Chapter 3:

Gus Malzahn s Run Schemes

As I have stated before, the focal point behind all of our RPO s is our core run game. The four run schemes that
we teach are inside zone, power, counter, and buck sweep. These are the schemes that we have been able to drill into
our players heads over the course of our two seasons at Arkansas Tech University. We have been able to utilize these
schemes effectively by teaching them as a part of our downhill run game.

It is important to our staff that we do not overcomplicate the primary blocking schemes that we use on a weekly
basis. Our belief is simple. Offensive linemen are generally the slowest players in our offense, we do not want to do
anything to slow them down even more. This means that we want our offensive linemen to learn the least amount of
blocking schemes possible in order for us to be effective. If an offensive lineman is sitting at the line of scrimmage
struggling to remember his assignment pre-snap, odds are that he is going to be ineffective post-snap.

These four base schemes are an essential part of our success. They have been simple for us to teach to our
players, and they have proven to be very good compliments to one-another. We have also been able to get the most out
of the players we have on the offensive line. For the most part we are able to create movement by the use of double
teams, or down blocks to create seams for our running backs. These concepts are universal, and can be effective verses
any front we might see on game day.

The first running concept we will discuss is our inside zone concept. We love inside zone out of our 20
personnel set because it allows us to block any and every front with our H-Back and offensive linemen from C gap to C
gap. We also have the ability to use our M.D.M. perimeter blocking principles to block the run defenders in the D gaps.
This means we are protected to defenses trying to get 8 players in the run fit.

Many offensive coordinators and offensive line coaches can turn inside zone into inside man very quickly by
denoting who each player will be blocking before the ball is snapped based off of the defensive front. The first
responsibility every offensive lineman has is to maintain the integrity of their gap. Our H-Back is responsible for the
backside C gap. Our backside tackle is responsible for the backside B gap. Our backside guard is responsible for the
backside A gap. Our center is responsible for the front side A gap. Our front side guard is responsible for the front side
B gap. Our front side tackle is responsible for the front side C gap. Our single receiver into the boundary is responsible
for the D gap run defender, while our slot receiver to the field is responsible for the field D gap defender. Every man is
responsible for his gap to the play side of our inside zone call. These primary rules allow us the ability to pick up
different stunts and blitzes that a defense may show you post snap. As long as our players maintain their gap integrity,
we will be sound in our blocking scheme.
 The way we can create extra movement between the tackles with our inside zone scheme is by

utilizing double teams whenever possible. Double teams are important to our inside zone concept because we

constantly stress the importance of vertical movement at the line of scrimmage in our zone schemes. The
more 2 on 1 matchups we can acquire on a defensive front; the more opportunities we have to create vertical
movement. We teach our offensive linemen how to work together on these combination blocks by allowing
them to work in 2-man combination groups whenever possible. These groupings are dictated by the fronts we
see. For example, if we have a front side A gap down lineman, our front side guard and center will be able to
work together to combo the defensive tackle to the front side inside linebacker. Many times if we have a front
side A gap down lineman, we will also have a backside B gap down lineman as well. In this case we will be

able to work a combination block with our backside tackle and backside guard up to the backside inside

linebacker. This means that we will be able to get two double teams on down linemen inside the tackle box

based off of the defenses pre-snap alignment. This is an ideal situation for running inside zone because it

allows us, in theory, to get the vertical movement off of the football that we are looking for. It is also

important to understand that defense can move post-snap and that is why it is critical that our offensive

linemen understand their gap responsibilities take precedence over who they thought they may block pre-snap.

Inside zone is a downhill running play for us and we teach our running backs to attack it that way as

well. This is not inside zone read, which we will talk about later in this book, this is straight inside zone. That
means they will be receiving the handoff on this play. We spend a lot of time in the film room with our
running backs discussing pre-snap looks and teaching them what gaps are most likely to open up. At the end
of the day this play has the ability to hit in any gap to the front side or backside of the play call. We teach our
running backs to be patient from their first step until they reach the line of scrimmage. Many coaches use the
phrase, patience to, urgent through. , and we are no different. We want our running backs to allow our

offensive linemen to work their double teams before they move on to the second level. It is also important

that our backs understand that they must press the point when they are running inside zone. Pressing the

point means that we want them to push to their aiming point as long as they possibly can before they make

their cut. For our running backs, we have them press their point to the front side A gap, or the center s back,

before they declare the gap they will run through. This helps our offensive linemen attach to second level

defenders.
We believe that the key to becoming a great inside zone blocker is through repetitions. Some backs are far

more suited for running inside zone, but all running backs get better with more repetitions. Inside zone is not

as simple for running backs as gap scheme runs are. We are allowing them the ability to improvise. We have

given them the paint brush and allowed them to create the picture of the play. Much like what we have done
with our quarterbacks with RPO s, coaches did the same with running backs when they created inside zone,
we gave them a sound scheme and asked them to decide where the ball goes. When you do have a running
back that displays good patience and vision, this play is very hard for defenses to stop. That is why it will

always be a part of the foundation of our offense. (Diagram Inside Zone) (FILM – 3 CLIPS)
Along with inside zone we have the ability to run split zone. This is why we love using our H-Back as a part

of our run schemes. Split zone is the exact same play for every player in our offense other than our H-Back.

