5:51 p.m.: Since the zone read appears lodged in the Nebraska playbook, we cornered I-back Rex Burkhead this week to help explain to the average Husker fan how it works.
The long and short of it: Decision-making and vision are huge for the quarterback and the handoff (or lack of a handoff) can be a tricky proposition.
With NU in the shotgun, the zone read starts with the I-back either coming from left-to-right or right-to-left in front of the quarterback. The quarterback puts the football in the gut of the I-back, with the option to let him keep it or pull it back and run.
Taylor Martinez and Cody Green saw several holes up the middle of the Western Kentucky defense last week and kept the football, with Martinez turning seven carries into 127 yards rushing with three touchdowns.
“We’re kind of just looking straight ahead,” Burkhead said of the I-backs coming across. “We kind of know the holes that we can run to, but it’s up to the quarterback whether we get the ball or not. He makes his reads, and depending on his read and the feel of the ball that’s how we know if we’re getting it or not.”
Burkhead said an I-back can see trouble ahead and still have to be ready to take the football if the quarterback is giving it up.
“Even if the quarterback makes the wrong read, you’ve still got that feel and just take the ball, obviously, so you don’t fumble it,” he said.
Or an I-back can see potential running room and not get the ball. Then he carries out the fake and eventually tries to get a block downfield.
“So you can’t be thinking, ‘Aw, I need to take this ball,’ ” he said.
The hardest part of the play, Burkhead said, is the fraction of a second where the I-back has to realize the ball is his or that it’s coming back out of his hands.
That’s been fine-tuned with repetition.
“At first we struggled a lot with it,” the sophomore said. “Now it’s just a routine. We’ve all improved since the first time we started repping it, and that trust and confidence in each other has helped it develop even more.”
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