K-State Football: Backside Perfection

Sep 30, 2022 - 8:17 PM

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Hey y’all, sorry for the silence after such a huge win, but buddy, it’s been a quite a week for me. I’ve been working on a few things from the Oklahoma win, but I wanted to start out covering a play I’ve shown you pieces of already this season.

The Wildcats first touchdown of the evening was scored on one of my favorite plays of the game. Kansas State has run the middle and outside zone several times this year. I’m sure Oklahoma was aware of this fact as well. What we haven’t seen much of is the quarterback keeper off the backside of the play to counter the front side zone run by Deuce. Last Saturday, Klein broke it out inside the 10 yard line on the first drive, and I’m not sure I’ve seen a play run with this much precision all season.

I have to show it to y’all, because I love this play.

Middle/Outside Zone with the Read Option(?) - Pre-Snap

Key:

Offense

Purple Circle - Running Back - Deuce Vaughn

Blue Circle - Left Tackle - KT Leveston

Yellow Circle - Tight End - Ben Sinnott

Defense

Purple Square - Backside Defensive End

Blue Square -Backside Linebacker

Yellow Square - Backside Safety

Offense

K-State lines up in their standard 11 personnel (1RB, 1TE) on the 7 yard line. Deuce is offset left of the Martinez in the shotgun. This is a typical look to run the front side mid zone (B gap), or the outside zone (C gap).

Defense

Oklahoma counters with a typical Venables red zone look on defense. They’re in a nickel with 4 down linemen, 2 linebackers, and 2 corners and 3 safety/utility DBs. Oklahoma’s goal is to control the line of scrimmage with their down linemen, and take away space on the back end with their linebackers and safeties while their corners are in man coverage.

Backside Blocking Scheme

Key:

Offense

Purple Circle - Running Back - Deuce Vaughn

Blue Circle - Left Tackle - KT Leveston

Yellow Circle - Tight End - Ben Sinnott

Defense

Purple Square - Backside Defensive End

Blue Square -Backside Linebacker

Yellow Square - Backside Safety

This looks like a basic zone blocking scheme. The offensive linemen block the gap to their right. If they don’t have a player in that gap, they climb to the next level and look for a linebacker or safety. The one exception is left tackle K.T. Levenson (blue circle). He has a defender in his gap, but that defender is the read man in the read option. K.T. is going to skip him and climb to the backside linebacker.

The tight end (yellow circle) is an interesting addition to this play. Teams that have an immobile quarterback (like Purdue for instance) run inside, mid or outside zone, but instead of the quarterback reading the backside defensive end, they bring the tight end across to cut the backside defensive end so he can’t crush the running back in the event of a cutback.

Kansas State does something a little different. Martinez is a mobile quarterback. He’s comfortable reading the end man, but K-State still brings the tight end across the formation. Instead of the tight end blocking the backside defensive end, he skips him and hunts down the backside safety. He’s a lead blocker for Martinez if he chooses to pull the ball.

Zone Read? (Maybe)

Key:

Offense

Purple Circle - Running Back - Deuce Vaughn

Blue Circle - Left Tackle - KT Leveston

Yellow Circle - Tight End - Ben Sinnott

Defense

Purple Square - Backside Defensive End

Blue Square -Backside Linebacker

Yellow Square - Backside Safety

When Deuce Vaughn (purple circle) is in the backfield, all eyes are on him, and rightfully so. He’s the most explosive running back in college football. On this play, I think he’s running mid zone (could be outside....it doesn’t matter). He turns his shoulder on an angle and sets his path of the right guard’s outside hip. His job is to stay on his line until he gets to the B gap, and then decide if he wants to get vertical in the B gap or cut the run backside. The backside defensive end (purple square) is highly interested in what Mr. Vaughn is up to on this play.

Left tackle K.T. Levenson (blue circle) slides inside the back side defensive end (purple square) and looks to seal the backside linebacker (blue square) inside.

Tight end Ben Sinnott (yellow circle) looks like he’s responsible for blocking the backside defensive end (purple square) but looks can be deceiving. He’s actually responsible for the backside safety (yellow box).

Pull It!