Now, rather than aligning our H-Back on the backside of the play call, we move his pre-snap alignment to the

play side. His assignment has not changed, he is still responsible for the backside C gap, he now has to cross
the formation to get there. At the snap of the football he will take a path to kick out the backside C gap
defender.

Split zone is a simple scheme to carry once you have already spent time teaching your inside zone
blocking scheme. Nothing has changed. Everyone has the same responsibilities. What you have done is
created another way to line up and run inside zone. This time to the pre-snap alignment of your H-Back,
rather than away. This can allow you to dictate the way defenses align and how you would like to attack them
with inside zone. It adds another element for defensive coaches as they scheme up the way they want to call
their fronts against you for the week. We also like the fact that we can put our H-Back in a position where he

can gain a head of steam as he attacks the backside C Gap defender, and create more movement to give us a

bigger hole for the cut back. (DIAGRAM SPLIT ZONE) (FILM – 3 CLIPS)
The next rushing concept that we will install with our offense is power. This is where we are going to start

our true gap scheme concepts with our players. We love power because power gives our offensive line the

ability to create angles. We can run power or a version of the power blocking scheme out of every formation

that we carry. Because we are predominately a 20 personnel team, we will first discuss how we teach power

out of our 20 personnel set.

When we are running power our H-Back must always be aligned to the play side of the formation at

the snap of the football. We use to spend time teaching our H-Back that he was responsible for the play side

defensive end, but we felt as though that became counterproductive as we saw fronts change and thus

changing the player that we wanted our H-Back to be responsible for. We have evolved into teaching him that
he is responsible for kicking out the C Gap defender. We always want our H-Back to maintain inside head
placement when blocking the C Gap defender on power. This means that he has to take an inside path to
where the defender will squeeze once he reads the down block of the tackle. We use a duck walk technique
through the butt of the play side tackle to ensure that we have the ability to maintain our inside leverage as we
work to get vertical push on the C Gap defender.

Our play side tackle is primarily responsible for the play side B gap. Our play side guard is
responsible for the play side A gap. If we have a defensive lineman in a 3 technique, or an outside shade of
our play side guard we will have our play side guard and tackle double team up to the backside inside

linebacker. Much like we teach on inside zone our front side offensive linemen are responsible for their gaps

first, and then working their 2-man combination. If anything comes into the tackles B gap, he is responsible

for it. If any pressure comes in the guards A gap, he becomes responsible for it. This means that although in

our minds we have a man based off of the pre-snap look, we may have to adjust based on post-snap defensive

stunts or blitzes.
Our center is responsible for the backside A Gap or the first defender to the backside of the play. We will be pulling our
backside guard for the first linebacker to the front side of the play call, and the center is responsible for blocking back on
the first defensive lineman, or walked up linebacker to the backside. Because this guard is leaving to create an extra
blocker to the front side of the play call, we are now vulnerable in the backside B or C gap, depending on where the
defense may bring pressure. Our backside pulling guard will be responsible for reading the block of our H-Back to
decide whether he will fit his pull in either the B or C gap. His job is to square up the front side inside linebacker and to
create vertical movement for our running back to cut off of. Our backside tackle is responsible for the backside B and C
gaps. His responsibility lies in that order. If we have a down lineman in the backside B gap, and no immediate A gap
threat, the center will work back to create an angle to kick out that down lineman. With that being said, we want our
backside tackle to help our center slow down any backside penetration. We do this with what we call a gap-seal-hinge
technique. This is when our backside tackle will take 2 lateral steps down into the B gap to chip the defender and
squeeze off the gap before hinging back out for any C gap pressure. If we do have both a backside A and B gap threat,
the responsibility will be on the quarterback to carry out his fake and slow down the backside pursuit of the C gap
defender.

Although we have the opportunity to be weak in our backside C gap based on a defenses look, we should not be
weak in our front side or backside D gaps. Once again, as we had in our inside zone and our split zone blocking
schemes, our wide receivers will be responsible for their adjacent D gap defenders. The key teaching point for our
receivers is to work our helmets to the inside shoulder pad of the D gap defender because of the high probability of
power hitting inside the tackle box.

