The Art Of The Tunnel Screen, Cincinnati’s New Favorite Play

The Cincinnati Bearcats have fallen in love with a brand new play on offense, the tunnel screen. Well, it’s not entirely new. Maybe to this year’s team but not the UC football program, anyways.

The tunnel screen was brought to Cincinnati by way of Brian Kelly, who as legend has it concocted the play while sitting down for dinner. Mid meal, the UC head coach had a moment of enlightenment for a new play he aimed to unleash on Big East defenses. Kelly grabbed a napkin, sketched out a rough formation, scribbled some routes and blocking schemes, and Cincinnati’s tunnel screen was born.

Bringing the theory to life was the players Kelly had at his disposal. Tony Pike was one of the most accurate passers to ever step foot on the field at Nippert Stadium. The offensive line was also lean and quick, with the ability to get upfield in a flash. Finally, there was the ever elusive Mardy Gilyard.

Gilyard wasn’t the largest receiver but he was fast and agile. He has a knack for slipping into the soft spots in zone coverage and burning unprepared defensive backs in man coverage. And on tunnel screens, Gilyard thrived. You can find many of those highlights here.

But it wasn’t until the 2014 season, four years after Brian Kelly left for Notre Dame, that Cincinnati began using it in similar regularity, inserting junior college transfer Johnny Holton to play the role of Mardy Gilyard. Here’s what the formation looks like.

Tunnel screen formation.

Cincinnati primarily operates it out of the 10-formation; four wide receivers and 1 running back. Here’s what it looks like with Cincinnati’s current personnel. It’s a little easier to picture it without the blank circles, I know.

Bearcats tunnel screen formation, 4 wide receivers, 1 running back.

Johnny Holton (#3) sets up off the line of scrimmage between the slot receiver, in this case Shaq Washington (#19), and outside receiver Alex Chisum (#80). The fourth wide out Max Morrison (#82) is alone at the top of the formation.

When the football is snapped, all receivers run upfield except for Holton, who turns to catch the pass from Gunner Kiel. The others latch onto the defensive backs immediately across from them. Simultaneously, Cincinnati’s interior linemen “rub” their blocking assignments along the defensive line, letting them slide by and massively overcommit to sacking the quarterback. Left tackle Eric Lefeld holds his block to protect Kiel and ensure he can make the throw to Holton. But the centers and guards find targets at the second level to block.

Tunnel screen Cincinnati linemen rubbing and blocking upfield.

Let’s see, Deyshawn Bond, Parker Ehinger, and Ryan Leahy average 303 lbs to a man. The typical defensive back weighs around 195 lbs and linebacker 215 lbs. That’s a mismatch in every sense of the word, awarding Johnny Holton a highway-sized lane to run through.

Tunnel screen comical large running lane.

And using that remarkable speed, the rest, as they say, is history.

The tunnel screen is a work of art. It depends on the pass from the quarterback to the receiver to coincide with the offensive linemen making their way to the second level. Otherwise, Cincinnati would be flagged with an ineligible receiver downfield penalty. Plus the ball carrier has to have the speed to make the defense pay by rushing too quickly behind the line of scrimmage and getting lost on the play. Finally, the receivers and linemen have to hold their blocks long enough to create that gargantuan running lane.

All three phases must come together in order for the tunnel screen to create meaningful damage. When it’s ran to perfection, Cincinnati can gash defenses like they did against South Florida. When one of the phases breaksdown, it results in a bust play. But thus far this season UC has had enormous success with the tunnel screen and I’d expect the Bearcats will continue to use Johnny Holton in this manner as they aim for their first AAC football championship.