Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

Wide running lanes are what's supposed to happen when the play is blocked well and designed well.  If the defense has shown a tendency and the OC sees it and calls a specific running play and it's executed, boom!  The fact that it doesn't happen all that often tells you that it's a perfect storm when all of those things happen at once.  Oftentimes the defense doesn't show an obvious tendency.  Oftentimes the play call isn't just right.  Oftentimes one guy misses his block.

What I hated most as an OL was when I was pulling, the guy next to me getting pushed back - retarding my progress and the play as a whole.  

When you see a DL or LB come through scot-free and kill the QB, that can be any number of things.  Sure, the QB could have audibled and a guy missed it, but that's not often the case.  It's usually more about the DC finding a chink in the OL's blocking scheme and purposely exploiting it.  Or even a tendency of a specific guy can lead to that as well.

Say you're a DC and you want to blitz through the B-gap between the guard and the tackle.  If you blitz your inside LB straight through, either the OL will pick it up easily or due to their scheme, a RB will fill that hole.  But on film, you notice that on a delayed blitz, that guard in particular, when he has no one to block initially, always turns in and double-teams whoever the center is blocking.  That is useful information.  Now you can plan to loop your outside LB towards the interior of the line, getting there a second or two later (on purpose), and that guard doesn't see him and has turned away from him.  He gets through cleanly because the RB only has the assignment to block the inside LB on a blitz.  Now honestly, if you can believe it, whoever is supposed to block that outside LB (if anyone - not everyone is accounted for on every play, by design)should be yelling during the play that his guy (the OLB) is blitzing inside.

It can get frustrating if you're playing guard and no one is lined up on you, no one blitzes immediately, you get a great chip on the nose tackle, knocking him over, but seeing your QB on his back because the OLB got through your area and your TE didn't yell a warning during the play.

Crap like that is why some coaches sleep in their offices, playing out all the what ifs....there aren't many in HS, some more in college, and plenty in the NFL.  

And I have to share this - the Navajo Rez is a basketball-mad place.  Football is a 'meh' to them.  They don't grow up watching it or playing it.  

So one day I spend 20 good minutes installing a new defense, going through what each position does, whether run or pass.  It's over, we go to the next thing, and our good pass-rushing DE goes, "wait, we've been on defense this whole time?"

1 - W....T.....F......
2 - when a guy isn't sharp and plays both ways and doesn't know Xs and Os.....I guess something like that can happen.

Because it did.

When UGA had Grantham as DC, they would often be looking around clearly confused when the ball was snapped.  Apparently his defenses were overly complicated and they had a hard time picking up what they were supposed to be doing.

The next year he was gone and it looked a lot simpler and they just played more than schemed, or so it seemed.

I suppose when you have a Roquan Smith kind of player, maybe you just tell him to go do whatever seems best at the time, or I would anyway.  I have rarely seen a player with that much involvement in the plays.

Yeah, the best scheme only works if the players get it.  

Scott Frost said something interesting during an interview.............
said he spends more time in practice teaching technique and fundamentals and less time teaching scheme
he said he keeps schemes simple, but regardless of scheme, once the play starts players need to have fundamentals and technique to be "football players"
blocking, shedding blocks, tackling, moving in traffic, moving in the open field, angles are critical regardless of scheme
as alluded to earlier, a great football player out of position or unsure of his assignment is still better on the field than a player in the right place without the ability to make the play
Riley and Diaco seemed to run practices the opposite way - very little time spent on technique, mostly teaching schemes and plays 

Scott Frost said something interesting during an interview.............
said he spends more time in practice teaching technique and fundamentals and less time teaching scheme
he said he keeps schemes simple, but regardless of scheme, once the play starts players need to have fundamentals and technique to be "football players"
blocking, shedding blocks, tackling, moving in traffic, moving in the open field, angles are critical regardless of scheme
as alluded to earlier, a great football player out of position or unsure of his assignment is still better on the field than a player in the right place without the ability to make the play
Riley and Diaco seemed to run practices the opposite way - very little time spent on technique, mostly teaching schemes and plays

I feel like some coaches assume fundamentals, especially the higher up you get.  To me, a good coach makes a player prove they possess fundamentals before worrying about schemes.
Yes, an idiot with his hair on fire can still make plays, but if you can put a guy in the right place who can't make the play, that's a player you need to get rid of.  But you don't have to pick one or the other, especially if you're a helmet school.

Once your talented players know what they're doing and are proven to have the fundamentals, THAT'S when you get to have fun and be creative - a mad scientists with scheme.

Controlled Chaos was Buddy Ryan. In Chicago, Buddy had the meat and potatoes.

He had Mike Singletary and Gary Fencik on the field as the field organizers, and the rest of the guys bought in.

Neither of those two were the cream of the crop from an athletic standpoint, but when you put those guys out there with Dent, Marshall, Wilson, Hampton, McMicael, Fridge, etc.. You're gonna win.

i've watched players at UT do the same thing, and not isolated incidents but as a matter of course- hard hitting fools yes (sometimes, anyway), but fail to make the tackle (really often, unfortunately). no wrapping... it's frustrating. and... it's absolutely coaching. whether it relates to practice or not i can only guess, and i'd guess it does- in high adrenaline situations muscle memory plays a greater role than most would think- that is speaking to practice's that basically play tag "gotcha, play's over" as opposed to real game speed and collision. 

Jerry Rice is said to have ran to the endzone full speed after every practice play- not playing 'simulate/pretend that i did' but actually doing it... i'm thinking that kind of mental positioning "play isn't over yet" plays a heavy role in a players performance, and which is translated to a defensive player when they're getting up off the turf after every practice play, seeing it all the way through every single time... again, coaching.