Teaching our running backs how to run power is a little more straight forward than that of our inside zone
schemes. We teach our backs that their primary read is the front side A gap. If the A gap is open, we want to hit it
downhill right now. If the A gap is closed or clouded with a defender, we will then look to our secondary read, which is
following our backside pulling guard. As I said earlier, our pulling guard has to read the block of our H-Back in our 20
personnel power scheme, which means he helps the eyes of the tailback and makes it a more simplistic read for him.
This means if our H-Back does his job and kicks out the C gap defender, our pulling guard will lead our tailback through
the B gap. When power works out this way, our double team on the play side B gap defender is crucial. If we can get
vertical movement on our double team, and 4 eyes on the backside inside linebacker, we are going to have a good
chance at having a successful running play. If our H-Back does not maintain his inside leverage on the C gap defender,
our pulling guard will lead our running back outside of his log block. It is very important that our puller stays as tight to
the H-Back s block as he possibly can in this scenario. He has to be ready for the front side inside linebacker that he is
pulling for to either scrape tight, or scrape wide. If his linebacker scrapes tight to the edge, our guard must be ready to
log him without allowing him to undercut his path and make a play on our running back. If the linebacker scrapes wide,
he has to be tight enough to kick him out and create a new C gap for our running back to hit while staying vertical.
Although power is a great universal running concept, we have to prepare our players for every one of these

scenarios in order to ensure we will make the proper post snap adjustments. We practice all of these post snap
scenarios every week. When our offense gets together for a 10 minute run period on our gap scheme days, we
will work all of these looks in as we run power 3 to 4 times in a row, giving our offensive linemen a slightly
different post snap look every time. Power should always be a positive gain, and we do our best to make sure
our players are schooled up on their rules as often as we can.

Power changes slightly when you add another player to the box. Whether we are running 20 or 11
personnel power, our assignment stays the same for our tight end or our H-Back. When we have both of them
in the game, we have to change our H-Back s assignment. Offenses who major in running 21 personnel
power have a variation of ways they will block the play side C and D gap defenders throughout the course of

the game. Because 21 personnel power is not one of our most frequently utilized play calls, we do our best to

try and keep things simple for our players. We now tell our tight end, that he is responsible for the play side C

gap. If there is no defender in his C gap, he continues on his path up to the first linebacker that crosses his

face. Many times this will be a true 0 middle linebacker in a 3 linebacker box. This helps to keep our rules

the same for everyone else on the line of scrimmage. Our H-Back has now bumped 1 gap out since we have

added a gap with our tight end, and he is now responsible for the D gap. This could mean a defensive end in a

9 technique, or a Sam linebacker off the football. Our players have found it much easier to learn their
assignments based on gaps rather than individual defenders, and we have found that has helped our players
come off the ball faster and create more movement. We have attached a film of the three ways power can hit

for everyone to see. (DIAGRAM POWER) (FILM – 5 CLIPS)

 The forth run scheme we utilize from the Malzahn system is counter. Counter is a great scheme that
marries up well with power. We always install power and counter on the same day as a part of our gap

scheme combination. The philosophy behind these two schemes are almost identical. The only true

difference for us is changing where our kick-out and our pull lead comes from. We consider counter as a part

of our downhill gap schemes for our offensive line and tailback. We are not trying to create misdirection as

much as we are trying to create new matchups with our players based off of our pre-snap alignment.

As far as our play side assignments are concerned, they are identical to power for the front side tackle

and guard. Just as we discussed with our power scheme, our play side tackle is responsible for the play side B

gap. Our play side guard is still responsible for the play side A gap. Their rules concerning double teams and

combinations to the back side inside linebacker also stay the same. Our center is still responsible for the

backside A gap, and will continue working his path to the B gap if there is no A gap threat. The backside

guard is still our puller, but now he will be pulling into the line of scrimmage with the intention of kicking out
the play side defensive end, or C gap defender. Because our backside guard is pulling, we are once again
vulnerable to pressure in our backside B gap. This means that our backside tackle will be responsible for any
B gap pressure before he works back to his backside C gap. The only assignment that has changed for our
offensive linemen from the power scheme we discussed earlier in the chapter is the pull of our backside guard.

Our pre-snap alignment of our H-Back has now changed on counter as opposed to power. We will
now start our H-Back on the backside of our play call. Since our backside pulling guard is now taking over
our H-Back s blocking responsibility on power, kicking out the play side C gap defender, our H-Back now
must switch to take over our backside guard s power responsibility. Much like our pulling guard on power,

our H-Back has to read the block on the C gap defender to pick his hole to lead up on the front side inside

linebacker. He has to work all of the same scenarios on his pull lead that the guard has to on power in order to

be ready to make adjustments come game time. The issue that most offenses have with counter is that their H-

