With some relief I doubt that USC will face this play again the remainder of the season. However for those interested here is the Oregon run play that I think just gives opposing teams terrible fits. Jeremiah Masoli ran this multiple times versus USC for big yardage and I recall that Oklahoma State had a terrible time defending it in the bowl game last season.

Anyway the inside zone play is the bread and butter run play for Oregon. What is unusual though is that Oregon does not always read the outside DE in the five technique position on the play. Sometimes they block the 5 Tech DE out on on the play and instead read the 3 technique defensive tackle to the inside of the DE. That is very unusual for most teams and hence an effective change of pace in the game.

To the best of my knowledge however it is relatively uncommon in Division I college football to read the 3 technique DT out of shotgun with more of a zone blocking scheme like Oregon employs. Unfortunately Oregon has released zero information about the specifics of this play in their clinic talks and won’t release run game cut ups (I actually asked the staff over the summer for them and was politely told no - but was given an invite to come up some time and watch practice and visit with the offensive line coach if I was in the neighborhood).