There are some things I saw this week that cost teams football games. Teams lost games they should have one because they didn't gave away too many yards. The most under coached area of football at the high school level is punt return. Most teams spend 5 minutes a weak coaching their punt returners, and the only time their punt returners catch kicks is during pregame.
If you want to win more games, and beat people you shouldn't beat, you have to find areas where you can excel. Coaching your 4th down defensive unit will help you win more games. Not coaching your fourth down unit will lead you to lose more games. It is most glaring in seasons where you might not have as much talent or experience on the field. That is when the lost opportunities on 4th down.
One of the biggest areas of lost yards is letting punts land and roll. Every ten yards the ball rolls is another first down your offense has to get to score. Last night I watched a team force 6 punts. One punt they fielded and started at their own 38. They ended up kicking a field goal. The other 5 punts they didn't field. Four of them the ball rolled anywhere from 15 to 30 yards. One of them was shanked and only went 20 yards. Overall, they lost 124 yards from punts rolling. They lost the game 28-10 because they lost the field position battle.
The most difficult part of this is most coaches don't even realize the yards they are losing on 4th down, and the affect it has on the game. Every time you let a punt land, you give up an average of 12 additional yards. That's a first down. That also shortens the field for your opponent's offense when they get the ball back. If you start at your own 20 and go three and out, you are punting from inside your 30. If you start at your own 35 and go three and out, you lengthen the field for your opponent. Don't give away free yards.
Too many coaches treat 4th down defense as an inconvenience. Because of this, they give up yards that negatively affect field position, which affects them on offense and defense.
Let's talk about how to make your 4th down defensive unit become a strength rather than a liability.
1. Practice Catching Punts
Break this into 3 parts. First, have your returners work technique with a coach coaching them. We are going to teach them how to properly catch a punt, throwing them the ball from close distance.
Work on catching balls kicked to you, kicked to the side, and kicked on the ground. Teach your players how to circle the ball and field a punt that is bouncing. Teach them how to recognize you have space. Do this with a coach throwing the ball, 15 to 20 yards from the players.
Second, have a coach throw or punt to the players from 30 to 35 yards away. Start with the punts going to the returner. Then to the side, then short, then over their head. Move up if you have to. When you do this drill, have the returners not catching the punt aligned 10 yards from the returner on either side, as if they are cover guys. Have them moving towards the returner, but never getting within 3 yards of him. This gets your returners used to catching the ball in traffic.
Third, have your punter punt the football to the returner. During the first two drills, your punter is warming up and your snappers are doing their snapping drills. Then have them punt live, with your snapper snapping and punt team protecting. We don't have them cover. We have 3 guys downfield simulate the cover team. We want our returner to get comfortable catching kicks with guys bearing down on him.
Once our returner caught the ball, we wanted him to get vertical and make one guy miss. We wanted him to get 5 yards on every return. We told him to get five or six. This meant get five yards or six points. It all starts with fielding the kick. You can only return kicks that you actually field.
2. If you aren't going to invest time catching punts, then block every punt
If 80% of the times the ball is punted to you you are going to let it roll, then you might as well try to block the punt. But coach, I don't want to get called for roughing the punter. Then practice blocking kicks. You get roughing penalties because guys don't know how to properly block a kick, and what angle to take. You can teach them how to block kicks. If you want to block more kicks, check this out: Coach Vint's Special Teams Resource
Now, better than catching punts or blocking punts is this... Do Both. Really Well. We always had someone going for the block, even when we were calling a return. I never wanted to waste an opportunity to get a block. If they were lazy in protection, we were going to get the block.
How Do We Fit This In?
Coach, this sounds great, but how do we fit this in? I always have guys tell me this. We don't have time, they say. You have the same amount of time as the next guy who is really good at what we are talking about. I have been an OC and DC at the high school and college levels, and investing time in specials always helped us be better on offense and defense. It was never a negative thing.
Second, script practice time for special teams. Give your team a minimum of 10 minutes a day for specials. Work punt protection everyday, kick 5 XP's every day, and work one other unit everyday. A lot of teams work punt return into their defensive period, but they only give it 5 minutes on Wednesday. If you give it 5 minutes, you'll only get 5 minutes of value. Schedule 10 minutes and you'll be twice as good. If you want to know how to organize specials, click here: Coach Vint's Special Teams Resource
We were were really good on special teams at couple of coaching stops.
A while back I got hooked up with CoachTube and put together three courses for offensive football coaches. I put together two courses on RPO's, and a course on Building An Elite System of Communication. All of these courses will help you to score more points!
https://coachtube.com/users/coachvint
The course on communication gives you a detailed approach to your gameday communication. I give you a system and a process to improve the quality of conversations, leading to improved play calling on game day. This course has received outstanding reviews from coaches at all level of football. A coach with multiple state titles told me this course helped them to be much more efficient and explosive this season.
My two RPO courses take you through a systematic process of installing RPO's into your offensive system. RPO's put the defense in conflict, forcing them to defend all 53 yards of width and all 6 skill players every single play. I not only give you a system, but I teach you the methods to develop your own RPO concepts.
New Book
Over the last several months, I have stepped out of my comfort zone and wrote a new book about faith and purpose. The book is available as a paperback on Amazon, and as an eBook for the Kindle App. The cool thing about the Kindle app is that you can read the book on any device. I invite you to read it, and discover the power you receive when you make a decision to walk with the Lord. Here is a link to the book: Finding Faith
Since publishing the book, I have received numerous texts, calls, and emails, from people who are going through similar trials and tribulations. They were feeling many of the same things I was feeling. The found comfort in the book. They also found they had a desire to change and to live better. They wanted more joy.
I would invite you to read the book and discover the possibilities that God has planned for your life.
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