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AFM Magazine


Point Counterpoint: Quarterback Read vs. Defending the Inside Zone

Hampton vs. Morgan State
by: David Purdum
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Coach: Charles W. Bankins

School: Hampton Running Backs Coach

Scheme: A primarily two-back set that has steadily added more elements of the spread to the offense, including using more one-back sets. The result is a potent and extremely balanced attack that averaged 175 yards on the ground and 176 through the air.

Experience: Spent last season as a special teams assistant on Mike Martz’ St. Louis Rams staff, before returning to Hampton for his second stint as the Pirates’ running backs coach. In 2004, Bankins’ scheme and player development skills produced the only pair of backs in Division I-AA to each rush for more than 1,000 yards.


Coach: Alonzo Lee

School: Morgan State DC/Linebackers Coach

Scheme: Based out of a four-man front, Morgan State shifts into a 30 front against four- and five-receiver sets. Two-deep coverage is mixed in with quarters which can rotate to put eight-men in the box. The result is an adaptable defense that is strong against the run.

Experience: Longtime veteran MEAC coach has won conference championships at four different schools. He just completed his first season at Morgan State, during which he produced the conference's best rushing defense. As assistant head coach and DC at North Carolina A&T in 2003, Lee's defense was tops in the conference.


There are no secrets in football, especially between conference foes. Everyone’s seen everyone on film. In this month’s Point/Counterpoint, a pair of MEAC rivals – Hampton Running Backs Coach Charles W. Bankins and Morgan State Defensive Coordinator/Linebackers Coach Alonzo Lee – share their thoughts on the inside zone, play-action and blitzing.

Like most teams, the inside zone/quarterback read is one of Hampton’s staple plays. With the conference’s all-time leading rusher Alonzo Coleman in the backfield, Bankins will run the inside zone play on any down in almost any situation. Here’s a look at Hampton’s inside zone/quarterback read and how Morgan State would defend it:

Bankins: In our inside zone, the tailback chases the inside leg of the tackle. Our uncovered will work to the covered lineman and work to the next level. Our receivers will block man-on, and the inside guys will block the most dangerous man. We want to get horizontal displacement of the defense. Our QB, obviously, reads what the defensive end does.

Lee: We come with a zone blitz off of the playside. We’ll slant the front and bring the two backers to the outside C gap. That’s one of the big things that people are finding is that [blitz] mis-keys the quarterback. He sees that end slant down inside and his read is to pull it. We’ll have backers coming on top of that. That’s one of our main stunts verses teams that like to run that [zone read].

Bankins: We’re fortunate to have the conference’s all-time leading back [Alonzo Coleman]. We’ll usually run it to the 3-technique and let him do what he does because he’s a phenomenal back with the ball in his hands. Any time we have a chance to get the ball in his hands we’ll run it.

Lee: In every game, we go in wanting to take the big gun away. We want to force the other guy to carry the ball. Anytime we can take the big gun away either by slanting or giving the quarterback a read to keep the ball in his hands, we’ll do that.

If I’m playing Hampton, when you’re playing against a great back, we’ll tend to roll our coverage down to help us out, giving them an eight-man [in the box] look.

When we’re in our 30 look, we can slant that end and still have that outside backer sit on the quarterback. That helps us out when we rotate our secondary. We want to make sure, especially on 1st and 10, 2nd and medium, 3rd down and six or seven, with a back like Coleman that’s a great threat for them in those specific situations. The quarterback has the option to pull the ball, if we’re doing something he doesn’t like.

Morgan State’s outside blitz has slowed down Hampton’s inside zone play but Bankins has made an adjustment as we head to the second half.

The Adjustment

Bankins: Anytime you run the ball you have to have a play-action off of it. We’ll look to do some play-action on first down because most people are looking for the run on first down. We’ll hope to get them bite up in the box and allow us to take advantage of some voids in the coverage because they are blitzing.

Lee: Basically, in the play-action scheme, we’ll go away from zone blitzing, and get in zero and cover-1 blitzing, where we’re actually matching up with people. When you run those zone blitzes, one of the zones is going to be voided. Good offenses try to take advantage of that. That’s when we try to get into a man-to-man situation and still try to bring some pressure.

Bankins: Defenses try to take away all the possible holes when you blitz, but you’re going to leave something voided out. We want to take advantage of the voids in the defense the blitz is creating. And also your boot-type plays, where you fake the zone and you bring a receiver back underneath that blitz and let the quarterback dump it to him. Let your other playmakers run with the ball in open space.

Lee: One of the greatest blitzes for a bootleg is outside pressure to pull that quarterback up. I would rather pull that quarterback up with a good outside blitz and force him to throw the quick pass, where, hopefully, our DBs have a little less time to get out there and cover. That allows less time for those crosses on those bootlegs. I still like to go with pressure but it will be more of man-to-man more so than zone pressure.

Bankins: The one important thing, if you have a good QB, is that he should want pressure, especially early-down pressure, because he knows he has one-on-one with his receivers out there. You can slide the protection. It depends on how confident your quarterback is whether you mix it up and let him sit in the pocket and throw it. Or you’ll have your hot reads and let him get the ball out of his hands quickly and into the hands of your playmakers. He’s a QB for a reason, because he’s a good decision maker, but not always the greatest athlete. Let the athletes get the ball and then have them do something with it.

Lee: Folks around the conference will probably say that I will blitz you every down. That is true. One of my favorite blitzes is the outside pressure. We call it the double gold. Both outside linebackers are coming. I’ve been a guy that really likes the smaller, but faster outside linebackers. A lot of guys like the big, old plowhorse guys. But I think the whole league and everybody is getting away from it because offenses are so wide open.

I really like the outside pressure because, again, you have speed coming up the field, and it forces the offense to do something right now. My biggest thing is if you can force and contain the football, you have a great chance to win. We will disguise by lining the [outside backers] right over the tackle and then walk to the outside at the last minute. Sometimes we’ll just loop it; we’ll game it, where the end will come inside and we’ll loop around. But when we want to get after you, we’re not going to disguise that thing at all. We’ll walk those guys up to the line of scrimmage.

Hampton catches Morgan State in a blitz and connects on a TD pass off of play-action to take a 17-10 lead. With three minutes to play, Hampton drives to midfield but is facing and 3rd and 7.

Bankins: I know they’re going to bring a little bit of pressure, so I’m going to try to rub someone off and let my playmaker catch it short and let him run for the first down.

Lee: That’s illegal (chuckle). He called a pick route.

Bankins: I’ll probably go to a trey set. So there’s a chance, if I want to max it up, I have the tight end in the game. I may want to release all three and let the two outside receivers run them off, let the tight end work, not pick [chuckle], but rub. Let him catch it and get the first down. We’re going to protect the quarterback’s backside and give him a chance to complete the pass to the front side.

Lee: If my blitzes have been causing him chaos, I would blitz in that situation, but there’s been a lot of times this year that I’ve bluffed in that situation. I’ll show that blitz, and I’ll bluff, and I’ll come off in sometime of cover-2 with hard corners, expecting some type of pick route because that’s what a lot of guys are going to at this point.

We had some success basically bluffing and going to a coverage where we can handle the rub routes. The offense calls them rub but we call them picks [laughs]. We actually try to keep everything out in front of us. Hopefully, in cover-2, that’s a hard corner coverage, and we should be able to get jams on all of the receivers. We’re banking on making that play before they get to that seven yards for a first down. We’re going to play the sticks.





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