Don Shula says he probably wouldn't have run the Wildcat during Dan Marino's era, but he did admit that he orchestrated the Wildcat as a player.
Well, back in those days it was called the Single-Wing, and based on what Shula said, he served as Ronnie Brown, the trigger man in the run-oriented formation while a high school player back in the days when football was played in leather helmets.
Shula admitted he'd a fan of the Wildcat because it plays to the team's strengths, and complicates the week of preparation for Miami's opponents.
"When you think about Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams, and the ability of those two backs, defenses have to work hard to prepare for them," said Shula, who admitted it would drastically impact a defenses ability to prepare for Miami's base offense. "They have [the Wildcat] and their regular offense. They've got a lot of different ways to attack a defense."
I asked Shula how much time would he commit to preparing for the Wildcat if he were coaching a team that was facing these Dolphins, and he wouldn't put a number on it, but said it'd be "a lot."
Teams only have at the max 10 hours of practice time per week to prepare for an opponent, so I'm assuming a lot would be roughly two or three considering how much the Dolphins are committed to making the Wildcat successful.
