Boston.com: Before Miami had the Wildcat....

Colmax · Nov 5, 2009

It was called the "Wild Hog" at Arkansas, with Darren McFadden playing the role of Ronnie Brown, and Felix Jones the role of Ricky Williams.

And it's because of that, that Patriots linebacker Jerod Mayo, though he's still a second-year player, has more experience against that offensive look than many of his teammates. The idea, at its root, was similar: Find a way to threaten a defense with two explosive backs at once, and force it to defend that without specialized personnel.

"They were the first ones to run that kind of offense," Mayo said of Arkansas. "So I’d seen it before, but at the same time, anytime you got a guy like Ronnie Brown lining up at quarterback, it’s difficult. ... (The Razorbacks had) two great backs, Darren and Felix, and the Dolphins have two great backs."
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So when David Lee arrived after four years in Dallas under Bill Parcells to replace Malzahn at Arkansas, he kept the Wildcat as part of the offense, and then was hired in Miami the next year. When Tony Sparano asked his offense staff for ways to strength the running game and create big plays before the 2008 season, the Wildcat came up, and was installed in time for the New England game in Week 3.

Bingo. The Dolphins had three runs of 20-plus yards and 216 yards overall on the ground that day. Mayo remembers his reaction the first he realize what the Dolphins were doing.

"Call a timeout?" Mayo said. "I know we came over to the sideline and Bill (Belichick) just told everybody to calm down, made a couple of adjustments. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out that day."

Funny thing is, Mayo's Tennessee teams had similar struggles in college against it.
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Miami has taken it to a new level with as many formations and as many runs as they have.

They have an extra guy, an extra blocker. Anytime you have the quarterback out there, it’s kind of a liability, as far as.....
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Read the rest here: Jerod Mayo sucks (Well, not really, but he does because he does not play for Miami)

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Boston.com: Before Miami had the Wildcat....

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