At WPI, we place a large amount of emphasis on special teams each week. I am extremely fortunate to work for a Head Coach, Chris Robertson, who shares the same vision and philosophy with the importance of each phase of special teams. As our Defensive Line coach, being able to coordinate our special teams gives me a tremendous opportunity to not only work with our defensive players, but also work with our offensive players and build relationships with those players as well.  Each week we spend a great deal of time breaking down our opponent’s punt team and look for ways to attack it. Our objectives and scheme we employ have changed each year based on our personnel as well as the strengths and weakness of our opponents.  We focused on the return game largely due to the personnel we had.  Our offense had the best scoring offense in school history and our defense was nationally ranked in several categories and us being able to use our punt return to flip field position was a huge part of our success on both sides of the ball. 

Personnel

We believe it is important to not try to force a square peg into a round hole and be flexible as a coach to adjust to put your players in position be successful. Each year the strengths and weakness of our team vary which means we will adjust our scheme that best suits the strengths of the players we have on our punt return team.   In past years, we have been more of a pressure oriented team looking to block punts every weak. This past season we shifted to more of a return oriented team as we had less twitchy type athletes and athletes more suited toward blocking in space.   We always will have a block concept and a return concept for each game just in case. 

Opponent Breakdown

In college football you can see a wide variety of punt formations as you move through the season.  It can be a challenge each week to have to recreate a look against a new formation. It also calls for personnel adjustments as well.  If we have to play against a team who punts out of a 3 x 1 formation our personnel for that week will have more DB’s to get the right personnel on the field.

When we break down an opponent’s punt team we focus on these five questions:

1. What is the formation?
   • Are they multiple in formations? We played against a team one year that had shown 8 different punt formations prior to our game. Do they use different formations when punting in a backed up situation?
2. What is the operation time like?
   • Is the snapper consistent? If they can get it off in 2.1 seconds or less it is hard to get the block. This helps us determine if we want to focus on blocking the punt or focus on the return game. We also look for a “tell” in the snappers rhythm i.e. a head nod just before the snap or something similar to help maximize our take off.
3. What is their personnel?
   • Are they bigger stronger players or smaller more athletic guys? Who are their best cover guys? This helps us get the right personnel and match ups.
4. What is the punter like?
   • Right foot or left foot? Where is the block point? What is his hang time, average distance etc.? Is he a good directional kicker?  Where does he kick the ball relative to punt location (right hash, left post etc.)? This helps us coach our returner on what to expect and where to align himself.
5. What is the protection like?
   • Is it man or zone? Where is the weak link? This will help us decide where to attack when planning our punt block.
6. Who are the eligible players? You have to be sound against a fake and be sure you get your offense on the field on the next down.

Scheme

Our number one job for our punt return unit is to get the ball back for the offense. We tell the returner there is no shame in a fair catch as long as our offense snaps the ball on the next down. If we field the ball without a fair catch our next objective is 10 yards.  We simply want to get the equivalent of a first down. For example, taking our offense from the minus 25 to the minus 35 has a huge impact on scoring percentage. This year the return game was what we focused each weak. We did not have the right guys available to get to the block point and most teams we faced had solid operation times.    

Our primary punt return scheme is a wall return. What we like about the wall return is the ability to bring pressure from one side to force the kick but also have a chance to block a punt and also have a return on the other side. We will run the wall to the field or the boundary based on the punters tendency or if we feel our opponent is overplaying one side. It is critical for players on the unit to understand what leverage they need to take this scheme work.  To us it is man to man basketball defense, deny your man getting to the basket, which in a punt return scenario, would be the returner.

Generally speaking, we will have a pressure side and a pin side on our wall returns.  The pressure side players are attacking the block point and working to the wall and the pin side players are blocking their assigned men with return side leverage.  At times we will bring pressure and use some players to pin on that side as well.  We will do whatever we need to get an advantage for our returner to have a chance to get at least 10 yards.

With limited time to practice special teams during a game week, it is very important to be as efficient and organized as possible. This is especially important when it comes to the punt block unit. In my experience, among the main four special teams’ units (kickoff, kickoff return, punt, and punt return), this one is typically given the least amount of practice time and often does not get the first choice in special team’s personnel. To be successful on the punt block unit, it is important to be efficient and organized with your scouting, game-planning, meetings, and practice time.

I think it is important, on the punt block unit and in other areas of football, that one does not try to be too good at everything, every week. We have three main points of emphasis when game-planning on the punt block unit: pressuring the punt, returning the punt, and defending fake. Most weeks, we will choose to focus on only two of those three areas. With limited time to plan, meet with players and practice, I have found that focusing on only two areas can help provide clarity as we strategize for the game and structure our practice time. I will come back to this topic in more detail when I discuss game-planning.

