Paging Bo & Beck

Nexus · March 2, 2011

This is snippets from a speech that Chip Kelly gave for his 2009 Nike C.O.Y. Award. Click on link at the end to read the whole speech in its entirety.

This offense (the zone read option game) fits for us. This past season we finished second in the nation in rushing the football. We averaged 6.2 yards per carry. We have four main running plays. We run the inside zone, outside zone, counter, and draw.

If you give your players something to hang their hats on, they will perform. If they can run the offense with any scenario they may face you will be successful in running the ball. If they have all the answers to the problems the defense may give them, they will be good.

The best way to beat the team you are going to play is to have your team play them with conviction. If your players have not run that play in a critical situation over a thousand times in practice you will not have a chance to be successful. With our inside zone play, we get so much practice time and so many reps that we can handle all the other scenarios that come about. Instead of trying to “out scheme” your opponent, put your players in an environment where they can be successful because they understand exactly what they have to do.

. . . .

The inside zone play is our “go to work” play. We want to get off the ball and be a physical downhill running football team. This is not a finesse play. This is physical football. The offensive lineman play with confidence because they know they have help from their teammates in their blocking scheme. This is the offense we run and everyone knows that. We have great players but we also execute it well. We ran this play 202 times this past season. We averaged about seven to eight yards per carry with this play.

Continue Reading