Guest Blog Explains Zone Option in Flexbone Offense

10/2/2020 Guest Blog: Zone Option by Jeremy Reed — FLEXBONE NATION
March 12, 2018 · Jeremy Reed
Guest Blog: Zone

Option by Jeremy
Reed
BIO AND BACKGROUND ON OUR GUEST

BLOGGER, JEREMY REED:
Coach Reed is a 2004 graduate of
Southeastern Oklahoma State University.
Jeremy graduated with bachelors in
Health/Physical Education, in 2009 he
obtained his master’s degree in Sports
Administration from East Central University.
In 2014 Coach Reed was the FCA All State
Coach for South Central Oklahoma. In 2015
Coach Reed guided Altus to the 5A State
Championship, f irst in 44 years for Altus.
During that year coach was awarded Coach of
the Year by Daily Oklahoman, USA Today
Oklahoma Coach of the Year, District Coach
of the Year, and Oklahoma Coaches
Association All State Head Coach. Coach
Reed was a guest of FCA at the American
Football Coaches Association National Clinic

www.flexbonenation.com/blog/2018/3/4/guest-blog-zone-option-by-jeremy-reed 1/14
Football Coaches Association National Clinic
to speak about 3 Dimensional Coaching in
2017. Prior to running Flexbone his head
coaching record was 13-17, since going to the
Flexbone his head coach record is 37-19.
ZONE OPTION
I appreciate the opportunity to share some of
my thoughts regarding one of the hottest plays
in the Flexbone offense, Zone Option. I have
actively studied zone option since 2015. I was
very intrigued how this play was changing the
Flexbone offense and in return changing how
defenses defended. For my research I
gathered countless number of games to view,
attended several practices, and spoke
numerous hours to college coaches I respected
to gain different perspectives. I accumulated
a lot of information as you can expect. After
reviewing all of the information and data I
collected I formulated what I felt was a simple
plan of overall scheme, install, and how to
practice. Although some of the thoughts I'll
share here today were original I must give the
most credit to offensive staff members at the

