re: Denbrock running game: Inside Zone, Split Zone, and wrinkles

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I do have one question/concern though: wasn’t the awakening of last year’s rushing attack largely a result of switching from a zone to gap scheme?

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I haven't dug too much into the games from last season, but the "awakening" was essentially one game, when Florida seemed totally unprepared for any gap at all. We ran GT or GH counter like 40 times and each time it looked like they were lost. But yes, I think TDP was much better suited for gap. We just ran very little of it early in the season. That could have been due to poor coaching or just an inexperienced O-line.

Either way, Denbrock does have plenty of gap in his arsenal. Should have a post coming tomorrow night on his gap game.

The reason why LSU’s run game was so shite was the because Ed’s obsession with the “Joe Brady offense” and pretty much the only run play LSU had was inside zone because that’s all they needed to run and Clyde could jump cut from one gap to two gaps over. It also helped to have the best quarterback in CFB history and two of the NFL’s best ever rookie receivers the defense had to account for.

The one game they finally started varying it up and pulling offensive linemen was florida.

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I do have one question/concern though: wasn’t the awakening of last year’s rushing attack largely a result of switching from a zone to gap scheme? I know it’ll be different backs, but I just wonder if our OL is for whatever reason more adept at iso/power/counter than zone concepts.

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I think TDP just wasn’t a cutback runner. Or maybe it’s more fair to say that wasn’t his strength. But yes, we did move away from zone to more gap schemes. We also started using Mashburn a fair amount as a lead blocker.

Also keep in mind that we don’t just have different backs now - we have an entirely different OL.

I’m not a huge fan of zone in general, but I feel a lot better about it having a staff with a proven history of coaching it at the college level.