College Football Film Room: Breaking down 3 unique plays

3. Alabama Crimson Tide- Inside Zone Read with Arc

The Alabama Crimson Tide have adapted their offense over the past two seasons to fit the skill set of Jalen Hurts, and eventually freshman Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa. Nick Saban had struggled at times against the “NCAA Offense” and dual-threat passers like Deshaun Watson, and Johnny Manziel. If you can’t beat ’em (all the time), join ’em. Lane Kiffin brought in Hurts and Nick Saban let him adapt the offensive system to fit his skills.

Hurts has proven he’s a dynamic runner, and a winner. Hurts limits his turnovers and has shown improved accuracy with the football while also being a threat to run as a scrambler or on designed plays.

In the GIF and video, Hurts isn’t just running the football but he has a lead blocker. The Tide have incorporated the inside zone read with an H-Back arc block. The arcing H-Back will not block the defensive end, instead, skipping him as he’s still a read for the quarterback. He instead works upfield and blocks the “alley player” which is the safety or first linebacker to show to his side. This gives Hurts a lead blocker when he does pull.

Why have teams incorporated the arc blocker? To combat “scrape exchange” which is where the defensive end attacks the handoff at full speed, knowing the inside linebacker is going to play the c-gap or outside gap to the right of the tackle in our example.

Next: 3 Takeaways from Bama's Win Over CSU

When defenses started doing scrape exchanges after the snap it made the zone read play harder on the quarterback. Thus, offensive coordinators added the lead blocker to help their quarterbacks when defenses give these false reads.

Football is a beautiful game when you really look at it. I hope you’ve enjoyed this version of “Film Don’t Lie”