One of my favorite plays in the Pro Style Spread Offense (PSSO) is the Read Run play (ISO).
This is a play I first heard about in college as an assistant coach when my head coach showed us that running an ISO didn’t have to be locked into a specific gap.
Here’s what I am talking about…
Say the call is 22 ISO. In our PSSO terminology that means the 2 back is running through the 2 hole which is between the Guard and the Tackle on the right side.
What if you have a defender in that gap on that side in that hole? It’s probably not a great call to make then, right? See the Tackle in the 2 hole below.
Instead, you should try to call the play maybe a 20 ISO – and have the back run between the Center and the Guard where there is no down lineman present.
But what if you can’t tell or maybe even the defense is aligning differently each play and you don’t know what hole they will be lining up in?
That is why we call this play Read Right instead or 20 or 22. Now we teach the F, H, and Right Guard that the play could go either in the 0 or the 2 hole.
It all depends on where the Bubble is. If the Defensive Tackle is in the 0 hole, the Guard blocks down and the F and H run through the 2 hole.
Likewise, if the DT is in the 2 hole or wider, the Guard blocks out and the F and H run through the 0 hole.
Here’s some more examples of how we block it and always make sure we are attacking the bubble in the defense.
Lastly, here are our Rules for blocking so no matter what the defense show, if every player knows their rules, then we can block it. You only have to know your rules!
If you like this play and want to see more like it, check out our Pro Style Spread Offense Run Course for a special discount below.
This works great. Just finished a season running this concept with 10-11 year olds. We called ISO and the center would make the direction call at the line. For zone read coaches, have Q open midline with back to the hole and zone block/read the back side of the ISO. H bends back to the hole and Q still has option to keep. Pretty cool.