Western Michigan’s QB Duo Concept

By Mike Kuchar with Joe Pawlak
Offensive Line Coach
Western Michigan University
@pawlakjoe

“It was the best marriage between what our quarterback ran well and what we did well as an offensive line.”
- Joe Pawlak, Offensive Line Coach, Western Michigan University

There is a reason why most offenses rely on using pure gap schemes in its quarterback run menu. The flow of the offensive line meshes perfectly with the downhill run action of the QB. Pullers help push second-level defenders past the entry point, opening up creases in the defense for explosive plays. But when your offensive line doesn’t major in blocking gap schemes, it may not make sense to carry gap scheme quarterback runs.

Thus was the realization Coach Pawlak made mid-season last year when the offensive staff at Western Michigan decided to build its QBR around Duo run schemes and not gap schemes. “It was the best marriage between what our quarterback ran well and what we did well as an offensive line,” he told me. “We didn’t run a lot of power, so Duo was our answer.”

This past season, the Broncos ran Duo 41 times with its quarterback, and it continually got more efficient as the season rolled on. The concept debuted in week four against Toledo and helped generate a 14-13 win for the Broncos. “Our backs weren’t having a great day, and Broc was running the ball well,” said Coach Pawlak. So, we made a switch to run more Duo runs with him and started carrying it the rest of the season.”

But early on the play wasn’t hitting where it should be. Oftentimes in QB zone runs, the quarterback gets pushed behind the entry point because of the flow of the offensive line. And it wasn’t until a cornerstone adjustment in how the back identifies his blocking assignment was made for the play to take off.

The challenge in running QB Duo is that the quarterback can be pushed off course with the movement of the offensive line and miss his downhill aiming point. Coach Pawlak and the offensive staff built a simple rule for the back to handle the extra defender so the QB can have a clean read and get downhill.