The Wide Zone Explosive Study

By Mike Kuchar
Co-Founder/Senior Researcher
X&O Labs
@MikekKuchar

EDITOR’S NOTE: Explosive wide zone runs are intentional — this study shows exactly which formations, paired with specific fronts and coverages, force explosives, and includes our new Explosive Play DNA Report analysis tool that reveals where YOUR offense is explosive — and where it is not.

I have a confession to make…

I have a love/hate relationship with wide zone. I get enamored when I watch programs like Notre Dame, UCONN, Cincinnati, and South Dakota run the scheme to perfection. The synchronized footwork of offensive linemen resembles a Shen Yun performance as the ball carrier weaves and punctures through creases in the defensive front. Ok, I got carried away there. But, man, I gotta tell you, as Brian Ferentz at Iowa once told me years ago. “It’s a thing of beauty when it works out.”

But my frustration escalated when I started to realize how expensive wide zone is to teach. Thinking about teaching horizontal- and not vertical- double teams, how to get the back to perfectly read the end man on the line of scrimmage, and how to build in all the backside controls to prevent those nasty defensive ends from running things down on the backside just got me exhausted. All of those home run, explosive runs on the tape looked awesome, but I was having a hard time just being efficient with the concept. So, I became non-committal.

I completely gave up on installing it and committed to Pin and Pull runs instead. Yes, this was partly because I didn’t have a Center who could handle the play side A gap, but mainly because I didn’t think that I could do the scheme justice by teaching it the right way. So, I left my fascination with wide zone… until now.

What if I told you that you can intentionally generate explosives from your wide zone runs by designing them from specific formations and generate maximum results against specific fronts and coverage? Now, maybe you don’t have to swim in the wide zone ocean; you can simply dip your toe in the pull and still dunk the defenses you face.

That became the impetus of this study. X&O Labs went all in on studying how wide zone runs can produce explosive runs, which are runs of ten yards or more. Our starting point was using last season's data. We studied 1507 runs in the wide zone family from the top 20 programs at the FCS and FBS levels that were most efficient in the wide zone. These included UCONN, Cincinnati, Iowa, South Dakota, Notre Dame, and Lehigh, to name a few. And here’s what we found: 537 of those runs generated explosivity, and that wide zone generated a 19.4% total explosivity rate, which is 34.7% more than the next concept (Counter).

We’re going to teach you exactly how to do that yourself by designing your formation structures to manipulate numbers in the box and your Jimmy on their Joe in the open field. That, my friends, equals explosivity. And I’m even going to tell you how you should not run wide zone…

Here’s Exactly What You’re Going to Discover in This Study:

• Why some wide zone runs are structurally built to be explosive—and others never will be, no matter how well they’re blocked
• The hidden relationship between formation, front, and coverage that quietly determines explosive potential before the ball is snapped
• Which wide zone structures create explosive runs with the fewest teaching costs
• Where the ball actually wants to hit on explosive wide zone plays — and why most backs are taught to look in the wrong place
• How certain personnel groupings manufacture numbers advantages that defenses struggle to correct in real time
• Why the boundary has become one of the most misunderstood sources of explosivity in wide zone football
• How motion can either unlock front-side explosives — or completely kill them—depending on how it’s paired
• The specific formation families that consistently produce explosives — and the ones that quietly drag your explosive rate down
• The most common wide zone looks that feel right on the call sheet but show up as low-return plays in the data
• The two wide zone decisions that cost offenses explosives more than any others
• And finally, how to turn the research back on yourself by uploading your own offensive data (from Hudl) to instantly see:
  • Where your explosive runs (and passes) actually come from
  • Which formations and directions (field or boundary) quietly produce explosives — and which don’t
  • How your explosive runs and explosive passes interact across your offense
  • Which calls deserve more volume — and which ones need to be questioned

This study doesn’t just show you how wide zone explosives are created by others. It shows exactly where you’re creating explosives in your own playbook — by both run and pass plays, formation, and play direction (field and boundary). Let’s get started…