Panthers coach Fox: Father of the Wildcat offense

By Darin Gantt - daringantt@carolina.rr.com

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.

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“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.