'Going for the Knees' and the Citadel-FSU Mess

The Citadel's starting right guard, Victor Hill, has been suspended by his school for stating in a Facebook post that he and his fellow linemen were "going for the knees" against Florida State this past Saturday. In other words, they were cut blocking with the intent to harm. Hill said he was proud to have "contributed to the injury list" (three FSU defensive linemen exited the game with leg injuries) and saw the cut blocking-heavy strategy as a way of making FSU's defenders fear he and his colleagues.

Cut blocking, depending on whom you talk to, is either a legitimate tactic or a scourge. It's a long-standing tactic wherein offensive linemen dive at the knees and calves of their opponents. Doing so turns the tables on defenders, and allows blockers to be the aggressors at the line of scrimmage. Traditionally, the offensive lineman has a humble job: he is the dam to the defensive lineman's surging river. Talented run blockers sometimes pancake defenders, but more often than not, the o-lineman is moving backwards or at an angle. There's a reason Justin Tuck gets to be in Subway commercials and Joe Thomas doesn't.

The cut block is often deployed by teams that use zone blocking schemes on run plays. A back takes the ball on a sweep to the left, and the right tackle and guard, instead of pushing their assignment out of the play, lunge at their opponents' lower bodies. This is meant to take out the defenders' legs, keeping them from pursuing the runner from the back side. The technique also tends to slow defensive linemen down if used regularly. If they know it's a possibility they're going to have their lower bodies attacked on any given play, they begin to protect against it, which sometimes gives a quarterback the extra half-second he needs to get a pass off or a running back a slightly bigger pocket of space in which he can make a cut.

Just because cut blocking works and is technically legal under NFL and NCAA rules doesn't mean everyone is happy with it. During his playing days, Marcellus Wiley saw it as dirty and unnecessary: "Why would you want to cut me away from the play and take out my career? Why not have it where you can still play the game, but guys can still go home to their families?'' Current Denver Bronco defensive end Kenny Anunike, who struggled with major knee problems throughout his college career at Duke, has expressed his hatred for it. Brian Kelly has said he's going to make it a point to schedule fewer games against service academies in the future. Those schools run option-heavy -- and by extension cut block-heavy -- offenses, and he doesn't want his defense inundated with leg injuries. If you want some idea of how even cut blocking's proponents feel about it, most teams don't practice it, because they don't want to injure their own players.

Jimbo Fisher wasn't upset, at least not publicly, with the Citadel's approach: "That's how that offense blocks. We cut people, too." Fisher was being conciliatory. FSU cuts sometimes; the Citadel cuts a lot, and apparently with malice aforethought.

There have been movements over the past decade to excise cut blocking from the game. The NFL seriously considered banning it in 2012 and again in 2013, but its competition committee balked both times. Until further notice, cut blocking is legal, but that won't stop coaches and defensive linemen from questioning whether it should be.