Backs are much faster players than the guards they have pulling in front of them. It is rare that your H-Back

will beat your pulling guard to the spot based off of his alignment, but often times he ends up being too close

to read the block of your guard which is essential for the success of the play. You can help your H-Back by

either cheating his alignment out, or allowing your H-Back to take a jab step opposite of the play call to help
him time up with the pulling guards block.
For our running backs, our counter footwork does not change from the footwork we use on power. This is
different from most offenses that use a jab, or multiple steps to the backside of the play call before turning
back and crossing the mid-line to follow their H-Back. We want counter to be a downhill play. We still teach

our running backs to read the A gap first. If that is closed or cloudy, now they will continue to their secondary

read which is now the block of the H-Back, rather than the pulling guard. Keeping the same footwork and

reads for our running backs has been great for saving time in our daily practice routine. If you run power, you

just got a rep of counter as well. Any time you can stretch your reps this way, you have the opportunity to

maximize your on the field practice time.

Once again, when we run counter, we are aware that we have the opportunity to be weak in our

backside B gap based on the defensive look. We will still employ our receivers as a part of the blocking

scheme by giving them D gap M.D.M. responsibilities. We allow our wide receivers to take an alignment to

help their assignment when it comes to our downhill run game. If the D gap defender is playing tight to the

tackle box, our wide receiver is allowed to cut his split in order to make a successful block. We have plenty of
passing game concepts that allow us to tighten our receivers to the tackle box in order to break tendencies in
our running game. With that said, at the end of the day we would much rather a team know that we are
running the football rather than putting our players in a poor position to make their blocks and protect our

running backs. (DIAGRAM COUNTER) (FILM – 4 CLIPS)

The final rushing scheme that we will discuss before we move on to our read concepts is one that has been extremely
successful for us over our past two seasons. That concept would be our buck sweep. This is the play that keeps us the
most heavily connected to our wing-t origins. We like to use the buck sweep to keep defensive ends honest and stop
squeezing down hard when our play side tackle blocks down to the B gap. Power and counter forces defensive ends to
squeeze the B gap, but the buck sweep allows us to get on the edge right now when the defensive end crashes the B gap
on the tackles first step.

We can run our buck sweep out of any personnel group with at least 1 H-Back or tight end in the game. We
generally run buck sweep out of 20 personnel or 11. Either way, our H-Back and tight end share the same assignment.
Our H-Back or tight end will be aligned to the play side when we are running buck sweep. His assignment is to engage
the defensive end and block him down to create a short edge for our running back. We always want to get movement,
but on this match up, if we can get a tie at the line of scrimmage we feel very good about our chances of gaining positive
yardage.

Buck sweep call also be called our crack sweep. The first receiver to the call side is responsible for cracking the
first linebacker in the box to his side. This is not a knock out block, although we will take it if we can get it. The wide
receiver is taught that he can not lose inside on this block, so he has to work his helmet to the side of the line of
scrimmage. This coaching point is important for two reasons. The first reason is that we want to eliminate any
penetration by the front side inside linebacker so he does not blow up one of our pulling guards. The second reason is
that we want to have our head on the defender s chest plate rather than his back to avoid a clipping call. In the worst
case scenario, if we gain our head position with the correct leverage, the defender will have to come off over the top to
make the tackle 5 yards down field.

Our offensive line now has a new blocking scheme that will involve 2 pulling guards. Our play side tackle will
now have the same assignment as our center as they are mirrored, both filling the gaps for pulling guards. Our play side
tackle has to block back on the play side B gap defender. If there is no immediate threat, he will continue his path down
to the play side A gap. Our play side guard will be pulling to kick the first defender in the alley. This will be the D gap
run defender. We teach him to run his pull path in the shape of a question mark in order to kick out the alley defender to
allow the backside pulling guard to lead through. Our center will work the same rules he has on power and counter. At
the end of the day this is the same scheme for our center and backside guard as our other 2 gap schemes. Our backside
puller will look to pull and log the backside inside backer in the box as he tries to scrape across the formation. If the
backside inside linebacker does not scrape over top and gets buried in the wash up front, this guard will continue up
field looking for the first defender in his path. Our backside tackle continues his gap-seal-hinge rules, protecting the
backside B-gap first before working back to the C gap.
 Although we are trying to get this play on the edge, it is still important for our running backs to show
patience to allow the buck sweep to set up ahead of them. It takes time for your backside puller to get around
the formation and log his defender. We never want to beat our blockers to the party on the edge. Running

backs have to be ready to press this play to the edge, stick their foot in the ground, and get downhill as soon as

they set up their kick out. The goal of our buck sweep is to create a 1 on 1 match up with our running back on

a non-run defender in as much space as we can. There are times where the backside inside linebacker gets lost

in the wash and we get every player blocked to the play side, but more often than not, we have to be able to

rely on our backs to make a defender miss in open space. (DIAGRAM BUCK SWEEP) (FILM – 6 CLIPS)