Play call: 41/49 Outside
TV announcers often call the Nebraska Outside play a "stretch play", which is NFL terminology for such runs. If you have Husker Video tapes overlain with Kent Pavelka's radio calls, you'll hear him use the term "stretch play" as well. In the huddle, Nebraska calls these plays simply "outside," as in 41 Outside or 49 Outside.
The Outside play takes its name from the Outside Zone Blocking Rules that the linemen use on the play. On Outside plays the IB takes a handoff toward the outside hip of the TE. As with inside zone plays, he is always looking for cutback lanes. The QB tries to get as deep as possible for the handoff. The play stretches the defense to the outside (hence the NFL term) and opens creases for cutback.
Nebraska has run fewer Outside plays the last two years since Ahman Green left for the NFL. Green was great on the outside play, but Lawrence Phillips is probably the best ever to run the play at NU.
An Outside play is called to the 1 or 9 hole but can break anywhere from the playside sideline to the backside guard. If you have videotape of the 96 Fiesta Bowl against Florida (required viewing for every Cornhusker fan), Phillips' 25-yard run on the second play of the game is a textbook example of the "41 Outside" play - he takes the handoff from Frazier, heads toward the TE on the right, blasts through a very thin cutback seam that most college running backs wouldn't be able to exploit, then turns on the burners for the 25 yard gain.
Formations:
NU can run Outside out of any formation with an I-back. Because it can be run to either a tight end or split end side, this is a play the Huskers like to either/or in the huddle. The quarterback then comes to the line and examines the defense before calling the direction the play will be run.
In a two-back set the FB is a lead blocker on an Outside play, giving it an extra blocker and the look of a sweep.
Companion plays:
41/49 Outside Wingback Reverse. Nebraska has long run a wingback reverse off of the Outside play. The I-back is given the ball and then hands off to the wingback coming behind him. The quarterback wheels after making the first handoff and leads the play as a blocker. This is the play where quarterbacks Tommie Frazier (vs. Washington State 94) and Scott Frost (vs. Texas A&M 97) made violent, highlight-reel blocks to spring big plays. (The number called in the huddle indicates the direction the I-back will go. For instance, on a 41 Outside WB Reverse the IB will run toward the 1-hole on the right, but the play will go to the 9-hole on the left.)
Fake Reverse: When teams become very aware of the reverse off of the Outside play, NU will fake it. The I-back does a piece of tricky ball handling by running with the ball behind his back for several steps as the WB passes as if to take the reverse. The behind-the-back slight of hand is a NU signature play.