Key:

Offense

Purple Circle - Running Back - Deuce Vaughn

Blue Square - Left Tackle - KT Leveston

Yellow Circle - Tight End - Ben Sinnott

Red Circle - Quarterback - Adrian Martinez

Defense

Purple Square - Backside Defensive End

Blue Square -Backside Linebacker

Yellow Square - Backside Safety

I’m calling this a read option, but I think it’s a designed QB run all the way because of K.T. (blue square) climbing and sealing the backside linebacker inside (blue square). If this were a normal zone run with a quarterback read option, he would try and cut off the backside linebacker and keep him from chasing down the front side run. On this play, he seals the backside. The linebacker is free to chase the non-existent front side run on this play.

Deuce (purple circle) is the most explosive decoy in the nation on this play. He’s responsible for the backside defensive end (purple square), and he won’t have to touch him. His reputation and ability pulls the defensive end inside.

I don’t want to clutter up this article anymore with a clip, but if you watch K-State and Adrian Martinez (red circle) run the front side zone run, he carries out the pull and backside run fake every time. That’s crucial on this play, because instead of carrying out a fake, he’s carrying the ball, but the defense is still fixated on Deuce.

The tight end (yellow circle) is now a lead blocker for Martinez. If Adrian beats the backside defensive end to the corner (which he should) the only player between him and the end zone is the backside safety (yellow box). Sinnott’s job (yellow circle) is to keep the backside safety from making the tackle.

Fooled

Key:

Offense

Yellow Circle - Tight End - Ben Sinnott

Red Circle - Quarterback - Adrian Martinez

Defense

Purple Square - Backside Defensive End

Yellow Square - Backside Safety

For this play to work, the back side defensive end (purple box) has to follow the front side run by Deuce instead of setting the edge. If he set the edge on the backside, Martinez (red box) runs directly into him. As you can see, the defensive end followed Deuce. There is no backside containment on this play because K.T. (now in the mass off bodies) has the backside linebacker sealed as well. The back side linebacker can’t get back to the backside of the play. Once Martinez (red circle) gets outside the backside end, Oklahoma only has 2 players that could potentially keep this from being a touchdown: the backside corner and the backside safety.

Tight End Ben Sinnott (yellow circle) pulled around the backside defensive end and has a great angle to seal off the backside safety (yellow box).

Perfection

Key

Offense

Yellow Square - Tight End - Ben Sinnott

Red Circle - Quarterback - Adrian Martinez

Defense

Purple Square - Backside Defensive End

Yellow Square - Backside Safety

The backside of this play is wide open. Oklahoma has 10 defenders inside of Martinez (red circle). You won’t see a play bust open like this on the goal line this often. The threat of Deuce running ball made the entire Oklahoma defense flow to the play side. Meanwhile, the Wildcats were busy sealing everyone inside. Ben Sinnott and the back side safety (yellow box) are locked up now. There is no way that safety can fight through Sinnott and stop Martinez from making the endzone.

The only player capable of making a play for the defense is about to pop into the screen, but K-State has him covered as well.

Attention to Detail

Key:

Offense

Yellow Circle - Tight End - Ben Sinnott

Red Circle - Quarterback - Adrian Martinez

Orange Square - Wide Receiver - Malik Knowles

Defense

Purple Square - Backside Defensive End

Yellow Square - Backside Safety

Orange Square - Backside Corner

Wide receiver blocking is an overlooked element in the run game. Wide receivers turn decent runs into big runs, and in this case, Malik Knowles (orange box) turns what could have ended up as a 5 yard run into a touchdown. This is the attention to detail that was missing against Tulane (not specifically Malik, more of a group loss of focus). I’m sure those details were pointed out in the film room this week, and Malik is going to get pointed out again, but only because he gives the proper effort and attention to detail. He has the back side corner locked up. When people talk about responding to coaching and getting better on a weekly basis, this is what they are talking about.

Touchdown

Key:

Offense

Red Circle - Quarterback - Adrian Martinez

Orange Square - Wide Receiver - Malik Knowles

Defense

Orange Square - Backside Corner

Martinez (red circle) is untouched from 7 yards out. Take a look at Malik (orange box). He’s making sure the corner can’t hit Adrian after he crosses the line. Once again, this is amazing attention to detail from K-State’s best wide receiver. You don’t see an ounce of diva on this run. He’s more than willing to lay it on the line for EMAW.

You love to see it.

Overall

K-State’s first two drives were a masterclass in precision. You’ve got to tip your hat to the coaching staff, because the offense looked unstoppable a week after it looked apathetic at best.

I know y’all want to see the passing game, and I promise I’m getting to it, but man, this run play deserves recognition. I’m not sure I’ve seen a better executed play this season.