most credit to offensive staff members at the
Naval Academy (Ivin Jasper, Mick Yokitis,
Mike Judge, and Danny O’Rourke) and Head
Coach Troy Calhoun at the Air Force
Academy. These men have been very gracious
to me for several years and I have the utmost
respect for each of them. This past season we
ran Zone Option ninety nine times, it graded
out at 63% (+4 yards). By running this play we
are now giving #1 in the option count a lot to
think about throughout a game: Base, Trap,
Reach, Veer, and getting ear holed. In my
opinion this has greatly helped our other
schemes.
We initially started out with four different tags
to handle different fronts (4-3/6-1, 4-2/6-2,
Odd) we would see. As time went on we have
reduced to one tag and allowed our wide
receiver, tackle, and playside A to site adjust
when needed. Although all our tags were very
good we feel that simplifying to one tag with
site adjustments will allow us to be better at
the overall concept of the play and will take
less practice time throughout a season. Our
staff is constantly looking for ways to
eliminate things and simplify all our schemes,
our philosophy is less is more!
ZONE OPTION
RULES
PST: Protect B Gap, Power Veer
PSG : Base/Ace
C : Scoop
BSG : Scoop
BST: Scoop
PSA: Playside LB
BSA: D Motion, Stay Flat, Turn Up when QB
Turns Up
WR: Block Down (“Compress”)
QB: Drop step, Eyes #1 to Pitch Key
IMPORTANT NOTES
PER
POSITION/TECHNIQ
UE
PST: When protecting B gap we found the more he
tries to mess with #1 on his way out the harder it
can be for our receiver to compress the edge, when
tackle makes heavy contact with #1 it tends to
make the tackle and receiver work against each
other in the blocking of #1. Ideally we want the
tackle to just slightly shave off #1 while he runs his
track. Typically playside linebacker is scraping so
he will pick up a scraping backside linebacker, if not
keep running. If we receive a lightning stunt or B
pop the tackle picks that up. Also depending on
our personnel we will double a 3 technique on the
playside if we feel the guard will have a tough time
reaching him. This gets tremendous push at the
point of contact and allows a clean edge. Again this
is something I feel is based of your personnel. It f it
us this year, hopefully in future we have guards that
can fully reach a three consistently.
PSG : For us he gets to treat this play just like zone
dive or triple with his rule. We really like that so
we have no new teaching involved. Like mentioned
above based off personnel this year we chose to
double a playside 3 technique. This is done
through communication at line of scrimmage with
guard and tackle
Center: Very important to gain half of A gap as he
scoops. This allows help for any cross face 3
techniques.
PSA: Responsible for playside linebacker, he will
take a vertical step with his outside foot and stay
tight to the receiver down block. Very common
mistake the PSA will make is getting to wide on his
path and allowing a linebacker to run underneath
him. He must also be able to identify where #2 is
so he can have a good idea where the down block of
receiver is going to happen. When #2 is inside that
will force his path to be slightly wider than if #2 is
outside the receiver. Only special situation for PSA
is if #1 is a 4i and #2 is lined up outside. At that
time the receiver will give him a word that tells him
to now take path toward safety, again not blocking
a man but running a track and block who shows.
BSA: Very important to use D motion and get the
pitch man out front of the QB. Also don't allow
him to turn up f ield unless he sees the QB turn up.
Be ready for the pitch at all times!
WR: His number one job is to “compress” the
edge. We want movement toward the inside.
When blocking a 4 or 5 technique he will step
laterally and place helmet on ribs. Can't allow #1
to roll off or gain penetration. Must be able to
identify #1 and #2 in option count. If #2 is outside
see where #1 is, this will tell him to block down on
end or go to playside linebacker. Must be physical!
QB: Drop step with backside foot, gather, and go.
As he takes drop step get eyes on #1, we want him
to see what is happening on the edge in case the
block of #1 doesn't go as planned, that will give
him a chance to adjust and get what he can in a bad
situation. Once he sees the edge is blocked he then
gets eyes to pitch key, in most cases is the corner.
He will quickly see if he is a QB player (corner f ire)
or pitch player. That will tell him how the ball will
be distributed. If it has turned into a QB run see
the block of the B back.
B: The elimination of tags has made the job of the
B much easier by not having to worry about being
a B gap protector. As ball is snapped we don't want
to take any false steps, f irst step should be at outside
leg of tackle (last season was outside hip of slot, we
are going to adjust this in 2018) and must run full
speed, never stop your feet. His eyes go directly to
D gap to identify where #2 is. The term we use for
our B is the “eraser”. He is going to erase any
opposite jersey on his path. Most of the time this
turns into a kickout block, we work on him getting
on upf ield hip as he performs the block. If #2 is
running to ptich the B will turn up and get eyes
inside for any leakage, if none he will continue
running path to usually block safety. Again we
don't teach to block a man, we run our track and
block who shows.
If you study all the teams that run Zone
Option you will f ind that we are in the
minority how we Base/Ace with our play side
guard and protect B gap with our tackle.
Many teams will full zone the entire offensive
line. Although I see nothing wrong with this it
just doesn't f it our personnel If your lineman

just doesn t f it our personnel. If your lineman
have great feet then I think that is a great way
to go. One of the most crucial aspects is
always having a B gap protector. For us we
guarantee that with our tackle, if you choose
to zone that obligation will fall on a playside
guard or your B back depending on the front
you are being given.
Our site adjustments are all based off of #1
and #2 in the option count. Anytime our
receiver has a clear path to the defensive end
who is in a 4 or 5 technique we will stay with
our basic rules that are listed above. If the
defense chooses to play a 4i the receiver will
then need to identify where #2 is. If #2 is
inside of him that will result in him blocking
#2 down, if #2 was outside that would give him
a clear path to the playside linebacker and our
slot would adjust to running his track to most
likely the safety (we don't teach block a man,
we run a track and block who shows).
If the defense chooses to play a 4 technique
and put #2 inside our receiver we will
communicate our tag word that tells the tackle
to zone (get nose in outer arm pit of #1) and
receiver will down (“compress”) #2, playside A
will stay with his rule to playside linebacker.
If the defense chooses to play a 4 technique
and put #2 outside we will stay with our basic

