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Play Keep-Away: Each time your team punts, the goal is to kick it 40 yards and out of bounds.

by: John Lilly
Head Coach, Woodrow Wilson High School (WV)
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It’s that time of year when coaches are in clinic research, upgrading playbooks and pushing the weight room as hard as possible. One area that is overlooked in a lot of playbooks is special teams evaluation. In most cases, special teams is the difference between two evenly-matched teams. Often overlooked and under-practiced, special teams play effects the overall efficiency of your program.

In high school, we all face that very special player in the kicking game that can score any time he touches the ball. It’s that one player that can turn the game around. If he touches it, you may lose field position for sure and/or the game as well. If you have a punter that has a very effective hang time, that may be your best weapon to counter a dangerous punt returner. However, that’s a luxury most high schools don’t have.

When teams are kicking to outstanding return players, I wonder why an opponent would kick to them. Numerous college coaches have told me that this situation is a challenge that they welcomed and was a true test of their team. Our philosophy is to never allow any return by any player in any game. We have a distinct punt team model that we use. Many times in my coaching career we faced a superior player that we could not match up with.

Our punt game begins on the first day of practice in the early periods in order to emphasize its importance. Our long snappers began on the first day of weight training in the off season by using medicine balls and weighted footballs to improve the speed of their snaps. With this in mind, our punt team is graded on yards allowed. Our goal is allowing zero yards on punt returns in every game. Over the last 31 games, we have allowed two returns over 10 yards and one allowed for a touchdown because of a poorly placed punt.

Our base plan is simple and direct. We want a forty-yard punt that goes out of bounds. Our punter’s goal is to punt the ball inside the hash, and never outside the bench hash, and the closer to the sideline the better. By never allowing a return, I want to make our opponent drive the ball and increase their percentage of making a mistake. Our challenge is to win the game and, by keeping our kicking game simple and effective, we have a better chance of being successful.

Our punt team makes game planning easy. W do not need to spend large amounts of time working on how to stop your opponent because our goal remains the same on every punt – 40 yards downfield and out of bounds. Use the rest of the time on other parts – offense and defense – of your game planning.

In diagram 1, you will notice the alignment we have is from the middle of the field. The personal protectors will be the responsibility for the alignment of the front 8. They will give them the “Bench Right” and “Bench Left” calls. Our bench defenders are our best and most aggressive defenders that have speed. The basic goal is to have the F1 and B1 players pin the defender if the ball does not go out of bounds. Their ending point is one yard in front and one yard behind the returner. The field defenders are our best tacklers because their ability to hit landmarks is essential if the ball is poorly placed. In the diagram you can see the specific route for each bench and field player as well as the personal protectors.

 
Responsibilities:
 
Bench 1 – Hot to the ball – Punch out and go – has contain on bench side – two yards from the sideline.
 
Bench 2 – First man on outside D gap – find B1 and separate by five yards.
 
Bench 3 – First man on outside C gap – find B2 and separate by five yards.
 
Bench 4 - First man on outside B gap - find B3 and C and separate five years from each.
 
Field 3 – First man on outside A gap – his landmark is bench goal post.
 
Field 2 – First man on outside B gap – his landmark is field goal post.
 
Field 3 – Punch out and go to the ball.
 
PB – A gap – fill in any open area left open by bench defenders.
 
Punter – Punt the ball inside the hash – 40 yards and out of bounds is perfect – the goal is to allow zero punt return yards.
 
LS – After safe snap, go to the bench hash – there is no blocking assignment.
 
PF – Go to A gap to help contain – to the hashes to the wide side of the field.

Diagram 2 shows the alignment from the hash. The personal protectors again give the bench calls for alignment. If the ball is aligned on the opponent’s bench, then the bench call will flip to the opponent’s bench. The responsibility and landmarks remain the same. Diagram 2 shows the individual route of each player.

 
Responsibilities:
 
F1 – He should be the first one to the ball - has no specific blocking responsibility – he should be directly in front of the return man.
 
F2 – He blocks head up to the field C gap – his landmark is the field goal post.
 
F3 – He blocks head up to the field B gap – his landmark is the boundary goal post.
 
B4 – He blocks head up to the boundary B gap – his landmark is five yards from the LS and B3.
 
B3 – He blocks head up to the boundary C gap – his landmark is five yards from B4 and B2.
 
B2 – He blocks head up to the boundary D gap – his landmark is five yards from B3 and B1.
 
B1 – He will be hot to the ball and aim one yard behind the return man. His landmark is one yard from the sideline.
 
FP – He is responsible for the alignment of the field players. He has field A gap blocking responsibilities and his landmark is the hash to the wide side of the field. He has contain to that side.
 
BP – He is responsible for the alignment of the boundary players. He has A gap blocking responsibilities and his landmark is to fill in any gap open on the boundary side of the field.
 
P – He will be at 13 yards depth. His goal is to punt the ball between the sideline and the hash and he never punts outside the hash. A perfect punt is 40 yards and out of bounds.
 
LS – His only responsibility is to get a proper snap. He will set the coverage and his landmark is the hash.
 
Our philosophy of never allowing an opponent to touch the ball may help other coaches who may have speed-related issues or may be undermanned. p
 
About the Author: The head coach at Woodrow Wilson High School in Beaver, West Virginia, John Lilly has been a head coach for 24 years at three different schools. Coach Lilly helped one school make the state playoffs for the first time in the 75-year history of the school. He has also coached in the annual West Virginia High School All-Star game twice.


More on this subject:

•  Rowan University’s Punt Team Techniques - April, 2014
•  Human Shield: The Shield Punt Formation - August, 2013
•  Preparing Your Punt Teams - October, 2012







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