The Cat and Mouse Game of Blocking Schemes: Line Splits

[Reginald Rutledge]

I got the chance to scrimmage my good friend Barry Stephenson this weekend. Barry and I run two different types of offensive schemes. Most of my schemes are predicated on wide splits on the O-Line, allowing holes to happen where the defense has no clue.

Barry system is borne out of the traditional power close line play schemes of shoulder-to-shoulder. I am one of those guys who thinks, "Hey, if it can be done, let's do it".

I looked in the NFL rule book and college rulebooks for this thing on line splits and no where does it say that guys have to be any particular distance from each other, base-to-base or foot-to-foot. I like that to be the case in leagues that I am associated with. I feel everyone should create their teams in their own image. If you want power ball, you should be able to do rugby style. But if you like wide splits, no limits should be placed. Some teams run the "open gate" schemes which some view as crazy. But as long as 7 are on the line, nothing should be said.

While playing my good friend, I had the opportunity to see his thinking and the tendencies. And again, he could see my wide splits. In day one, he never used the wide split lines. Day one, I used them exclusively because of the easy hole access. Day 2, he did utilize it for one series but did not feel the success. I used it about 90% of the time as I find it is the easiest method to score.

At the end of the day, both of us went back to what will utltimately make us feel successful in the upcoming year. Shown below is a typical offensive formation of what I do. 31 other coaches in the DFW use straight-ahead proline running which I think limits what you can do under the Shootout ruleset simply because of stacking that is allowed.

However, Barry had success against this team of Jets as I did against his Super Bowl runnerup team. More for me, it took my mind off some heavy things weighing on my mind and gave me a chance to be back on the board for one last time. What a feeling. What a rush!