The Diamond Formation - Oklahoma Sooners

The Sooners showed an array of different plays from their use of the diamond formation, although once again none of it was truly revolutionary. Like the Cowboys and Horned Frogs they took a formation and ran their base offense from it. Lets take a look at what they showed against their rivals the Cowboys this year.

Inside Zone

The Sooners showed the same type of inside zone play as the Cowboys with the right halfback leading and the left halfback cutting off the defensive end pursuit from the backside.










Inside Zone Cross

The other version of inside zone that the Sooner's showed was a criss-crossing backfield action. On this particular play which is zone to the left the left halfback will cross the formation and cut off backside pursuit by the defensive end. The right halfback will flash fake in front of the QB and run an outside sweep path and the tailback will run his zone course. This was their most prominent way of running the inside zone.







This would have bee a good play had the back hit the hole to his right.




Power

The Sooner's also showed a power play. This one is to the right with the right halfback kicking out the defensive end and the left guard leading through for the tailback. The left halfback sells his outside fake once again.










Dash Solid?

The final run play from Oklahoma was tough to figure out. I originally thought it was outside zone just glancing at the backfield action, however after seeing the blocking scheme upfront it more closely resembles the dash play that TCU ran, with one key difference. Instead of reading the frontside defensive end Oklahoma had him blocked by the play side halfback. Since they're blocking him I don't think we can really call this dash because it's not a read, but I'm not sure what to term it. The front side of the offensive line down blocks and the play side halfback cuts the defensive end.





Notice the cut block on the defensive end?














Play Action

Here is the first of three play action passes the Sooner's showed. The split end to the right will run a dig, with the other running a skinny post it appears. The backfield action resembles the inside zone crossing series











Jones will eventually hit the dig over the middle, which I've highlighted.






Waggle

This next pass play looks like a basic waggle play, it is off of the inside zone action with a halfback and tailback faking one way and the opposite halfback sneaking under the formation into the flat. The halfback in the flat is a bear to cover because of the inside zone action with him crossing the QB's face to cut the defensive end, and on this instance running past him and uncovered into the flat. It was hard to tell which routes the split ends were running because Jones gets rid of the ball pretty quickly.










Swing

This is similar to the waggle, we have both halfbacks crossing the QB, this time however we will see the right side of the offensive line release downfield specifically to help seal the inside backers as Jones looks to dump a quick screen to the tailback. Along with the right side of the line the left halfback will lead for the tailback as well.












I'm sure Oklahoma did more out of this formation, as this was only a one game sample. The same can be said for OSU and TCU as well. A few parting points on the diamond:

1) It's only a formation.

2) However, with the said I think you can do a TON from this formation, as I've noted all three teams really didn't do anything outside of the box of what they would normally do on offense out of this formation.

3) I think this formation will get some more use this coming season from more college teams and I'll be interested to see some more misdirection run plays, and see what teams that do more gap-scheme blocking do in the running game.

4) I think you could adapt most offensive ideas to this set, and I think the three biggest things this formation offers to an offense are the possibility of a deceptive running game from the shotgun, a power running game from the gun, and the play-action passes off both of those.

5) Thanks to the poster who asked to see this, I not only was able to check into this formation but also into what Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, and a little of TCU did this season. So many offenses, so little time.


If anyone ever has a suggestion or would like me to cover something in particular I'll do my best to research into the different offensive schemes and ideas of the college football landscape.