Lance Kendricks occasionally played running back in high school at Milwaukee King, so handoffs weren't a foreign exchange for the University of Wisconsin football team's junior tight end when he arrived at practice early last week.

Still, Kendricks admits he was shocked when offensive coordinator Paul Chryst announced he was installing a play in which Kendricks would carry the ball.

Chryst was so confident in the play by week's end that the Badgers opened with it during their 37-0 victory over Purdue last Saturday at Camp Randall Stadium.

"I was kind of nervous," Kendricks said. "I knew it was the first play. I didn't know how it was going to go."

It went well -- very well, in fact. Kendricks gained 21 yards on the opening play and finished with four carries for 91 yards on an end-around play UW calls an "H-around" since Kendricks is technically an H-back.

The end-around has been a staple in UW's offense since Chryst arrived on staff in Madison in 2005. It's a perfect counter to UW's inside running game.

Indiana, the Badgers' opponent on Saturday in Bloomington, Ind., can attest to how well UW runs the end-around. The Badgers had a great deal of success running it during their 55-20 victory over the Hoosiers last season, with wide receiver David Gilreath finishing with eight carries for 168 yards and two touchdowns, including a 90-yarder early in the third quarter.

"Any time that you can get the ball on the perimeter (is good)," Chryst said. "You always look for ways to get the ball on the perimeter, because if you are a power, inside-run team, everything keeps getting packed in. So anything you can do to get it on the edge helps you."

UW had run the H-around a few years ago with Travis Beckum. The play had some success, but Kendricks admits he was still skeptical how it would go with him carrying the ball.

"I watched it on film and we're like, 'This probably isn't going to work,' " Kendricks said. "And it just worked. It was pretty cool."

So cool, in fact, that it was a natural to become the third installment of Madison.com's "Inside the Play," which breaks down a key component in a recent Badgers game.

Chryst credited offensive line coach Bob Bostad, who's also UW's run-game coordinator, with doing "a good job of scheming" a play that produced gains of 21, 12, 54 and 4 yards.

UW ran the play out of its "22" personnel group, which includes two tight ends and two backs. Another tight end, senior Mickey Turner, lines up as a fullback in front of sophomore tailback John Clay. Junior Isaac Anderson was the lone wide receiver.

As quarterback Scott Tolzien takes the snap, four of the offensive linemen sell the play as an inside running play.

"You're fooling the other guys," redshirt freshman center Peter Konz said. "If a guy has beaten me a couple times with a certain move, I'll allow him to do that same move, because he think he's got it all played out, 'Oh, I beat him.' Then he realizes it's going the other way around. I let him get past me, he recognizes it, he comes back and there's my jersey right in front of his face."

The fifth lineman, sophomore right guard Kevin Zeitler pulls on the play and theoretically should clear a path for Kendricks, who gets the ball after Tolzien fakes a handoff to Clay.

Ironically, Zeitler never got a chance to do his job on Kendricks' 54-yard run on UW's first offensive snap of the second half. Shortly after Zeitler began pulling out to his left, he collided with Purdue defensive end Gerald Gooden, who had fallen for the fake. Gooden managed to take out Zeitler and Clay on the play

Had Zeitler remained on his feet, he likely would have picked up Purdue outside linebacker Joe Holland. Instead, Holland came in untouched and had a chance to register a tackle for loss until Kendricks used a stiff-arm to fend off Holland and kickstart a big play.

"That was a hell of a run, wasn't it?" Chryst said.

Turner picked up Purdue free safety Torri Williams, who broke free but just missed Kendricks on a diving tackling attempt. Kendricks continued down the sidelines untouched thanks to some great downfield blocking by Anderson on Purdue cornerback David Pender.

Boilermakers strong safety Dwight Mclean finally caught up with Kendricks and made a touchdown-saving tackle at the 4-yard line.

"It's like a lot of plays," Chryst said. "If you block it right, and the guy does a little something, you have good plays."

The Badgers had a lot of good plays out of the "22" personnel group. Normally, the "12" personnel is UW's best group, but the "22" was the most successful against the Boilermakers.

UW had 326 total yards on 50 plays when Tolzien left the game in the third quarter. Exactly half of those yards came on 13 plays run with the "22" personnel, an average of 12.5 yards per play. Nine plays gained at least seven yards and six gained at least 10.

"We should have run more plays out of it," Chryst joked. "It fit. When you can get it going, it's good, and then you stay in it. What gives you a chance to keep in it is when you get production on first downs, now you're in normal down-and-distance and then you can go again. If you're not getting anything on first down out of it, it's a little bit harder to stay in.

"The advantage of it is you've got more gaps to cover down. The disadvantage is obviously you're not spreading it out and it's harder to attack at times."

Purdue hadn't gone against the two-tight end package much this season, and it showed against the Badgers.

When Clay wasn't having success running the ball up the middle out of the "22" - he had five runs of seven or more yards, including a 29-yarder, out of that personnel grouping - the Badgers were fooling Purdue by running the H-around.

"That's us. That's Wisconsin football," Konz said. "We're going to put all our big boys up front and you're going to know what's going to happen. Just try to stop it. I love that."

 

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