OT: Zone Read Explained By NU RB

Submitted by Vote_Crisler_1937 on December 5th, 2013 at 4:04 PM

My fellow Alumnus Tyrell Sutton explains/diagrams how to execute the Zone Read. I know many veterans here can diagram this in their sleep and probably even explain it better but it's interesting to get a write up from a guy who actually ran it in the BIG and lead the nation in touchdowns at one point. This will be a regular feature from him so here's hoping we learn much more going forward about what its like to be a running back. http://www.huddlepass.com/feature/120643 Excerpt: If the quarterback gives the handoff, the running back has three options: bend it behind the double team, bang it between the middle or bounce it to the outside front-side (side with 3 receivers in this case). These reads by the running back must be made sooner than your typical I formation because we are closer to the line of scrimmage, thus making reaction time essential to a running back in the zone read scheme. apologies for the formatting, I don't make threads and not sure how to fix.

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SteelCityMafia

December 5th, 2013 at 4:08 PM ^

Thank you for posting this. Always interesting to hear it straight from the athletes themselves.

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TrppWlbrnID

December 5th, 2013 at 4:17 PM ^

i have to say that your avatar thing made me laugh out load. i think that is how RR always felt on the inside. me too.

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Michigan4Life

December 5th, 2013 at 4:35 PM ^

but not with the RB's perspective and what do they do if they get the ball. Really good read. I wish more former athletes can write articles like this with their own respective positions, explaining their jobs and why they chose what they choose. More people would read it IMO instead of the stupid fluff piece that we see every day (ESPN is the biggest offender and they think that we're 10 yr old viewers who don't know shit about football).

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MICHoutWEST

December 5th, 2013 at 4:51 PM ^

I clicked around on that site a bit (huddlepass.com) and found out the whole thing is done by former BIG 10 players.

Unfortunatley there were not any articles by our players, but these guys are listed as experts available to directly answer our questions for the Michigan page:

Tim Massaquoi

Brandon Williams

Tyrece Butler

Donovan Warren

Todd Howard

Larry Stevens Jr

here is Tim commenting on a fan http://www.huddlepass.com/huddle/mich/football/question/60381

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LSAClassOf2000

December 5th, 2013 at 4:45 PM ^

Very interesting read, and yeah, I think we sometimes overlook the RB's perspective when we talk about these plays sometimes, so it was also refreshing in that sense.

I liked the first question in the comments on this blog because it is the question I had - as a smaller back, which version of the play would Sutton prefer? Which would Hyde - a bigger guy - prefer? I would be very interested in the answer.

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MICHoutWEST

December 6th, 2013 at 12:45 PM ^

"I prefer the read where I do not get hit like Vincent Smith in the Outback Bowl by Clowney! ..."

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Vote_Crisler_1937

December 5th, 2013 at 5:36 PM ^

Here is a link to another NU alumnus discussing defending the zone read.

http://www.huddlepass.com/feature/110647

What I like about reading huddlepass is that many of the guys are pretty sound writers. There used to be an example of a T. Pryor essay on this board that looked like a young child wrote it. Sometimes I think people expect that all of the talented skill players didn't come to play school. I used to see arguments about Notre Dame not being able to recruit good athletes due to academic standards. While some athletes really can't succeed in the classroom, clearly T. Sutton is an educated and articulate guy. I'm sure Michigan is similar to NU and most other D1 schools in that they have a few on the team who are really in over their head academically but many more who really have what it takes scholastically albeit being stretched very thin due to their athletic commitment.

/steps off soap box
/probably didn't tell you anything you don't alread know

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Michigan4Life

December 5th, 2013 at 8:00 PM ^

to sound or be read like they're an intelligent people. After all, they graduated from Northwestern which has the highest academic standards in the B1G conference. Ditto with Stanford, Ivy League schools, etc.

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Vote_Crisler_1937

December 5th, 2013 at 10:25 PM ^

but like I was trying to say in my post, read the rest of the Huddle website. Its filled with decent writers from many different schools who don't match the NU/Duke/Stanford model. Sutton was just my example since I linked to his article and he was a very good player who could have started at a lot of those other schools.

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