My flag football team lost this past weekend by an approximate score of 11 billion to zero. It was only the latest in a long string of defeats, some closer than others, but it seemed particularly terminal. After a long season filled with some organizational tumult, people were just...done. There seems to be a similar vibe swirling about the Michigan State program as the Mel Tucker era reaches its denouement.

Whether it is a captain entering the transfer portal midweek, but fortunately for MSU, withdrawing a couple days later, high-profile transfers leaving the program already, an interim head coach announcing that tardiness and lack of discipline will now be taken seriously, or six-straight losses, the vibes are...bad. With that said, the players who have chosen to stay, did so because they want to be Spartans.

With a team in such turmoil, and new players starting every week, it isn't overly reasonable to expect creative, opponent-specific schematic innovations to happen on a week-by-week basis. Last week, against Michigan, I felt there was a last gasp of opponent-specific game-planning. This week, in a truly disgusting 27-12 loss to Minnesota, I felt that everyone was largely phoning it in.

So it goes. Let's review the film.

Most of what Minnesota does offensively is a run-pass option (RPO)-based scheme around quarterback mesh points and inside/outside zone. A good example of outside zone is seen above, the prototypical "student body left" or "student body right." It involves no pulling, but rather the consistent blocking of one gap over to the direction of the play.

Another example of zone blocking can be seen above. The beauty of zone blocking is that it allows for broad schematic and offensive line flexibility, using the actions of the defensive front against them, rather than trying to physically coerce the defensive front into something suiting a gap scheme.

Playing off of outside zone, Minnesota used half-field reads on backside boots to give quarterback Athan Kaliakmanis (No.8), charitably a mediocre quarterback, easy decisions with a relatively low chance of turnover. The outside zone looks makes everyone on the defense false step to the backside of the play, and stresses linebackers in coverage.

This is less a boot/rollout, and more a true RPO with a live quarterback mesh point. MSU's linebackers do a sound job dropping into the slant read, forcing a deep throw once Kaliakmanis pulls the ball to throw.