Virginia Tech Zone Blocking: Good And Bad Examples

Virginia Tech
Ron Crook is Virginia Tech’s third OL coach in as many seasons. (Jon Fleming)

This week, we’re looking at the Hokies’ run-blocking. We’ve talked a bit before about what Ron Crook wanted out of his blockers at Oklahoma State, WVU, and Cincinnati, in these articles:

A Closer Look At Ron Crook, Part 1
A Closer Look At Ron Crook, Part 2

Now, let’s apply those rules and ideas to some plays from the spring game. You might recall that I felt the running game exploited defensive mistakes more than it created its own opportunities, but I think that if the guys all looked like they’d taken to Crook’s style, it’d be a big step. Unfortunately, the angles weren’t great most of the time, and the end zone replays almost invariably started when the ball hit the quarterback’s hands, so I didn’t have as much to work with as I would’ve liked. Still, I’d say this is a team still adapting to yet another different style of play, and that it’ll be a while before the linemen look as aggressive as Crook’s prior teams.

Let’s start with Inside Zone Read. Bob Schick (RG, #75, arrowed) is nice and easy to see, so we’ll focus on him:

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