OTF Premium After leaning on outside zone in 2024, Texas wants to see 2025's go-to running game concept surface in training camp

[Jeff Howe]

AUSTIN, Texas — The biscuit that was the Texas running game last season was buttered with the outside zone.

Considering how Georgia and Ohio State stymied a Longhorn ground attack lacking diversity in the team’s three losses, the offense might’ve been better served by Steve Sarkisian not pulling so many stretch plays from the well. Regardless, the body of work put together by the offensive line and running backs over a 16-game season revealed that wider was better for Texas in 2024.

According to Pro Football Focus, 243 — more than 45 percent — of the offense’s non-sack rushing attempts were from the C gap (between the tackle and the tight end) to the sideline. It was that portion of the line of scrimmage where the Longhorns racked up more than 51 percent of their non-sack rushing yardage (1,415 yards and 5.82 yards per attempt), 64 percent of their rushing touchdowns (16), more than half of their total yards after contact (924 yards and 3.81 yards after contact per attempt) and more than 48 percent of their rushing attempts that gained at least 10 yards (33).

The 75 missed tackles Texas ball carriers forced on wide runs accounted for more than 67 percent of the missed tackles forced by the Longhorns on their non-sack rushing attempts.

Furthermore, Quintrevion Wisner is the returning leading rusher in the SEC (1,064 yards, 4.7 yards per attempt and five rushing touchdowns) and was most effective on wide runs as a sophomore. The data collected by PFF shows Wisner gained 448 yards, scored all of his rushing touchdowns, recorded 10 of his 27 gains that went for 10 or more yards and forced 27 missed tackles on C-gap-to-sideline rushing attempts, even though those runs accounted for only 45 percent of his total carries (226).

So, which concept will be the focal point of the Texas running game in 2025?

According to offensive line coach Kyle Flood, who met with reporters on Tuesday ahead of Wednesday’s first training camp practice, the Longhorns haven’t settled on one.

This will be the ninth consecutive season Flood has worked alongside Sarkisian, which dates back to their time together in the NFL with the Atlanta Falcons. Flood said the go-to scheme is subject to change from year to year, pointing out that, in 2024, the outside zone "was very productive for us over the course of the season.”

“I don’t know what that’s going to look like this year yet,” Flood said. “I think we’ll have a much better vision of that as we go through training camp and we allow these linemen and tight ends to work together.”

Based on how the Texas running game has evolved since Sarkisian’s first season on the Forty Acres, Flood isn’t being coy when discussing what the running game will hang its hat on in the current regime’s fifth season.

The Longhorns relied heavily on inside zone runs in 2021 (according to PFF, Bijan Robinson had 138 rushing attempts on zone-based plays and just 57 carries on gap-based runs), preferring zone concepts 66 percent of the time. The percentage of zone runs dropped to 57 in 2022, with Roschon Johnson splitting his carries almost equally between zone (47 attempts) and gap-based runs (44).

In 2023, with the addition of CJ Baxter, who had more attempted gap runs (69) than zone runs, the 2023 running game, and Jonathon Brooks closing the margin between his zone (101) and gap (86) runs, Texas won the Big 12 and reached the College Football Playoff behind a running game operating on a 54/46 percentage split between zone and gap runs. Last season, even with outside zone being the dominant concept, the Longhorns had a 52/48 percentage split favoring zone runs, their most balanced running game under Sarkisian.

What must the coaches consider when establishing which concepts could best help Texas reach the national championship game for the first time since the Longhorns played for the BCS title in 2009?

It starts with Flood replacing four starters along the offensive line.

And the strongest parts of the line are just as important as determining the schemes in which the retooled group might be most proficient.

Last season, the A gap between Jake Majors and Hayden Conner (89 attempts) and the C gap between Kelvin Banks Jr. (87 attempts) and the tight end were the most popular gaps for running plays according to PFF. Those three players are gone. Still, Trevor Goosby was the left tackle for Wisner’s 186-yard performance in the regular-season finale against Texas A&M, and Neto Umeozulu could offer a better, more consistent push in the running game as he takes over for Conner at left guard.

Baxter was back on the practice field Wednesday, less than a year after a preseason knee injury wiped out his sophomore season. With Christian Clark showing no signs of slowing down while going through his remarkable recovery from an Achilles injury, and Jerrick Gibson trying to prove he’s worthy of carries after an up-and-down debut, the running back room is a lot more crowded than it was when Baxter was leading the way last summer.

“Ultimately, as coaches, we’ll figure out what schemes are going to allow us to utilize that personnel in the best way,” Flood said. “It may be outside the zone again, but I don’t go into it saying, ‘This is what we’re going to be exclusively,’ or, ‘This is what we’re going to do more than anything else.’ I think I want to see that in training camp to really be sure what we feel like is the best thing for this football team, and assume that just because outside zone might’ve been best last year, that it’s going to be best for us again.”

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[Bunk Moreland]

Excellent write-up, @Jeff Howe! Thanks for doing all the analysis.

[Jeff Howe]

19 minutes ago, Bunk Moreland said:

Excellent write-up, @Jeff Howe! Thanks for doing all the analysis.

Just doing my job, Buck Moreland! Thanks for the kind words!

[Gerry Hamilton]

Great stuff here Jeff Howe!

[thatdude2]

Jeff 👏🏾

[MBHORNSFAN]

I think this along with the threat of Arch taking off we will see better overall running lanes. Of course the deep threat will be a huge help as well. 

[NothinButDaHorns34]

Hopefully we have somebody step up who’s a between the tackles runner since that’s a strength of tre’s 

[Tuco Ramirez]

Thanks Jeff! Great stuff

[Tex CJ-7]

My hope is that we are equally proficient inside (power gap) and outside (zone) so we can let a defense’s weakness dictate which way we choose to lean. 🤘🏻

[watty7796]

I hope for 3rd down and redzone sake they are able to do both.  There needs to be a balance inside and outside, power and zone.  Just my 2 cents.

[Jeff Howe]

30 minutes ago, watty7796 said:

I hope for 3rd down and redzone sake they are able to do both.  There needs to be a balance inside and outside, power and zone.  Just my 2 cents.

No doubt. The running game needs diversity and unpredictability. Those two things will go a long way toward resolving the issues we saw last season.