Importance Of Studying Your Opponent

Coach:

Outstanding point. Coach Campbell and I have a complete listing of areas for a coach to focus on during pre-game warm-ups. Here is a sample from the SWAT Team (kickoff team) section:

On game night, during pre-game warm-ups, we assign one coach to watch our opponents special team warm-ups. The concept is to confirm our scouting reports thoughts and decide whether we need to make any adjustments to our game plan. The things he is watching for related to kickoffs include:

• Who is catching the placekicker’s deep kicks? Their normal returner?
• How athletic do the returners look?
• How well do the returners catch kicks when they have to move to get to the ball?

It is said that during the course of a game, there will be four plays that will be monumental in deciding the outcome, and if you can win 3 of the 4 for your team, you have greatly increased the chances of winning! I decided to make a study of what constituted those 4 plays most often, and it didn't take long to quickly realize that the vast majority of them take place in the kicking game,i.e muffed punts, blocked punts, blocked field goals, bad long snaps, etc. I once went to a coaching clinic at Florida State and heard the then OC/Line Coach Wayne McDuffie start his lecture that we had signed up for entitled "Offensive Football" in this manner: All right Coaches, lets talk REAL OFFENSE, lets talk THE KICKING GAME! Everybody looked at each other and a few left immediately. I made a great decision by deciding to stay. Wayne proceeded to give one of the most comprehensive kicking game lectures I have ever heard, before or since. He is dead now, left us at a young age, but the profound impression he left
on me that day about just how important the kicking game really is, has served me well in the ensuing years.

Coach Easton

Additional thought- another importance I attach to special forces (we call ours by this term also) is with the exception of the starting QB, the best 11 players on the team start on special forces! You have to have a team that is well conditioned, can run all night, and loves the physical aspects of the game. There have been times, in all honesty, that I have put the starting QB on the field if the situation called for everything we had at our disposal.

J.C.Easston

ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS ON KICKING GAME

A well coached team, imo, is always going to kick off to the opponents right side coffin corner(left side as you look at opponent) unless they have game planned to keep the ball away from a specific returner.

I have always coached my punters to never kick the ball directly to a single punt returner, but rather to directional kick one side or the other to make the returner have to move to cleanly handle the football.

I have always coached that punt coverage schemes include the first man down directly to the ball carrier, and the second man down (if he is not needed on the tackle) to go BEHIND the returner in case of a fumble. The philosophy is that all blockers are IN FRONT of the returner and our guy has a good shot at picking up the loose ball and taking it to the house if he is BEHIND the return man.

J.C.Easton