Series Intro: A Beginner's Guide to Inside Zone Blocking

There is probably no single blocking scheme or play in football today that is more ubiquitous than the Inside Zone.  It's ran as a base run at every level, from the NFL on down to the youth leagues, and I'd wager that the majority of schools in high school and above have it in the playbook as a key part of their attack.  Some may call it "Tight Zone," some may call it "Middle Zone," and others may simply call it "Zone," but Zone is Zone.

The play isn't anything new.  Zone blocking has a long, complex, and often murky history that goes back to at least Vince Lombardi in the 1960s with his "Do-dad" or "Area" blocking, which was even a part of the famous Lombardi Sweep and described in detail by him in his 1973 book "Lombardi On Football."  It was a key element of Joe Gibbs' one back offense of the early 1980s and has been featured prominently in offenses as diverse as Chip Kelley's hurry up, no huddle spread; Nick Saban's dominant Alabama pro-style teams; and New Mexico's triple option oriented attack.  Tubby Raymond even experimented with incorporating it into their "Belly" play in his latter years at Delaware.

Yet, for many coaches, particularly beginning coaches who didn't grow up playing offensive line in zone offenses, there's still a mystique about zone.  While the play looks extremely simple (each lineman gets a hat on a hat and you run the ball up the middle), it has all sorts of subtle technical and schematic challenges that make the play far more complex than it appears at first glance.  A well run zone is the type of base run you can hang your hat on.  A poorly coached zone will leave you looking like this guy on the sideline.

Compounding the issue is that there are actually several different methods for how to teach zone blocking.  The top three most popular "families" of zone are:

1.  The "Count System" (used by Joe Gibbs in his heyday with the Redskins)

2.  The "Covered and Uncovered System" (used famously by Tom Osborne at Nebraska)

3.  The "Track Zone" system (my personal favorite and taught by Chris Ault at Nevada)

This article will be the first in a series of articles that explore the basics of each of these popular styles of inside zone, as well as the techniques involved for the offensive line and backfield, the basic thought process in calling the zone,  and then finally we will explore how this one blocking scheme can become an entire offense unto itself via the addition of different backfield actions and read.

I hope you enjoy the series and pick up something to help you and your team be successful next season!