Zone Blocking explanation by Bob Davie

[TideTiger2005]

For those of you wanting to learn a little more about Zone Blocking, here is an excellent basic explanation by former Notre Dame head coach Bob Davie from his Football 101 series.

Football 101: Zone blocking

I like this explanation because it is simple, straight forward, and gives a good overview of what zone blocking means, it's advantages over man blocking, and why it became necessary for major college and NFL offensive schemes (zone blitzing, anyone?).

He also follows up that article with a Q&A at the end of his next Football 101 session on spread offenses:

Football 101: Running out of the spread


In that Q&A session, he addresses one of the questions asked in another O-Line thread.

If you're a defensive coordinator or DL coach, how do you prepare for a zone-blocking OL? thanks for your time.
Jason
Tulsa, Okla.

Bob Davie: Zone blocking is very difficult to prepare for because it is somewhat of a gray area. The key for the defense is to gain penetration at the line of scrimmage and really create a new line of scrimmage on the offensive side of the football. As I mentioned in the article, one of the beauties of zone blocking is that many times you have a double-team on the down defensive lineman that would be in charge of penetration.

Davie revived this discussion during his spring tour of college campuses to discuss what each school does best. When he visited Minnesota, he discussed Zone Blocking (Football 101: Minnesota zones in - requires Insider subscription).

In the article, Bob Davie says "Every team in the country has some kind of zone blocking scheme..."