The Beast Formations are based on the Yale Single Wing Offense form the early 1900s, which is usually called Beast or Beast Tight formation. You may hear others call the Beast Double Fat, Heavy, Bear or Rhino describing their Heavy Offense formation. In 1994, I called the Beast; Loud Rowdy Monkey for left, right middle. It has many names but no mistaking its power. Fear the Beast.
The goal of the Beast Formation is to put more players at the Point of Attack and power through a weaker Defensive front.
The Beast Yale or the Beast Tight formations usually have 7 offensive linemen foot to foot on the LOS in an unbalanced alignment with 3 blocking backs just behind the unbalanced strong side OLM and a Wildcat type Beast Back in shotgun and possibly offset to strong power side A gap. See example diagram below.
Beast – “Yale” Formation
Even though many call the Beast a Single Wing formation, there is no Wingback outside the TE in the Beast Yale formation. The secret is the Beast is a T formation variant with a little SW flare.
The Beast formation, like all football formations, offers a variety of options. It is more sophisticated than most uninformed & unfamiliar football coaches realize.
Teams can also run most Beast formations in Shotgun or Under Center. Since many youth football teams suffer from poor shotgun snaps, this make the Beast very flexible. Plays run under center can be more deceptive since it is harder to see the main Beast back.
Just below is a Beast “Tight” formation and the blocking backs are one player wider than the Beast “Yale” formation above. And, in the Beast Tight “BUC” the Beast Back has moved under center.
Beast “Tight” Formations
Beast Wide “Worm” Formations
In 1994 while running the Beast Yale and Tight formations, I decided to widen the blocking backs just outside the power TE to attack stronger and aggressive defensive ends / OLBs playing contain. The Beast Wide formation was born and the Beast WORM became a great formation for our Sweep Option pass plays and misdirection plays.
The Beast Worm is very similar to a Tight Bunch formation most HS, College and NFL teams run. Instead of a stacked vertical alignment Worm is a horizontal alignment. Many youth football teams are running the WORM.
The Beast formations can be implemented with a balanced “Even” offensive line or unbalanced “Big” o-line. I prefer the unbalanced tackle-over OL alignment for most Beast plays but flip back and forth for pass plays and some misdirection plays.
Below in the Beast Double Wide “Jumbo” or Beast Spread formation. You can see an Even OL alignment in the bottom Beast Spread formation diagram. It is easy to flip from Even and Big unbalanced Offensive lines. We use a base formation which is usually Big Unbalanced and then use the Tag “Even” when we need an Even OL.
In the 2008-2010 timeframe, I had a great passing QB and a super fast all-purpose back, so we implemented a wider WORM formation and the Beast Double Wide formation or Jumbo Spread metamorphosized into our Beast Offense.
Beast Double Wide Formation – “Jumbo / Spread”
Side note – Ya I know Jumbo it a weird name here but is was a rhyme crazy name for the for the young players on Double Wide and Dumbo Jumbo came out and used for many years ago.
The above Beast Double Wide formation helps to Spread out the Defense and open up the Beast Offense with a more traditional passing approach while maintaining a Wildcat Single Wing misdirection power approach. You can say it is a Wildcat Air Raid formation. Who says the Beast Offense is simple? LOL
The Beast formation’s simplicity and sophistication makes it an excellent choice for maximizing a Team and player’s strengths and skillsets.
The Beast Middle formations below, I ran more between 1994 and 2008. I have revived the Beast Box formation a few years ago for a 7th grade team. It is a great addition to a Double Wing formation. The Beast Monkey formation is an original formation from my 1994 Plano, Texas Hurricanes team. This was mainly used for short yardage very similar to how the Philadelphia Eagles use it in the Tush Push.
Beast Middle “monkey” / “Box” Formations
The Beast Mid Buc Box formation I do not run much anymore but its wider cousin the Beast Dragon is still part of my current Beast Offense. Below is the Beast Dragon.
Beast Dragon Formation
The Beast Dragon formation is a double triple wing formation that we developed around 2012 to deal with a pesky backside Defensive End that was beating our backside edge blocking and give us more misdirection plays. We use the Wide Dragon formation like a Double Wing set or an old TCU / SMU Spread set.
The above Beast formations have been the base of my Offenses since 1994. In 2017, I started running a 2 back Beast formation. The formation evolved out of the Beast Box, ND Box, UBSW and Power I.
I’ve called it Cake for many years since we were running a Power I variation at the time, and Cake baked up one pre-game when my QB broke his arm. We moved in to a Beast type Power I with my two running backs and Cake, Fat, Fatcat, Tomcat, or Hellcat was born. I still have trouble naming it each season but it is usually my base Offensive formation along with Beast Tight, Worm and Spread. I probably should name it. I called it Hellcat this 2024 Fall season.
Beast Hellcat Formation
Continued on next page – Advanced Beast Formations
If you would like a Free Beast Formations eBook and 6 Free Beast Plays pdf then download your Free 50 page Beast Formations and 6 Play eBook.
