Jon Gruden is a bit of a throwback. He’s old school. For instance, these days the fullback is considered a dying breed. But not in Gruden’s offense. Fullback is vital. He does the dirty work. The gritty stuff. In which Gruden is known for putting great value. Hence where the term ‘Gruden Grinder’ comes from.
In this offense heading into year three now, that role has been filled by Alec Ingold. The former undrafted free agent out of Wisconsin gets it.
“You’re not going to write a whole lot of stories about what a fullback does on a day-to-day basis,” Ingold said of his role in the offense. “But I have to master the fundamentals of my role. And my role on this team is to make a four-yard run into six yards. A three-yard catch into a five-yard catch. Give Derek Carr a half a second longer.”
“On the field, I’m trying to make everybody better. I’m trying to help people. And when you’re saying there are more and more things, you’re finding more ways for fullbacks to help the offense out, to change things up. When I run onto the field, defenses strap up a little tighter because they know either it’s going to be a run, it’s going to be play-action, there’s not a whole lot of secrets.
“But it’s a gritty position that not a whole lot of people like to do because you don’t get your name written about all the time. It’s things about those little plays. It’s like running through a block with all the effort you got or 75% is changing a three-yard run to a five-yard run and that’s my job here. It’s not glamorous, it’s not fun, there’s not a whole lot of stories written about it, but that keeps the offense on schedule. You see a lot of fullback and 21 personnel, you see a lot of on-schedule football, a lot of second-and-short, third-and-short, that’s the type of football that we need to play.”
First and foremost Ingold’s job as fullback is to help clear run lanes for the running back, but also to occasionally pop out and catch a pass and can show off some of his athletic abilities.
“Alec has the speed, I’ve told you he runs all the routes,” Derek Carr said of Ingold. “He doesn’t run fullback stuff, he runs slants and goes and digs and all those types of things. He has that ability, but he has that old school Lorenzo Neal feel to him too. . . Alec and their mindsets, you gotta be different to play fullback. With the way that we run the powers and the isos and it’s one-on-one, you and that guy in the hole and if you don’t win, it’s going to be a loss. And more times than not Alec wins. I’m trying to give the guy as much praise as I can because he’s very vital to us.”
The most well-known play Gruden calls is Spider 2 Y Banana which is simply a fullback pass. Ingold has been the recipient of that play a few times over the past couple of seasons.
“That’s my bone from coach,” Ingold said of the iconic play. “A little play-action pass dump-off to fullback and see what happens on the sideline. It’s a great play call once or twice a game just to see if we can get some energy on the sideline. Shoot, that’s all it is.”
Last season Ingold must have been grinding extra hard because he saw that ‘bone’ thrown to him a few times. His receptions last season (12) doubled from his rookie season (six). His only touchdown catch was on a Spider 2 Y Banana and appropriately enough it was the first-ever touchdown scored at Allegiant Stadium in a big win over the heavily favored New Orleans Saints.
In fact, Ingold has two career touchdowns and both were catches out of Spider 2 Y Banana. The rest of the time he’s so busy with dirty work that he actually has more career catches (17) than career carries (13). Ingold brings the grit so others can get the glory.