Untitled - Fast and Furious Football
Untitled - Fast and Furious Football
Untitled - Fast and Furious Football
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146 FOOTBAI,L COACHING STRATEGIES<br />
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Protecting <strong>and</strong> Govering<br />
From a Spread Punt Formation<br />
TOM COUGHLIN rlrrnALAN pAeUET'TE<br />
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W€ place more emphasis on punt pmtection <strong>and</strong><br />
covemge than we do on any other special team<br />
unit. W€ devot€ at leaBt S0 minuteB a week in<br />
season to our punt team prepamtion. These S0<br />
minutes include meetings <strong>and</strong> placticetime. The<br />
fuubackB will meet {'ith the special team6 coach<br />
individually at least twice, early in the week.<br />
Whenever the punt team is on the practice fielal,<br />
we utilize eight coaches (includjng the head<br />
coach). We film punt practic€ from b€hind the<br />
punt team, as well as from the side. This enables<br />
us to closely evaluate protection (behind) <strong>and</strong> cov_<br />
erase distribution (6ide).<br />
The capability t. consrsr€nrty punr rhe foorball<br />
well iq a t remendous advantagc in the barile<br />
lbr field position. The punt team has two big r€_<br />
sponsibilities. The primary responEibility is to<br />
protect the punter The second responsibitity is<br />
to cov€r downfield <strong>and</strong> deDy the rctum man any<br />
posili!e yardagF. Ir'q for (his purpose rhar we<br />
decided to changp from a basp punt formation<br />
wilh a.zone proteclion schemF 1() a spread punr<br />
Iormatron wrLb man protection.<br />
Punt Team Formations<br />
The spread formation (see Figure 1) has allowed<br />
us to maintain our protection <strong>and</strong> at the sane<br />
tirDe improve our coverag€_ Spreaaling the formation<br />
forces the opponent to cover each end with<br />
at least one man, <strong>and</strong> our ends are often double<br />
covercd. When the opponent is aliened like this,<br />
we can clearly <strong>and</strong> quickly identify the rush. This<br />
formation also gives us many punt fake opporru_<br />
IIGURE I<br />
Spread punl formation<br />
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In our man prnt pmtection scheme, everyore<br />
from upback to upback is accormtable for blocking<br />
a man.There are no free rushers. Convercely,<br />
with a zone punt protection, a rusher may enter<br />
a gray area between two zones <strong>and</strong> create indeci_<br />
sion among the pi-olection people. rFsuhing in a<br />
blocked punt.<br />
The simplicity of our protection scheme etiminalcs<br />
indeciston an.d a]lows us ro aggrcssively<br />
raKe on rushers <strong>and</strong> retease into co!erage. This<br />
aggreBsive man pmtection technique is much bet<br />
ter suited to our cunent personnel herc at Bos_<br />
ton College.<br />
Our zonp prolecrion qcheme wa6 run from d<br />
base punt fomation (Figure 2). The protection<br />
called forbigpenonnel who could drop step wrm<br />
the outside foot <strong>and</strong> lunge to the outside, keepurg<br />
the inside foot anchored while extending their<br />
arms to pmtect the out€ide gap.<br />
FIOUBE 2 Zone protection <strong>and</strong> coverage<br />
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The two upbacks, aligned in the center-guard<br />
gaps, would Bt€p up into their rcspective gap anil<br />
aggre$ively protect the arca. Aft€r securing their<br />
gap responsibility, each punt team member would<br />
releas€ into coverage.<br />
Punt Team Personnel<br />
Although we had big personnel who were capable<br />
of protecting the punt€r in this fashion, they<br />
couldn't adequatety cover the punt. Our strcng
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