In this report, I will first discuss the work that goes into setting up your scheme in the off-season. Then I will cover practice work and player selection on the punt block unit. Finally, I will review game-planning and what we do to prepare our punt block unit during game week, as well as some thoughts on how to handle game-day decisions. I will specifically focus on organization and efficiency on this unit, but I think that many of the procedures we use can also be applied to other special teams, as well as offense and defense. 

Offseason Work and Setting Up Scheme

During the offseason, I will conduct a review of the previous year’s unit. This review will include statistics on which of our calls and concepts were most successful, ideas on our scheme and better ways to coach and drill our techniques, notes on our opponents’ schemes and better ways to attack their protections and coverages, and thoughts on our personnel (especially underclassmen who will be with us again in the coming fall).

In the summer I will build a menu of pressure and return calls that we like against different punt team structures. We primarily see shield-style protections, along with a few teams that use pro-style protections. If an opponent is radically different from one of those types of structures, usually I will have to put together something a bit different for us as well.

On the pressure menu, we will usually have four or five different pressures that we use against shield teams, three that we use against pro-style teams, and one main concept against rugby teams. It is important to note that we will only carry one or two different pressure calls into a given game (more on this when we get to the game-planning section).

Building our pressure menu helps reduce the time one has to spend creating new concepts during a game week. It’s akin to offensive coaches who have a true ‘system’ (i.e. wing-T or flexbone option) with all their answers built into the scheme. They do not have to game plan all day Sunday, because they already know what they like against different coverages and structures. We try to be the same way with our punt pressures; we just categorize what we are going to be seeing and choose from the menu based on the specifics of what the opponent does.

For our returns, our basic structure rarely changes. We will always carry a man return (every man wins his one-on-one matchup) and sometimes a directional return as well. We will game plan our directional return based on the opponent’s kick placement and coverage tendencies. To increase efficiency and learning transfer, almost all players will have the same responsibility on our man return and our directional return. On the directional return, we are just telling them where the ball is going and what leverage we want them to have on their man.

Practice Work

As we get into practices during spring ball and fall camp, our attention turns back to our players and the techniques that we use on the punt block unit. During spring practice and fall camp, we only do drill work in a circuit format, small groups, or one-on-one competitive work. We rarely will do any full-team reps before the first game week. I think this ties in with the emphasis on efficiency and technique. We teach our players the proper techniques, then (once we are in-game week) let them apply their techniques to different pressure and return calls.

In our game week practices, we will sometimes use some of the punt block practice time to break up into smaller groups. This allows us to best utilize our time so that all members of the team are working on the skills and calls that are most relevant for them. We will also try to use the same scout-team players throughout the season to simulate the opponent’s punt team. That way the same players are always working similar techniques from week to week, which gives us a better look. If there is anything special that the punt team does (speed huddles or drastic shifts, etc.), we can try to build in some time during practice where the coach who works with the scout team can get them organized while the players on the punt block unit do drill work.

Player Selection

As we come out of fall camp, we work to put together our depth chart. I think it is very important to categorize players based on their abilities and stack up against players on the depth chart with similar skill sets (often players who play the same defensive or offensive position). In the same way that an offensive coach should be able to describe the characteristics of their ideal tight end, a coach running the punt block unit should know what he is looking for in different positions and roles. This helps with the efficiency of running the unit in that when you need to make changes to the depth chart, you already know what you are looking for in that position. Using circuit training on this unit allows our coaches to instruct all players in the same basic skills and evaluate a wide variety of players and put them in positions where they can be successful. Here are the general roles that we use on the punt block unit:

Corners: our players at the corner position are almost always cornerbacks by trade as defensive players. We need guys we can trust playing man coverage in space.

Secure: we will have two players whose primary job is to secure off the edge and make sure the ball comes inside on any potential fake. These players are rarely the most athletic ones on the field, but they are guys we can trust to get the ball turned inside and make a tackle if necessary (usually backup linebackers or safeties). These players are often ones you would not want in a one-on-one hold-up situation, but once the ball is kicked, they can hustle back and get in someone’s way to have a chance to spring a big return. 

Block emphasis: the best punt block specialists I have been around all having great athleticism and desire to get to the block point. They must also have the intelligence and toughness to navigate protections and survive collisions with the shield, and the courage to go after the block when they can do so. We also coach our guys on their decision-making around the block point. This is a clinic talk for another time, but we give specific coaching points on where and how to finish, when to leave their feet, etc.  In three seasons I have run the punt block unit, we have blocked 16 punts and only had three roughing/running into the kicker penalties.

Return emphasis: other players on the unit focus more on returns and are rarely in on the rush. These players need to do a great job being tenacious and persistent to win their one-on-one matchups.

At the college level, we also always have a player on the field (usually an experienced and trustworthy linebacker or safety) that can make checks within the game plan or if the opponent presents an unfamiliar formation.

Returner: the returner needs to be trustworthy and sure-handed above all else. No matter how athletic he is, if he has issues with ball security, he will not be on the field for us in that role. Usually, with punt returners, agility and quickness in a small space are more important than blazing speed.