Kutztown’s Inexpensive Option to Handle Wide Zone Lag

By Mike Kuchar with Pat Taylor
Offensive Line Coach
Kutztown University (PA)
@CoachTaylor_OL

“We tried to run traditional wide zone, but we had issues with the open side Tackle giving the 5-Technique a two-way go, so we cleaned up the picture and took the indecision completely away from him”
- Pat Taylor, Offensive Line Coach, Run Game Coordinator, Kutztown University (PA)

For the last two off-seasons, we’ve been pumping our content full of these Y-lead wide zone variations. The ones that originated from the Kyle Shanahan coaching tree, that has begun to trickle down to all levels of football. Clearly Kutztown’s offensive line coach Pat Taylor wasn’t reading our research. But, like many other wide zone coaches, he did have an issue with play side lag from the C gap defender. But, rather than build in these “flying combinations” that we reported on previously, Coach Taylor built his own twist on the concept by having his play side Tackle completely ignoring the C gap defender and having the backside Tight End clean him up himself. Quite simply the Tackle has the D gap, and the Tight End has the C gap.

For Coach Taylor, it was the more inexpensive option to handle any front side lag. There was no grey area. The tight end would simply clean up any color by kicking him out, the same technique he would use in split zone.  If the DE stays in the C gap the TE handles him. If the DE stays wide, the TE inserts inside. “It allowed the Tackle to not get caught up with the defensive end staying square,” said Coach Taylor. “The ball unusually goes inside of him because he’s so worried about not getting reached. Anytime you’re making the defense change their fits on the snap where they have to all be on the same page to identify which gap they are defending, it’s always a good idea.”

Sure, this concept is an easy answer against stagnant C gap defenders. But what happens when the front moves? What happens when the defense disguises its fits and creates indecision at the point of attack? The answers — and the details that make this scheme work at every level — are in this report:

• Most wide zone teams are still fighting the same problem — a C gap defender with a two-way go who can either dent the play inside or kill it on the perimeter. Kutztown found a way to make that defender irrelevant.
• Coach Taylor's fix costs you nothing schematically — no new personnel, no exotic combinations, no additional install time. If your Tight End can run split zone, he can run this.
• The play side Tackle gets one job and one job only. No grey area, no combination, no decision tree. When a lineman stops guessing, he starts winning — and this scheme proves it.
• This isn't the Shanahan "flying combination" you've been reading about. This is a different answer to the same problem — and for many programs, it may actually be the better one.
• The running back's path changes, and that adjustment is critical. Miss this coaching point and the whole scheme breaks down. Coach Taylor gives you the exact aiming point cue that makes it work.
• Movement fronts are where most coaches bail on a concept. Coach Taylor addresses exactly how Kutztown handles stunts and shifting fronts so the scheme holds up when defenses try to disguise their fits.
• Kutztown built in a built-in answer for when the perimeter leverage is wrong pre-snap — a simple choice call that lets the QB flip the play without tipping the defense. The details of how they structure it are inside.