Special Teams Hints

[kicker20]

Being a former kicker for Notre Dame, and a special teams coach for 5 years, there are a few easy ways to improve our kickoff return.
1. Once the kicker tees up the ball, normally the laces of the football will tell you where he wants the ball to land.
2. An even better way is when he takes his steps back. Where he stops, where its straight down the center, or off to an angle, his steps won't lie. This can allow us to place the best return man in the area of where the ball will land.
3. If his steps are shorter and when he walked back wards, he was aiming at the sideline, it will be a pooch kick. It is a high short kick that should land between the 20-25 yard line between the numbers on the field and the hash mark.
4.Always remember the number of the punter and make sure he is 15 yards back. A fake many teams run is changing the back up QB for the punter.
5.On kickoff or punt return, the front line of five shouldn't turn their heads to run back until they see the ball kicked. If I was to see the player in the middle of the other teams front line running back early, and not seeing the ball kicked. It sets up a perfect surprise onside where the kicker kicker a medium paced middle onside kick that he will recover. The blockers on either side of the kicker knock out the opponents that weren't fooled. As a coach, I am 5/5 when running it including 1 time at Notre Dame, but Jim Sanson was the kicker.