In today's article about Wilson's days at Northwestern, IU Defensive Tackles Coach Mark Hagen mentioned that Wilson and the late Northwestern Coach Randy Walker brought the idea of the zone-read spread offense to the Midwest.
The offense was tweaked and adjusted by many coaches on the East Coast like then-Clemson Offensive Coordinator Rich Rodriguez, but migrated west with Walker and Wilson. This offense might sound a little complex, but the basic run plays of a zone-read are fairly simple. Since Northwestern specialized in running the ball with Damien Anderson in the Walker-Wilson era, we'll focus on that here.
Take, for example, the following clip from the Walker-coached Northwestern team of 2000. The Wildcats staged a dramatic comeback and ended up defeating the favored Wisconsin Badgers in double overtime, 47-44, via ESPN.
As the ball is snapped, you can see the quarterback, Zak Kustok, look at the (purposefully) unblocked defensive end to his right. He puts the ball out for the running back to receive the handoff, but he also has the option to pull the ball back and take it himself. Here, there are two possibilities.
1. If the defensive end pursues the running back, Kustok pulls the ball in and runs through the gap left by the defensive end.
2. If the defensive end stays where he is in anticipation of a quarterback run, Kustok gives the ball to the running back.
The run game can get much more complex if you add in a third or fourth option in the backfield, but the clip above is a simple example of the second option.
Notice, first of all, that the Northwestern offensive line completely ignores Wisconsin's left defensive end, which allows them to focus all of their blocking to the side of the field where the running back is headed.
Kustok sees the defensive end staying where he is, gives to Anderson and the blocking does the rest. Anderson has to sidestep one defender and can then waltz into the endzone for the win.
This play is one example of Wilson's offense at Northwestern over a decade ago, remember. His offense has changed, Northwestern's offense has changed and the offensive landscape of college football has changed.
This post is merely to shed some light on where Wilson's major offensive innovations began back at Northwestern with the late Coach Walker.
