the end of the day, a scheme was born. The Panthers ran 52 times for 183 yards that afternoon, so it wasn't the sole reason for the victory. But it was something new.

The way the Dolphins run it now, many think it most closely resembles the Delaware Wing-T, that daring scheme first drawn up by Tubby Raymond in the in 1960s. It's designed to confuse rather than overpower, while the Panthers were thinking about putting a hat on a hat and plowing the Falcons backward.

“Hey, there's nothing new in football,” Skipper said. “Whatever you're doing, somebody's done before. It's just a matter of when you're going to bring it back up again. After a while, crazes will die out, and then somebody comes back to it and then it's a big deal.

“Football's football, and there's nothing really new.”

Basanez laughs when asked about his near-miss impact the following week. By the time they kicked off in New Orleans, their playoff hopes were dashed since the Giants had beaten Washington the night before. But still, they had fiddled with this new toy, and were about to roll it out.

Basanez — now on the Chicago Bears' practice squad — said the plan was for him to take the actual first “Wildcat” snap. Weinke was the inactive third that week, and the plan was to let Basanez give it a shot. It was designed to be a toss sweep, and he had the option to either run the ball or throw a deep ball to Steve Smith. Unfortunately for Basanez, fullback Brad Hoover was dinged the play before it was intended to run, and they had to call a time-out and reset in the huddle.

“Yeah, Hoover kind of cost me that one, and it was going to be good,” Basanez said with a laugh. “Could have gone down in the books. I like to think Dan designed it so he could get the ball in the hands of the playmakers and let them make plays, but it wasn't meant to be.”

Delhomme was back for that Saints game — making the need for trickery less — but said thinking back, it was an enjoyable moment. “He probably told you it was all about him,” Delhomme cracked on Basanez.

But the Panthers quarterback said that when the old-new plan was being installed, no one knew it was Fox's brainstorm.

“At the time, nobody knew,” Delhomme said. “People probably assumed it was Dan.”

Because of Fox's refusal to take credit, many continued to as Henning moved to the Dolphins and paired with assistant coach David Lee, who was running it at Arkansas with Gus Malzahn in 2006.

The fact that Fox grew up playing defense and coaching it contributed to that prejudice.

“Hey, you know, a guy on defense knows what gives him problems,” Skipper said. “Football's football. Both sides of the ball have to know what's going on. Everybody thinks he's just a defensive guru, but John's a ball coach.”

Likewise, Basanez laughed when the word “innovation” was used, because many would think it the last word to hang next to Fox's name (when you go around saying “a punt is not a bad play,” that'll happen).

“Hey, bottom line, Fox wants to run the ball always,” Basanez said. “This was just a new way to run it.”

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Miami (4-5) at Carolina (4-5)

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