Football analysis and strategy from Chris B. Brown
Russell Athletic Bowl — Key to Rutgers vs. Virginia Tech: Outside Zone
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Russell Athletic Bowl — Key to Rutgers vs. Virginia Tech: Outside Zone
College football’s bowl season is not much like the single-minded narrative of a one winner-take-all playoff. Instead it’s a shifting, multiple layered story told through an ensemble cast. Some of the stories, like the BCS title game, are triumphant, with maybe even a tinge of poetic folklore — some battle that could as easily be…
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Fantastic inside zone and “pin-and-pull” outside zone cut-ups
Under former coach Glen Mason, Minnesota, while not a great team, was one of the best rushing teams in the entire country during that time. And while they had some very good backs — including both Lawrence Maroney and Marion Barber III at the same time — they did it by being extremely simple: the…
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New Grantland: Alabama’s Run Game — Simple and Deadly, But Is It Good Enough to Beat LSU?
It’s up over at Grantland: That said, we should never count out Nick Saban. Alabama’s defense is arguably even better than LSU’s based on statistics (though I favor LSU owing to stronger competition and general fearsomeness). Alabama also boasts perhaps the best player on either team: running back and Heisman finalist Trent Richardson. Perhaps more…
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Adapting the Rocket Toss Sweep to Spread and Pro-style Offenses
The top four rushing teams in college football this past season — Navy, Air Force, Army, and Georgia Tech — each ran the flexbone offense or some variation of it. “Well,” you say, “those offenses run the ball a lot, so that inflates the yardage.” To a point, yes, but even if you simply look…
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More on the zone read (or midline read) of the defensive tackle
The classic zone read, where the runningback runs the zone play to one side while the quarterback reads the backside defensive end, is a great play. But if you use it enough, two problems emerge. First, just because you’re reading the defensive end doesn’t mean you’ve made your blocks on everyone else — a stud…
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A very simple explanation of the zone runs, and the difference between inside zone and outside zone
I wrote this up in abbreviated form originally for my breakdown of the OU-Texas game for Yahoo!’s Dr Saturday, but this is something I’ve been thinking about for awhile. There is still way too much confusion about inside zones and outside zones. Part of this is that there are a lot of coaching points on…