running vs fronts

Stick,
That question is way to broad. Running the ball effectively is not necessarily counting players in the box. Alignment techniques by the defenders is just as important as how many there are. I like to run inside only if I can find a way to double team or option read a player. You have to get movement at the LOS or your going nowhere. Short traps and fold schemes inside, or inside zone and ISO with the cutback are good plays for inside running. Power off tackle needs to be run to a side with two defenders as contain and force, e.g., weakside DE and Will, and not three, e.g., Strongside DE, Sam, and SS. Lastly, perimeter run plays such as sweep and option work best to the side without an outside invert (SS type player) with D gap responsibility. These are all just general opinions. The best way is to game plan versus the fronts you know you are going to see based on your scouting. You may have a couple of different ways to block plays based on alignments and this is possible with line calls. Essentially, the better your linemen understand how the defense may be trying to attack them, the better they will be able to block. Just as the saying goes, "last guy with the chalk wins". We ran just 5 running plays last year but we knew how to block them against every front a defense threw at us.

I just finished my first year as head coach at a small school with a pretty good football history from the 60s to early 90s. The legendary coach's trademark play was off tackle power. He ran it most of the time no matter the defense (out of the wing T), but ran it to perfection. When run the right way, it really looks good no matter what you are facing. However, as I learned, it still comes down to players executing and playing football. If it's run right, then it should work. We teach our guys to read the FBs kickout block on the DE. If the DE "wrong arms" the FB, the fullback will log him and the Pulling guard will go outside, with the TB following. If the FB gets inside position, we will obviously try to make it hit inside. An opposing coach actually admitted to us before a game that he was worried about our power because he couldn't tell where we were trying to make it hit. Like I said, I am very inexperienced and I am certainly not an expert, but I know we will definitely keep the power and try to make it one of our base plays next year. Looking forward to hearing what others have to say.