The bad news: zone blocking is back
The good news: Foley is teaching it
At this level they should be able to do this, it does take time to perfect, but it shouldn't be a problem for this level.Are they runny a full ZBS system or installing ZBS concepts? It's tough in college to run this really well because it is a difficult scheme to learn and needs even more O-Line cohesion than normal. That being said, if it is run well, it can do wonders for an offense. It tires and frustrates D-Lineman to no end and if you have a QB that can sell a PA stretch play, will lead to some of the most open receivers you've ever seen. But you have to find athletic enough linemen who are disciplined enough to learn it and a one-cut runner, whose tendency isn't to dance in the backfield looking for extra yards, both of which are difficult propositions in college football.
At this level they should be able to do this, it does take time to perfect, but it shouldn't be a problem for this level.
I agree you need the right kind of athlete, time shouldn't be a stumbling block.It's not even as much a question of aptitude, but of time. Even in the NFL it can be a rough go in the beginning and they don't generally have the turnover that a college program has. And you need to have the athletes for it. Plenty of guys who are recruited for a power scheme just won't fit in a full ZBS system.
The in/out zone all require the linemen to get to the second level, we may have been using a very different version.Kelly used a zone blocking scheme at Cincinnati and brought it to Notre Dame. They didn't accept it well at Notre Dame, at first, but it started working. THey had personnel mismatches with what they wanted to do at first with the blocking. I don't know what the guy at Central Michigan did, but it's not a reach for me to think that he taught zone blocking, getting a tackle drafted into the NFL with the #1 pick. Not much of a surprise here.
THe basics of inside-out zone, or outside-in, or however it's taught aren't that hard. You need guys to simply know what they need to do, and then go do it. Football really isn't that hard of a sport. Deleone was a sh---t teacher and coach. But in theory, we've been recruiting for at least 2 years to match players with a zone system, so hopefully the learning curve with the new coaching staff on offense is pretty steep.
Really, when you look at the projected OL, this is the first season where' we're going to have a bunch of players up front on the two deep, that were theoretically recruited to play zone based offense on the line, rather than the veteran players we had up front for the past 2 seasons that were recruited a while back. Seems like a match of personnel to system - in theory.
THe key word in all of that - theory.
I agree you need the right kind of athlete, time shouldn't be a stumbling block.
The teacher is probabley the key here.
The teacher is absolutely the number one key. My opinion comes from watching the Texans year in and year out. When the ZBS first was installed it was a struggle, but with the same unit it for a couple of years it became dominant. Once things started changing again, it all hit the fan. I don't think you can overestimate how important the cohesion of a ZBS line is. It's a big factor with any line, but when you're much less focused on one-on-one blocks, that importance is hugely magnified. If they're going to run this, they had better be confident that they have the right players in place.