Post by Coach Campbell on Oct 20, 2013 17:48:00 GMT
Mason Hughes
We have a special teams coordinator who oversees and game plans all special teams. He and I together give special team assignments to our position coaches. Every coach on our staff is involved with special teams, and also has a special team that they get a break from. For example, our O Line and D Line coaches do not coach any position on kick off. We have 4 different coaches coaching positions on our punt team (Gunners, Line, PP/Wings, Punter), we have 4 position coaches on our punt return team (Jammers, Returners, Edge Rushers, and Blockers), 5 different coaches for our kickoff team (Kicker,Inside Attack, Outside Attack, Contain), 5 different coaches for kick return (Returners, and then 4 coaches to coach our 4 groups of funnel positions), 3 coaches on our FG team (Kicker/Holder, Wings, Line), and 3 coaches on our FG defense team (Edge Rush, Busters/Jumpers, Coverage). Our schemes are very simple. On punt we run a basic punt formation and use our long snapper and gunners as our coverage players. We put our best athletes at these positions and teach one of them how to snap. The long snapper is rarely blocked and makes most of our tackles. On punt return we set up a middle return and attempt to funnel out the punt team. At the snap we immediately begin blocking the punt team with the exception of our returner and 1 edge rusher (if the protectors don't pick him up he will block the punt, if they do, he blocks them). Each defender has a man on the punt team that he is responsible for blocking towards the sideline. On Kickoff team we directional kick on every kick. We pooch kick to the 25-30 yard line and kick it to the left, middle or right. We also kick 2 different onside kicks. If we have a kicker who can kick a touch back every time, we do that, otherwise we will never kick deep. On kick return we employ a funnel return where we give each player on the kickoff team a number (outside most player is a 5, next guy a 4, etc,). We do this from both sides. There ends up being 2 of each number (1-5), we do not count the kicker. We then assign each kick return player a man on the kickoff team. It is his responsibility to funnel that player to the sideline. We block every player on the kickoff team except the kicker and the outside players (5s). This return is super simple and needs a player with average speed but one who is fearless to be the kick returner. He MUST return up the middle. Our FG team is so basic. Every players blocks inside gap and then punches their outside hand out. Our FG defense requires 4 players known as busters to double team the guards on the FG team and drive them back. We then use our tallest/best jumpers to time up behind the busters and jump to block the kick. If we have great busters (which we do this year) the jumpers can jump early over the pile and still have time to run in and block the kick. We have blocked 4 FGs/XPs this year doing this. Our edge rushers have 2 responsibilities: rush the edge and block the kick. Our remaining 3 players are responsible for any fakes they may run. Our coaches have been running this program for 5 years now and we all have our roles that we coach. When we get a new coach, we make sure he learns all the schemes with our coordinator during our staff retreat so that he is comfortable with the schemes.
We play our best players in the most important spots of the special teams. We also find players strengths and do our best to play to those strengths on special teams as well as attempt to give those players who may not be a starter on offense a sense of ownership and value by being a special teamer. We give awards about for special teams and do our best to make it a desirable part of the game. This has allowed us to get away from players who want to come out during special teams. We just don't deal with that much. We have also had a tremendous amount of success with our special teams, so kids want to be on them. Honestly this year is our worst year of special teams in quite some time, but we have built a tradition of special teams being important so our lack of success on special teams this year has not caused us problems in player's attitudes.
We practice special teams with individual/group drills (punt/punt return/kickoff/kick return) for 20 minutes per week and team drills (all special teams) for 60 minutes per week.
We have a special teams coordinator who oversees and game plans all special teams. He and I together give special team assignments to our position coaches. Every coach on our staff is involved with special teams, and also has a special team that they get a break from. For example, our O Line and D Line coaches do not coach any position on kick off. We have 4 different coaches coaching positions on our punt team (Gunners, Line, PP/Wings, Punter), we have 4 position coaches on our punt return team (Jammers, Returners, Edge Rushers, and Blockers), 5 different coaches for our kickoff team (Kicker,Inside Attack, Outside Attack, Contain), 5 different coaches for kick return (Returners, and then 4 coaches to coach our 4 groups of funnel positions), 3 coaches on our FG team (Kicker/Holder, Wings, Line), and 3 coaches on our FG defense team (Edge Rush, Busters/Jumpers, Coverage). Our schemes are very simple. On punt we run a basic punt formation and use our long snapper and gunners as our coverage players. We put our best athletes at these positions and teach one of them how to snap. The long snapper is rarely blocked and makes most of our tackles. On punt return we set up a middle return and attempt to funnel out the punt team. At the snap we immediately begin blocking the punt team with the exception of our returner and 1 edge rusher (if the protectors don't pick him up he will block the punt, if they do, he blocks them). Each defender has a man on the punt team that he is responsible for blocking towards the sideline. On Kickoff team we directional kick on every kick. We pooch kick to the 25-30 yard line and kick it to the left, middle or right. We also kick 2 different onside kicks. If we have a kicker who can kick a touch back every time, we do that, otherwise we will never kick deep. On kick return we employ a funnel return where we give each player on the kickoff team a number (outside most player is a 5, next guy a 4, etc,). We do this from both sides. There ends up being 2 of each number (1-5), we do not count the kicker. We then assign each kick return player a man on the kickoff team. It is his responsibility to funnel that player to the sideline. We block every player on the kickoff team except the kicker and the outside players (5s). This return is super simple and needs a player with average speed but one who is fearless to be the kick returner. He MUST return up the middle. Our FG team is so basic. Every players blocks inside gap and then punches their outside hand out. Our FG defense requires 4 players known as busters to double team the guards on the FG team and drive them back. We then use our tallest/best jumpers to time up behind the busters and jump to block the kick. If we have great busters (which we do this year) the jumpers can jump early over the pile and still have time to run in and block the kick. We have blocked 4 FGs/XPs this year doing this. Our edge rushers have 2 responsibilities: rush the edge and block the kick. Our remaining 3 players are responsible for any fakes they may run. Our coaches have been running this program for 5 years now and we all have our roles that we coach. When we get a new coach, we make sure he learns all the schemes with our coordinator during our staff retreat so that he is comfortable with the schemes.
We play our best players in the most important spots of the special teams. We also find players strengths and do our best to play to those strengths on special teams as well as attempt to give those players who may not be a starter on offense a sense of ownership and value by being a special teamer. We give awards about for special teams and do our best to make it a desirable part of the game. This has allowed us to get away from players who want to come out during special teams. We just don't deal with that much. We have also had a tremendous amount of success with our special teams, so kids want to be on them. Honestly this year is our worst year of special teams in quite some time, but we have built a tradition of special teams being important so our lack of success on special teams this year has not caused us problems in player's attitudes.
We practice special teams with individual/group drills (punt/punt return/kickoff/kick return) for 20 minutes per week and team drills (all special teams) for 60 minutes per week.