and put #2 outside we will stay with our basic
rules listed above.
R EMEMBER THAT IN SOME SCENAR IOS
THE ALIGNMENT OF THE DEFENSE WILL
ALLOW YOU TO CALL A BETTER PL AY
THAN ZONE OPTION!! I say that because
although we have adjustments to all situations
it doesn't mean that zone option is the BEST
call for that scenario. Our job as coaches is to
identify the defense/alignment and get our
teams into the best play possible.
HOW WE PRACTICE
I believe you can choose to practice this
scheme one or two ways to get the proper
amount of looks at different scenarios. You
can choose to put zone option as your fourth
play of half line each day or you can have a 10-
15 minute Zone Option Pod each week. I
believe this varies on the amount of practice
time you have. For us we had time to utilize a
Pod situation. Early in the install we did Zone
Option pod two out of three days, we made it a
priority to be good at this scheme. Once we
got comfortable with all our tags and schemes
we reduced to having a 15 minute Zone Option
Pod one time per week.
POD SCRIPT
4-3 (3-2i), #2 inside
6-1 (2i-3), #2 outside
4-2 (Sh-5), #2 outside
50 (0-4), #2 inside
50 (0-4i), #2 outside
Unbalanced Formations
The purpose of the Pod situation is to give
your playside lineman, PSA, WR, B, and QB
all the possible scenarios they will see on a
game night. We also play the secondary
multiple ways according to what we are seeing
vs our f lex formation. We call the play with
tag attached, if a site adjustment is needed

g , j
that is done during this period. Early in the
install we were able to do 3-4 fronts per Pod
period, as the season progressed we were able
to get 5-6 different looks during this time.
Also as we got past the install period our
coaches did a lot of stem before the snap to
make our kids think and apply rules. I believe
the scripts listed above are a very solid start to
get things implemented. I do believe as you go
along you as a staff must identify how your
f lex formation is being defended and adjust
your script accordingly if needed.
Zone Option Pod Drill
CONCLUSION
This play has really helped our entire offense.
We are excited for 2018 because we believe it
will be even better due to us simplifying our
tags. This is a great scheme but remember it's
not the scheme that beats people, its the
t h i d d t il ! F l f t
technique and details you use! Feel free to
reach out via twitter @ReedFB or email
jeremy.reed@yukonps.com if I can be of any
assistance.
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Coach H 2 years ago · 0
Likes
Awesome! Great article, great points and
visuals! THANKS A TON!
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10/2/2020 Guest Blog: Zone Option by Jeremy Reed — FLEXBONE NATION

March 12, 2018 · Jeremy Reed

Guest Blog: Zone

BIO AND BACKGROUND ON OUR GUEST

Coach Reed is a 2004 graduate of

Southeastern Oklahoma State University.

Jeremy graduated with bachelors in

Health/Physical Education, in 2009 he

obtained his master’s degree in Sports

Administration from East Central University.

In 2014 Coach Reed was the FCA All State

Coach for South Central Oklahoma. In 2015

Coach Reed guided Altus to the 5A State

Championship, f irst in 44 years for Altus.

During that year coach was awarded Coach of

the Year by Daily Oklahoman, USA Today

Oklahoma Coach of the Year, District Coach

of the Year, and Oklahoma Coaches

Association All State Head Coach. Coach

Reed was a guest of FCA at the American

Football Coaches Association National Clinic

to speak about 3 Dimensional Coaching in

2017. Prior to running Flexbone his head

coaching record was 13-17, since going to the

Flexbone his head coach record is 37-19.

I appreciate the opportunity to share some of

my thoughts regarding one of the hottest plays

in the Flexbone offense, Zone Option. I have

actively studied zone option since 2015. I was

very intrigued how this play was changing the

Flexbone offense and in return changing how

defenses defended. For my research I

gathered countless number of games to view,

attended several practices, and spoke

numerous hours to college coaches I respected

to gain different perspectives. I accumulated

a lot of information as you can expect. After

reviewing all of the information and data I

collected I formulated what I felt was a simple

plan of overall scheme, install, and how to

practice. Although some of the thoughts I'll

share here today were original I must give the

most credit to offensive staff members at the

Naval Academy (Ivin Jasper, Mick Yokitis,

Mike Judge, and Danny O’Rourke) and Head

Coach Troy Calhoun at the Air Force

Academy. These men have been very gracious

to me for several years and I have the utmost

respect for each of them. This past season we

ran Zone Option ninety nine times, it graded

out at 63% (+4 yards). By running this play we

are now giving #1 in the option count a lot to

think about throughout a game: Base, Trap,

Reach, Veer, and getting ear holed. In my

opinion this has greatly helped our other

We initially started out with four different tags

to handle different fronts (4-3/6-1, 4-2/6-2,

Odd) we would see. As time went on we have

reduced to one tag and allowed our wide

receiver, tackle, and playside A to site adjust

when needed. Although all our tags were very

good we feel that simplifying to one tag with

site adjustments will allow us to be better at