Complimentary Plays

There are many ways to compliment a zone running attack.

At the professional level of football, the play most used has been the bootleg pass(think the Denver Broncos.) In the college ranks, the in vogue thing has become the zone read, or zone option (think the Oregon Ducks.)

For us, we had a hard time this past year being consistent with either of these. So lacking these two common 'constraint' plays, we as a staff decided with our overly athletic quarterback to go to a tackle 'wrap' play as a compliment. We called it 'Gut.'

As you can see, the reason it is a compliment to zone is that the interior lineman block the zone path to the left.

The right tackle here, due to alignment of the defensive end, will block out.

The left tackle will wrap into the first open hole, with an emphasis of staying tight to the guards block.

The backs will mesh like zone left, with the  tailback hitting hard to once again deliver the linebackers were we (the offensive line) need them. The quarterback will then disengage and follow the tackles block into the hole (and with the action of the back delivering the backers,) having the 2 way go of a cut to the left or the right.

This was our second best play over the course of the season, for three main reasons: 1) We had a tough tailback that defenses HAD to respect, 2) A quarterback as fast as anyone who was a threat to take it eighty yards every play and 3) a tackle who could adjust to the linebacker in hole.

Great play for our athletic quarterback...great complimentary play to zone.

2 Examples: