No punting!

[brianhos]

I have heard of crazy offensive schemes in HS before, but this one takes the cake!

Rivals High - Arkansas coach punts traditional game plan

Kevin Kelley decided to flip football convention on its head after Pulaski (Ark.) Academy's second game of the 2007 season.
Never a fan of taking his offense off the field, the coach became miffed when his Bruins punted away to Pine Bluff (Ark.) Dollarway High only to see Pulaski allow an 80-yard touchdown on the return.



"That was stupid," Kelley said. "We should've gone for it."
As a result, his 2008 team did not punt during 14 games. Such an unorthodox strategy may seem like lunacy, but it was successful: Pulaski won the 5A state title on Dec. 6.

 

[ISUFan22]

Crazy? I'd say the guy is smart. If his offense is that good, why not?

Plus, he's got the stats (and title) to back it up.

 

[jumbopackage]

It makes sense to me. It sort of has always made sense to me.

You're sacrificing 25% of your potential opportunities if you don't go for it on 4th down. I think it totally changes your playcalling if you know you have 4 chances to get that first down. Obvious passing situations don't really exist on 3rd down.

 

[cyfan4St8]

Crazy? I'd say the guy is smart. If his offense is that good, why not?

Plus, he's got the stats (and title) to back it up.

It would take a great defense as well !!! If you don't punt and your on your own 35 yard line you would have to have a great d to keep them from scoring as well. I would say that is more important.

 

[pulse]

Sounds like Walden.

 

[ISUFan22]

It would take a great defense as well !!! If you don't punt and your on your own 35 yard line you would have to have a great d to keep them from scoring as well. I would say that is more important.

Or, having a poor defense would promote not punting even more. Since the poor defense is likely to give up a score regardless of where the ball is - better chances to win are to not give the ball to the other team.

 

[Walo]

It would take a great defense as well !!! If you don't punt and your on your own 35 yard line you would have to have a great d to keep them from scoring as well. I would say that is more important.

I don't think you'd go for it on 4th if you were on your own 35.

 

[capitalcityguy]

This was a unique situation IMO in that the team was obviously superior talent-wise to begin with. This would never work with an average or poor team and would probably never work beyond high school level.

 

[cyfan4St8]

I don't think you'd go for it on 4th if you were on your own 35.

I agree , but they are saying that they never punted.

 

[ISUFan22]

I don't think you'd go for it on 4th if you were on your own 35.

The guy stated he went for it on 4th down inside his own 10. When he said he didn't punt in '08, he didn't mean sometimes - he meant no punting - ever.

 

[ISUFan22]

This was a unique situation IMO in that the team was obviously superior talent-wise to begin with. This would never work with an average or poor team and would probably never work beyond high school level.

Well there will be someone that strolls in soon enough claiming we should do this...and we don't have the offense for it.

Imagine if a team like Texas Tech had done this. IMO, I think they would've been ok.

 

[cyfan4St8]

This was a unique situation IMO in that the team was obviously superior talent-wise to begin with. This would never work with an average or poor team and would probably never work beyond high school level.

I would definitly agree with that. They is no way that works beyond the highschool level.

 

[cyfan4St8]

Well there will be someone that strolls in soon enough claiming we should do this...and we don't have the offense for it.

Imagine if a team like Texas Tech had done this. IMO, I think they would've been ok.

Um Remember the Kansas game against us this year. They did it twice to us and It made a huge difference in the game.

 

[dualthreat]

If it works = coach is a genius

If it doesn't = coach is an idiot

Those statistics seemed very convincing though.

 

[cstrunk]

I disagree that it couldn't work beyond the high school level. In fact, it COULD be just as successful. But, a commitment has to be made in order to stick with such a system. Look at the positives... you would focus your recruiting on mainly offensive players. By doing this, you have given yourself the tools required to play such a game. You could build an amazing offense by taking away from the focus of defense. You could build an offense that would give you success. The hardest part of the whole system, would be keeping a defense around that could stop someone a few times a game.

Very non-conventional... but I could see it having some success.

 

[CarolinaCy]

For a good read on the virtues of not punting, check this out:

ESPN Page 2 - Easterbrook: Stop punting!

 

[CYCLNST8]

Let's take it a step further- on defense no punt returner. All-out-block every time and man-to-man coverage on the eligible receivers to prevent trick plays. Think about how many miffs on returns there have been. Yeah, it's gonna roll to the one yard line every now and then. I say better that then to risk giving the opponent the ball back and a fresh set of downs in your own territory; putting the defense right back out on the field. Gotta be careful not to run into the kicker every time tho.

 

[capitalcityguy]

Let's take it a step further- on defense no punt returner. All-out-block every time and man-to-man coverage on the eligible receivers to prevent trick plays. Think about how many miffs on returns there have been. Yeah, it's gonna roll to the one yard line every now and then. I say better that then to risk giving the opponent the ball back and a fresh set of downs in your own territory; putting the defense right back out on the field. Gotta be careful not to run into the kicker every time tho.

I see very little merit in that approach.

Yes there is risk to returning punts, but it is an acceptable amount of risk given the reward.

You can't play the game by eliminating all risks. You control them the best you can.

At the end of the day, no risk = no reward.

 

[cyclonedcm]

that was the best part of our game...

 

[Cardinal&Gold11]

Lets do it!