Give a little love to ISO

        In this "Zone Blocking" World there has to be a place for a good ole isolation running play.  The weak side run that pits the fullback in a one on one match up with the linebacker. I guess the first thing you have to do is bring back the fullback.  While many of today's offenses include three and four wide receiver sets, some like Auburn Head Coach Gus Malzahn have found creative ways to get a lead blocker in the formation allowing the offense to run more traditional 21 personnel formation based runs like power and iso.
       One of these formations I call "Tulsa" -- a reference to  Malzahn's time spent as

Tulsa Right Formation

offensive coordinator with the Hurricanes.  In this set the offense lines up with three receivers out wide and a hybrid fullback/tight end or "H" lined up offset with the tailback in the base formation.  The great thing about Tulsa is it's a flexible formation that poises the question to defenses  -- is it a run or pass formation?
       As we began to incorporate this formation into our offense at Johnson C. Smith University, it became obvious that we were only scratching the surface.  In Tulsa, the offense has a chance to; overload the strong side, balance or flip the field with motion and get to just about every run in the offensive play book.  Conversely, in a four receiver spread formation, you are virtually locked into running inside or outside zone without shifting or motioning to a different formation.
      Over the years, I found that ISO was a very productive play to run out of Tulsa formation.

Tulsa Right - ISO Weak (Bend)

     We also found a way to run it without tipping our hand quite by accident.  Normally, we would move the tailback and fullback to the side of the run.  One day during inside drill, we lined up in Tulsa with the slot to the right and the tail back and H lined up to the strength as well.

      Our offensive coordinator, Maurice Flowers, called ISO to the left and I started to move the backs to the play side when Coach Flowers said  "Leave them on that side and let's see how they adjust." The first time we ran the play from this alignment, it broke loose. From my vantage point behind the play, I could see that the "Will" linebacker never saw the H until it was too late and we had him out flanked.
     Later as a play caller iso became a bigger part of my run package. I developed and taught some rules that made this play even more effective.  The first rule I gave the lead back whether a true fullback or H was to get to the outside shoulder of the linebacker on the isolation block. This is in direct contrast to what defensive coaches tell their linebackers which is to never give up their outside shoulder. My reason for teaching this was if we got outside leverage on the linebacker, we could hit this play outside the lead block and just inside the block of the offensive tackle who was taught to take a short jab step to the outside. The tackle's step forces the defensive end to widen because his first instinct is to not get reached.
     When the tail back or in some cases the quarterback hits this crease it puts him in a one on one situation with the safety. One missed tackle and he is off to the races.