A Lightbulb Moment

I love “Lightbulb Moments” – whether it is because one of my players suddenly “sees the light” or I do, they’re (pardon the pun) quite illuminating. I had one the other night. I found myself with some spare time – my significant other was in the midst of watching/catching up on her TV shows, so I started looking through my COOL Clinic DVD’s. I’ve talked about the COOL Clinic before, but I’ll say it again – if you are at all involved with the offensive line, you are cheating yourself and your players if you aren’t taking advantage of this knowledge.

Anyway, ever since I saw Dave Christensen a couple of weeks ago talk about how A&M ran the inside zone, I saw that how defenses played the Aggies really opened up the run game, and that their inside zone really tended to stretch a defense. Coach also talked about complementing it with the outside zone, but the technical aspects of the outside zone were out of the parameters of his talk so he didn’t really get into it. My experience with the outside zone since the early 2000’s is limited. I guess the last time I actually installed it was 2013, but then we got away from it in favor of the Fly Sweep, and that has remained the trend since then. I think a lot of that has to do with the feeling that I had that my implementation of the outside zone was stale – I felt like all the other run plays I install (inside zone, counter, fly, toss, trap) have evolved over time into pretty effective plays, but by and large, my thinking on the outside zone was stuck in the 1990’s.

So when I looked at my DVD’s the other night, I saw one that had two presentations – Mark Staten from Michigan State and Rick Trickett from Florida State, both talking on the outside zone. All righty – let’s see what they have to say! 

Coach Staten’s presentation was phenomenal – mostly because his scheme and technique is so closely related to what we’re doing on the inside zone that I think adapting it would be a no-brainer. Basically, the angle of your first two steps is a little different, and then you’d like different hand placement depending on if you had help or not, but other than that, from a schematic standpoint, it fits in extremely well. He’s very heavy on “pin n’ pull” concepts as are we.

Next up was Coach Trickett’s talk. Coach may have the deepest Southern accent I’ve ever heard…..only Bob Cope is (was, RIP) in the same league. His style of the outside zone at first glance was very different – almost all straight zone, very little of the pin ‘n pull of Michigan State.  But the simplicity of the play was what drew me to liking his stuff a lot. However, in deciding what to go with, ultimately I wanted to change the OL thinking less and merely alter the path of the RB slightly.

Speaking of the path of the RB, that brings me back to Coach Christensen’s talk a couple weeks ago. He’s got the RB lined up on the inside leg of that tackle, even with the QB. Even on the inside zone, he’s got the RB coming across flat, with the QB taking a slight step backwards to clear, and then the RB plants and cuts it upfield into the B gap (initially – can always change based on the read). The reason for that is if the back is slightly behind the QB, on the inside zone he tends to run more downhill. Well, most people would say that’s a good thing – after all, that was one of the big selling points on the Pistol formation, getting the RB downhill. Well, that is great, but remember that that downhill path affects the LB’s too. They see that RB trajectory and they’ll start flowing downhill in a hurry, causing congestion where you want to run.

On the other hand, having the RB come across flat, now the defense doesn’t know whether it is inside zone, or outside zone. If it is outside, and they don’t react appropriately, they’re going to be outflanked quickly. If they react to the path thinking it is outside, and it turns out to be inside, then the OL has them going sideways, and for a defender that is a great way to get your ass kicked! So now the defense is left guessing – which is exactly what we want. Regular readers of this blog have heard me say again and again, “Make the defense play with doubt.” It was true when Homer Smith first said it sometime in the early 80’s, and it is just as true now.

Suffice to say, my thinking on the outside zone has been rejuvenated and I’m looking forward to see the results of this particular Lightbulb Moment.