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AFM Magazine


Texas Longhorn\'s Play Action

Pass protection from their zone read
by: Michael Parker
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When Vince Young was a sophomore at UT, the Longhorns ran their Inside Zone over 200 times. After seeing those totals in their Self Scout during that off season, the Texas coaches vowed they would never do that again. The next year, the National Champs ran it 278 times.

Why Is Everything Better In Texas?

UT Offensive Coordinator Greg Davis brought a spread-type system several years ago to the traditional two-back Big 12 conference. This system incorporates the shotgun and one-back sets as the main look, and uses a second running back around 25% of the time. One difference between the Texas offense and many other teams that use a form of the spread is the Longhorn’s frequent use of a TE in the formation. By keeping a TE in the game, and by having a QB run game, Texas is able to take advantage of the number of blockers versus the number of defenders on a given play. By having three WR's in the game, opposing teams have to commit an extra player to playing from a set outside the box.

Mac McWhorter, the longtime Longhorn assistant head coach and offensive line coach, attributes Texas’ consistent success to the fact that even though the Vince Young show moved on to Tennessee, the offense has not changed.

Why Is Play Action Important?

Teams that rely on the run as a major source of their offense need to be able to pass from play action. And with more and more teams turning to the Zone Read concepts as a staple in their run game, the need for a solid play action for it increases. No one has needed, or succeeded, in running play action off the Zone Read more than Texas in recent years.

Texas has five basic concepts in the run game from which they build their play action offense:

1. Inside Zone-their base play.
2. Gap Schemes-including Counter and Off-Tackle Power.
3. Iso Schemes-including their QB Draw.
4. Sweeps-including their Outside Zone and G.
5. Options/Deceptions-and everything else.

To successfully complement those schemes, they will have multiple play passes off each. “For every run that we have, we’ll have two play passes of it,” says McWhorter. Texas likes to use boots and nakeds to get their passer outside of the rush, especially when the nature of the run play creates a natural flow of defensive players. They will also use a base protection scheme that allows the QB to stay in a pocket. Coach McWhorter talked about Texas’ play action with their Inside Zone read.

Determining What Pass Protection To Use

To find the right protection, McWhorter follows this rule: “All your protections have to be geared to who’s going to get out, and who you have left in the protection.” Now, a major issue, and one that many coaches inexplicably overlook, is the importance of making your play action pass look as much like the complementary run play as is possible.

How To Make A Pass Look Like A Run

To ensure this, McWhorter follows a few rules that make this possible:

1. “We will block the people we normally would in the run game.”
2. “We will keep our TE in on play action passes.”
3. “We try to sell run as best we can. We try to keep our pads down. We really attack them so they have to play run.”

But The DE Is Unblocked On That Run Play

Now obviously, the Zone Read allows for the backside DE to be unblocked since the QB accounts for him with the read dynamic of the play. And even more obviously is the fact that you should block him if you are passing. “We can block the backside DE by basing him. It doesn’t look as much like the Zone Read because we are blocking him. Or we can gap block it,” says McWhorter. But, in the traditional Inside Zone Read, the weak OT and the TE are working to the second level defender. And they can’t be down field on a pass play, assuming the pass will be thrown beyond the line of scrimmage. For that reason, the blocking scheme won’t look exactly the same. Many teams teach their defensive players to look for keys like that to decipher the difference between the run and pass action. But typically, only the DE, the LB to that side and possibly a safety will be able to see that the DE is being based and not bypassed for the down field defender.

Based on those criteria, and one other thing, McWhorter is able to determine which protection scheme to use. “Depending on which side the back is going to end up on, that is how we distinguish which type of protection we use,” he says.

Texas’ Big Four Pass Protection Schemes

McWhorter has four basic schemes in the overall UT passing game, each of which he calls a ‘Family.’ They include:

• The Pocket Family - (their base protection)
In the Pocket family, the OL is responsible for the four DL and the MLB. The RB (and occasionally the TE) is responsible for the SLB and WLB.

• The Turn Family - In the Turn family, the OL is responsible for the four DL and the WLB. The RB (and occasionally the TE) is responsible for the SLB and MLB.

• The Gap Family - The O-Line, in this situation is in Slide Schemes.

• The Play Action Family - This is made up of the Pocket and Turn families mostly and the Gap family only in certain circumstances.

“Whichever zone that we are going to try and run a play action pass off of, we set up based on who is going to help us block and who’s going to get out. And then we will fit into one of those (Pocket/Turn/Gap) families,” says McWhorter.

The Pocket Family
(See Diagram 1)

Diagram 1: Pocket Family

“If the back flashes from the TE side to the SE side, that would be the Pocket Family,” says McWhorter.

The Turn Family
(See Diagram 2)

Diagram 2: Turn Family

“If he flashes from SE side to the TE side, that would be in the Turn Family,” he says.

The Gap Family
(See Diagram 3)

Diagram 3: Gap Family

“During the week, I really study defensive movement. We slide the scheme if there is lots of movement (Slants/Stunts/Twists),” adds McWhorter. The OL slides away from the side the back will end up on after his fake.

What About Odd Fronts?

In case of an Odd front, a few adjustments are made. “When teams take out a DL and put in a LB, we call him ‘Down Lineman.’ In a three DL set, we start on the weakside and call the furthest LB to the weakside WLB, the next LB ‘Down Lineman’ and the next one MLB,” says McWhorter. That way, the rules for Pocket and Turn protections don’t have to change (See Diagram 4).

Diagram 4: Odd Fronts

What About Eight Man Fronts?

Now, many teams – high school especially – face eight man fronts. “If a safety walks down, and now there are eight (defenders in the box), we can do one of a few things,” says McWhorter.

• “Check into a Max Pro in \ dropback.”

• “We can go ahead with fake and run a little bubble concept to the two WR side.”

• “We can change protection (to another protection from another family).”

• “The flashing RB changes whom he blocks in the specific scheme.”

Texas has had tremendous success running play action from their Inside Zone Read. They understand since they run the Zone Read so much, that they need to effectively find a way to pass from it by using the same action. This helps them pass effectively when the defense over pursues the run, and it helps them run when the defenders become more hesitant in filling gaps since they are worried about their pass drops and coverages.






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