Go for Two With the Polecat!

A polecat as a carnivorous mammal that preys on chickens and bewildered defenses

THE MIDDLE SCHOOL league we play in is very tough and hard-nosed. All the teams we face are bigger, faster, stronger, and have more players than we do.

Being in a small school in a small town, we needed a few gimmicks to even things up. I began looking through books, going to clinics, viewing football films, and talking to other coaches.

As luck would have it, I found what I was looking for right under my nose -- in some old game charts that my Dad had used when coaching in the early '80s.

As a devotee of the two-point conversion, he had gotten a lot of mileage out of a series of trick plays called the Polecat. They were exactly right for my young team. They were fun to run and gave us the extra points we needed against our tough opponents.

The Polecat isn't really a modern invention. It is a take-off on an old artifice that a lot of teams have used in one form or another. We adopted the four variations shown in the accompanying diagrams.

As you can see, we align six people to the left of the football, outside the left hash mark. They are the left slot back, two guards, two tackles, and a tight end.

The center, or long snapper, lines up on the ball in the middle of the field, the fullback deploys three yards back to the right of the center, and the QB lines up 5-7 yards deep in the shot gun.

The right slot back sets up about eight yards to the right of the center, off the ball, and the split end sets 12 yards to the right of the center, off the ball. This alignment makes eligible receivers out of the center, slot backs, and split end.

Everyone aligns like this on each of the plays, except for the fullback in Polecat 2.

Polecat 1: The QB takes the snap from center and waits for the center to run an eight-yard curl route over the ball. If the center is covered, the QB will look for the split end dragging across the back of the end zone. If these two players are not open, the QB will scramble for the end zone.

Polecat 2: Everyone aligns the same except for the fullback, who aligns three yards back between the guards.

The QB looks to throw to the fullback, with the center and the LSB blocking for him and the RSB and SE running their regular routes.

If the fullback is covered, the QB will look for the split end running across the back of the end zone. If both options are covered, the QB will scramble for the end zone.

Polecat 3: Everyone aligns the same, but the FB and RSB run different routes and the QB rolls to the right.

The QB looks for (1) the fullback five yards in the flat, (3) the RSB running a six-yard slant across the end zone to the other side, or (2) the split end who runs a six-yard slant, then drags across the back of the end zone to get open. The center blocks and the LSB runs a fade route.

This is our most successful Polecat option.

Polecat 4: Everyone lines up as before, but the fullback now runs an eight-yard curl over the ball, the RSB runs a five-yard out, the SE runs a six-yard slant across the back of the end zone, and the LSB runs a fade route.

The QB looks for the fullback first. If he is covered, the QB goes to the split end. And if all of this is defensed, the QB will scramble for the end zone.

The success rate of these four plays is very high. It forces our opponents into costly time-outs and wrong alignments. Many defenses simply stand in the middle of the field and look at each other as we run the play.

It is nice to see our kids having fun -- and scoring points -- with this old football play.