{"id":2976,"date":"2025-10-02T05:49:03","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T05:49:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2025\/10\/02\/outside-zone-helping-michigan-football-pound-the-rock\/"},"modified":"2025-10-02T05:49:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T05:49:07","slug":"outside-zone-helping-michigan-football-pound-the-rock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2025\/10\/02\/outside-zone-helping-michigan-football-pound-the-rock\/","title":{"rendered":"Outside zone helping Michigan football pound the rock"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>When the No. 20 Michigan football team <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/football\/report-chip-lindsey-to-be-named-michigans-offensive-coordinator\/\">hired<\/a> Chip Lindsey as the new offensive coordinator late last year, there was little doubt of his acumen.<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey\u2019s recent stint at North Carolina, in which the Tar Heels excelled in the air and on the ground, gave an idea as to what his debut season with the Wolverines could look like. And with highly touted freshman quarterback Bryce Underwood, junior running back Justice Haynes and 6-foot-5 graduate receiver Donaven McCulley all joining the program, it was easy to see the product Michigan envisioned on the field when hiring Lindsey.<\/p>\n<p>But absent from all the preseason prognostications, however, was a small yet significant component of Lindsey\u2019s offensive philosophy. Unexpectedly, the Wolverines\u2019 outside zone has been a game changer.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve started to do that when Chip got here, because he had comfort with it and familiarity with it,\u201d Michigan coach Sherrone Moore said Sept. 22. \u201cSo those guys have done a really good job, and it\u2019s really helped them progress and helped the run game. And when you have an explosive play of 75 and one of 50, you\u2019re gonna keep running it.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-1    \">\n<style><![CDATA[@media ( min-width: 300px ){.newspack_global_ad.scaip-1{min-height: 250px;}}@media ( min-width: 728px ){.newspack_global_ad.scaip-1{min-height: 90px;}}]]><\/style>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Turn on Haynes\u2019 highlights and you\u2019ll see it. Frequently throughout his four consecutive games of 100-plus yards, Haynes has made the most out of a lane on the perimeter before outpacing the second level. That\u2019s thanks to the offensive line\u2019s outside zone, which aims to displace defensive lines horizontally and create opportunities for the back to break free around the edge.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>As a result, Michigan is top 10 in the country in rushing yards per game and yards per rushing attempt. The Wolverines also have more rushes of 50-plus yards than any other team.<\/p>\n<p>Before this year, outside zone wasn\u2019t a staple of Michigan\u2019s repertoire. But after last year\u2019s struggles on the O-line, and with the addition of former-NFL offensive line coach Juan Castillo to Michigan\u2019s staff, outside zone became a focus.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve watched so many clips on outside zone, it\u2019s not even funny,\u201d junior offensive lineman Nathan Efobi said Sept. 23. \u201c\u2026 Now I know the ins and outs of outside zone, how the back\u2019s reading it. So it\u2019s easier to do it now.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Efobi, along with the rest of the offensive line room, has spent hours analyzing college and NFL teams run the same look over and over again. Steadily, as the O-line\u2019s communication has improved and the unit has gelled, the Wolverines have been more effective at the line of scrimmage. Michigan\u2019s backs have capitalized on that advantage.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-2    \">\n<style><![CDATA[@media ( min-width: 300px ){.newspack_global_ad.scaip-2{min-height: 250px;}}@media ( min-width: 728px ){.newspack_global_ad.scaip-2{min-height: 90px;}}]]><\/style>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Other than where the back is looking and the launch points of the linemen, inside and outside zone plays are fairly identical. For Efobi, the biggest challenge in learning the new scheme was timing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou would think that outside zone, you gotta be fast, but if you really know about it, it\u2019s really slow,\u201d Efobi said. \u201cLike you\u2019re opening up and going, but the back\u2019s reading slower than you think. So you\u2019ve got more time than you think.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Being aware of what the other 10 are doing on the field is a key aspect of outside zone. If the guards don\u2019t know how the tackles are blocking or the tackles don\u2019t know where the back is going, the play doesn\u2019t work.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Especially against <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/football\/michigan-relies-on-big-plays-in-big-ten-opener-versus-nebraska-30-27\/\">Nebraska<\/a>, the Wolverines were harmonious in the backfield. Facing Wisconsin on Saturday, which boasts the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncaa.com\/stats\/football\/FBS\/current\/team\/24\">top<\/a> run defense in the country, Michigan\u2019s offense will need to be cohesive.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBefore how we did outside zone, I wasn\u2019t really thinking about what the back was doing,\u201d Efobi said. \u201cI was really focused on my steps, but coach Newsome and Castillo really opened my eyes to how everyone\u2019s playing and how they\u2019re reading it.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-3    \">\n<style><![CDATA[@media ( min-width: 300px ){.newspack_global_ad.scaip-3{min-height: 250px;}}@media ( min-width: 728px ){.newspack_global_ad.scaip-3{min-height: 90px;}}]]><\/style>\n<\/aside>\n<p>With a third of the regular season completed, Michigan has proven to be a capable team on the ground. While a team can\u2019t move the ball without a talented running back, the O-line\u2019s outside zone has been instrumental to the Wolverines\u2019 success.<\/p>\n<aside>\n<div class=\"newspack-popup-container newspack-popup hidden  newspack-inline-popup      \" role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" style=\"background-color:#FFFFFF;color:#000\" id=\"id_162162\" data-segments=\"\" data-frequency=\"0,0,0,month\">\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Please consider donating to The Michigan Daily<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p><h3 class=\"jp-relatedposts-headline\"><em>Related articles<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When the No. 20 Michigan football team hired Chip Lindsey as the new offensive coordinator late last year, there was little doubt of his acumen. Lindsey\u2019s recent stint at North Carolina, in which the Tar Heels excelled in the air and on the ground, gave an idea as to what his debut season with the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2977,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[223,3106,222,3107,3108,3105],"class_list":["post-2976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-football","tag-helping","tag-michigan","tag-pound","tag-rock","tag-zone"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2976"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2976\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2978,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2976\/revisions\/2978"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}