Coach ,

Winning on special teams certainly increases your team’s chance of winning the game. Whether that is explosive plays or pinning them deep, the details you coach help win the teams battle.

This week we share details on Kick Off, Punt Return, and an idea for creating recognition for your special teams players.

#1 Win Field Position - KO Variations

As the season progresses and more and more of your special teams' reps are one film, being able to scheme up your coverage to create a big return is a legitimate threat.

If you win the field position battle you win the game…

Here’s a very telling statistic on field position: Teams that maintain a field position margin of 20 yards or more win at a rate of almost 97%. At the other end of the spectrum, teams that average a neutral (or nearly-neutral) field position margin only win at a clip of about 54.1%.

It’s in your interest to pin them deep, and having a system for moving your players around but maintaining their responsibilities makes it very hard to scheme you up.

It’s something that NFL Special Teams guru Mike Westhoff made a living on and talk about on Coach and Coordinator.

It’s also something that Arkansas State Special Teams Coordinator Jake Schoonover implements with his unit. While at Kansas in 2021, his KO scheme produced the #2 KO Unit in the country.

Through creativity in labeling players and adjusting alignments, he creates a very multiple KO strategy which becomes difficult to scheme against.

This video where he explains a variation called “Deep Left Face” shows how this strategy is employed (click on image for video):

Video: Deep Left Face

#2 Coach a Series of Movements for an Explosive Punt Return

Coach Pete Lembo is respected around the country as one of the most knowledgeable and successful special teams coaches at the college level. That certainly is showing up in the stats this season. Here’s how the Gamecocks are doing:

#1 Blocked Punts 4

#2 South Carolina blocked kicks 5

#6 Punt Returns 18.29yards 2 TD

#10 Kick Return Defense 15.22

#24 Net Punt 41.59

#32 KOR 23.5

#32 Punt Return Defense 3.2 yards

Earlier this season we shared what he identified as the two positions in football the power position and the speed position.

Their explosive punt return is the application of a series of movements between a power position and a speed position. Coach Lembo shares what the looks like on Punt Return (click on image for video):

Video: Punt Return

#3 Make Special Teams Special - Get Your Boards Out

As the season wears on, the culture of your units needs to remain strong. 

For any special teams unit to be successful it has to be important and has to have aspects of how it is coached and how it is recognized to create the culture.  

Princeton Special Teams Coordinator Mike Mendenhall uses a simple but effective method to create recognition which has fed their special teams culture. It’s something that he calls “Get Your Boards Out. Give ‘em Three” and he explains it here:

Video: Give ‘em Three

Coach those details up! Win the Battle so your Team can win the War. Good luck this week!

Always be growing!

Coach Grabowski