Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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CHALK TALK BRYAN DRISKELL Offensive line coach Harry Hies- tand has been largely responsible for installing the zone scheme, and the way it is taught determines how physical it is. Notre Dame's line- men use short power steps when blocking on the zone, and in most instances at least one double team will happen to the side of the play. The Irish linemen are looking to get vertical movement against the defense, which is exactly what a team like LSU wants to do when it lines up in the I-formation with its quarterback under center and a full- back in the game. In lieu of a fullback, Notre Dame lines up with three receivers to the outside, which forces the defense to remove one defender from the box. The Irish also have creative ways to control the backside edge, using a tight end or its read-zone concepts. In the read zone, if the back-side edge defender wants to crash hard inside to take away the run, the quarterback simply pulls the ball and races that defender to the out- side. 2. The shotgun prevents the run- ning back from getting downhill with enough authority. Being in the shotgun did not prevent Notre Dame's two-headed monster at run- ning back — senior C.J. Prosise and freshman Josh Adams — from get- ting downhill with authority. The pair combined for 1,867 yards and 17 touchdowns last fall. Each running back had a touch- down of at least 91 yards, and both runs were between the tackles. Pro- sise scored from 91 yards out on a counter play, and Adams went for 98 yards on an inside-zone run. One misconception is that the downhill angle backs get from the I- formation gives them an advantage, and that spread backs cannot get downhill as quickly because of the shotgun alignment. In reality, backs from the shotgun start two yards closer to the line, and the delay steps allow the blocking to develop and ensure good timing. When a running back gets the ball out of the shotgun he is at almost the same spot an I-formation back receives it, and he can then acceler- ate downhill. 3. Getting an extra blocker — a fullback — at the point of attack is key to short-yardage success. Hav- ing an extra blocker at the point of attack is helpful against teams that go with seven or eight defenders in the box. Of course, the presence of the fullback is largely why defenses put that many defenders in the box. Notre Dame counters this by spreading the field, and teams are forced to get that extra defender out of the box. Defenses that continue to load the box with an extra defender in order to slow down the run game are then susceptible to Notre Dame's downfield passing attack. ✦ Bryan Driskell has been a football analyst for Blue & Gold Illustrated since April 2015. He can be reached at bdriskell@blueandgold.com.