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AFM Magazine

AFM Magazine


The ‘Loco’ Punt Formation

by: Jared Van Acker
Head Coach, Galax High School (VA)
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I have been the Head Football Coach at Galax High School for the last three years and, like all coaches, I stress the importance of all three phases of the game: offense, defense, and special teams. I believe that one of the most important phases is special teams and, unfortunately, many coaches don’t emphasize its importance until they get bit in the backside.

A couple of years ago, while I was an assistant coach, I put some of my own thoughts into a punt scheme that I used while I played at Quincy University, now an NAIA school in Quincy, IL. Like all coaches across America, we are “thieves” when it comes to our ideas and schemes and I devised a fun and effective punt formation that I call the “Loco Punt”. This punt formation has been a very effective tool in the punt game for our football team and blends a solid spread punt scheme with an arsenal of fakes to keep the pressure off the punter and to allow for a successful punt and coverage. With this scheme we have been able to change the landscape of many football games. In the two years that we have used the Loco Punt, we have had only one punt blocked and numerous fi rstdown conversions from the array of fakes that we use. Some teams have quit rushing the punt and some teams have even quit putting a returner back in fear of our fakes.

The main philosophy of the “Loco Punt Formation” is to spread out the return team and to allow for the coverage team to trap the return team into 1/3 of the football fi eld – thus minimizing the return. In all reality, the Loco Punt Formation can be considered an offensive formation designed to fi nd mismatches, and to incorporate motion to overload a return team’s base defense. Many of the same concepts are incorporated into modern-day spread offenses. Then, we throw in a couple of fakes to keep the defensive rush honest and to provide an attack that makes opponents spend extra time scouting our punt team rather than other phases of our game.

The basic set for the punt formation is a spread formation with two “Missiles”(WRs) split wide. The fi ve-man front is spread with two-feet splits between the guard and tackles on both sides and a three-feet split between the long snapper and guards. There are two upbacks we refer to as “Headhunters” positioned 3 yards deep in between the guards on each side of the long snapper. The “Loco” is a wingback located off tackle a yard deep, making him an eligible WR. The location of the Loco is based on the location of the football. If the ball is located on the right hash, the Loco is located on the left side of the formation. If the ball is located on the left hash, the Loco will align himself to the right of the formation. If the ball is located in the middle of the fi eld he will align himself on the side away from our bench. The punter will be located behind the long snapper 13-15 yards deep (See Diagram 1).


The first aspect of our opponent we look at is how they plan to cover our Loco Punt Formation and how many return men they put back for the return. Like any offense, when we use the Loco Punt Formation, we want to play the numbers game and see how they will cover all of our eligible WRs and still put on a rush and return. We run a fast-paced no-huddle scheme on all three phases of the game that allows our team to line-up quickly and make our opponent “reveal their cards”. This gives our coaching staff the decision to either punt or run our fake system. If we need to punt, the punter will relay the punt audible which we call “Panthers” to the Oline. Then the punter will “shift” the Loco and outside Missile by having the Loco shift up to the line of scrimmage and the Missile shift back off the LOS. He then motions him across the formation and protects any threat off the edge. If there is no edge rusher, he will run directly to the returner and attempt to make the tackle on any return. The play-side Missile will fly down the football field directly to the returner also expecting to make the tackle on any return. We utilize a zone/gap pass protection scheme up front in which the two Headhunters step up and fill the A-gap. The guards, who we call “Grenades”, zone/gap block the B-gap. The tackles, known as “Tanks”, zone/gap block the C-gap. The Loco will block the backside edge rusher and become the wide side of the field safety. The long snapper snaps the ball and runs down field directly to the returner also expecting to make the tackle on any return. The punter tries to directionally kick the ball into the 1/3 of the field to the short side and he becomes the safety to that side.

If the punt goes out of bounds, it is still a great punt because there is no return. However, if the punt stays in the field of play, the return is trapped within the 1/3 of the field in which our coverage bottles up. The Grenades, Headhunters, and the Tanks fan out on the kick and fill the running lanes on coverage. The Tanks are the contain players on the coverage, allowing no returns outside of them and funneling all returns inside to the coverage (See Diagram 2).



If our coaches determine that we should run our fake system either because of punt return tendencies or because of field position, our punter will relay the fake audible called “Falcons” to the punt team. The fake punt sequence that we run through will be based on the defense and how it reacts to the motion of our “Missile”. Though there are many different fakes in the system, I will outline our three main fakes.

1. The first fake is designated “Patriots” which we call if the opponent doesn’t cover our Loco man as an eligible pass receiver. The Missile will not go in motion and there will be no shift. The punter relays the regular cadence and when the ball is snapped, he will roll out toward the Loco who runs a 5-yard out route. The playside Missile will run a vertical go route. The punter will read the coverage on the Missile; if the cover man goes with the Missile on the vertical go route, he will throw the 5-yard out to the Loco. If the cover man sits on the 5-yard out route, the punter will throw the vertical go route (See Diagram 3).


2. If our opponent covers the Loco with man coverage, we will shift the Loco and the Missile like our regular punt shift. However, this time we will read the reaction to the cover man that is covering the Missile that is motioning across the punt formation. If the cover man goes with the Missile across the formation, we will run our second fake called “Saints”. This fake is a sweep with the punter to the vacated side of the defense. The line will scoop/zone block to the nearest defender and the two Headhunters will pull out and log block any defenders flying to the football from the inside. The punter is coached to take the snap and sprint to the numbers and up the sideline for the first down or touchdown (See Diagram 4).


3. If the cover man doesn’t go with the shift by the Loco and Missile but either stays in the area or comes off the edge as a rusher/contain man, we’ll run our third fake in the fake sequence called “Steelers”. This fake is a sweep with the punter to the overloaded side to the motion where we will have a numbers advantage. The motioning Missile will scoop/zone block to the nearest defender. The play-side Missile will crack block on the nearest defender flying to the football from the inside. The two Headhunters will pull out and either log block or execute a kick out and log block scheme depending on the reaction of the defense. The punter is coached to take the snap and sprint to the numbers and up the sideline or cut up into the hole developed by blockers for the first down or a touchdown (See Diagram 5).


The Loco Punt Formation has been an instrumental part of our special teams attack. This dynamic scheme allows our special teams to be a force to deal with every Friday evening on the gridiron.

Jared Van Acker just completed his third year as head coach at Galax High School (VA). He previously served three years as an assistant coach at William Campbell High School (VA) where he helped coach the team to a state championship in 2005. Van Acker coached for one season as an assistant at Carthage High School (IL). He played at Quincy University (IL) and received his Bachelor’s Degree from Western Illinois University.





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