Untitled - Fast and Furious Football

SPECIALTEAMS IrI
The protection starts with the center. His job
is to make a pefect snap that arrives in th€
punt€r's hands in 0.7 to 0.8 seconds. After his
snap, he pops up with a good base then he starts
thinking about covelage. The guards' split is 2
feet from the center. Each euard hinges 45 deg:rees,
with a blocking assignment from his inside
foot to the inside foot of the tackle. If two
people penetrate the gap, the euard shouldblock
though the fimt man to tbe second one. The hardest
job lor the euard is keeping his butt in the
hole between himselfand the center
The tackle'sjob is tbe sarne as th€ guard's except
his butt in the hole js not as strongly emphasized
as the guard's. He mustkeep his inside
foot planted as long as possible, witb the Bame
principl€ as the guard with two threats in the
gap. The end hinges the same asthetackle, keepins
his inside foot planted as long as possible. The
end must rc-route the rush of the outside !rux.
The upbacks have the responsibility of the gap
between the center and guard.Two major points
ofemphasis: Make sure the upbackers are lined
up one yard deep and stop any threat (charye) in
the gap. Iftwo people come in thatgap, the upback
must make hirnselfbig and get his headbetween
The pe$onal protector, who we call the "searchlight,"
lines up 6 yards deep behind the euard
(left or ght dep€nding on left-footed or righifooted
kicker). The searchlight must be aware of
overloads and must use eood judgment, nover
laking a backward sl€p. He tale8 on any immediate
theats to the kicker, but doesnt go anywherc
unl€ss th€re is a reason to. Aller the ball
is kicked, the searchlight is a safety to our right.
The kicker's job is to field the snap, know
wheth€r or not there is a rush, concenhate, and
kick the football. Ifw€ have a choice, we will use
a two-step punter We align the punt€r 15 yads
deep and work hard on stepping and fieldingthe
ball simdtaneously. We stdve to get the punt off
in 2.3 seconds or less.Ahans tim€ of3.9 or better
is what we want. After the ball is kicked, the
kicker is a safety to o left.
We change our contain cov€rage weekto week.
Usuallt and as abasicrllle, theends arc ourcon'
tainmenl. Our basrc punr .overagF iq shown in
Figure 6.
Special teams are an jnte$al part ofa football
t€am. Accompanying this article i s a kicking gam€
ch€cklist that we cover with our team at least
onc€ a week. This is a carryover from coach
Darell Royal at Texas. He covered this with our
team each Saturday moming of the season.