Poor Special Teams Play

[BleedingNavy]

I realize this thread may not go anywhere, but has anyone else noticed how many kick return touchdowns there have been this season? It seems like every week in the Richmond area there are 3-4. Long snapping woes and poor punts also seem to be an issue for a lot of teams. I know Dinwiddie has blocked a punt in almost every game. Does not make since to me. Does anyone have an opinion on why this may be an issue? I know both Hoos05 and I have expressed concerns with our teams special teams this season. Anybody else?

 

[mbonape1]

I realize this thread may not go anywhere, but has anyone else noticed how many kick return touchdowns there have been this season? It seems like every week in the Richmond area there are 3-4. Long snapping woes and poor punts also seem to be an issue for a lot of teams. I know Dinwiddie has blocked a punt in almost every game. Does not make since to me. Does anyone have an opinion on why this may be an issue? I know both Hoos05 and I have expressed concerns with our teams special teams this season. Anybody else?

Monacan has awful kick coverage... I am right on board with you. I think it is that none of the good players are on the kick off teams and all of the star players are on the return teams?? I think less time is being spent on it with all these high tempo offenses having to spend much more time on offense. The time and attention has to come from somewhere and it is coming from special teams. I think we had 4 different teams take one to the house on us off the kickoff. To be fair... Sometimes the game was out of reach. I totally agree with you on this point. Special teams is a big concern for me.

 

[blackknight_pride]

Charlottesville's is pretty subpar as well. We had a nice fake punt that turned into a touchdown last week, but other then that we fumble a lot on kickoffs and miss plenty of PATs. A team that DOES have good special teams IMO is Orange. They had 2 onside kicks and a nice fake PAT that became a 2 point conversion when they played CHS.

 

[86CulpGrad]

In high school, unless you have a really good kicker, you're better off going for it on 4th down if you're near mid field and it's 4th down and less than 7 yds to go. Unless you have a kicker who can regularly change field position, take your chances and go for it.

 

[HS-SportsFan]

Poor coaching.

 

[1MoreHokie]

You're only noticing because your brain decided to make it a focal point this year. It's undoubtedly happened in previous years as well, you just didn't notice.

If, for example, Dinwiddie is blocking a punt almost every week then the odds are they're probably good at blocking punts, not that everyone else sucks at defending the rush unless, of course, you could prove all those other teams are having lots of other blocked punts as well.

 

[DinwiddieProud]

I think what jumps out at me is kickoff coverage. For us, and for many, if not most, of the teams I've seen this year. But I've always said that the scariest play in high school football is the kickoff.

And very few teams seem to punt very well these days. A lot of low line drives.

I do remember that the Sherando kicker got good height and hang time on his kickoffs. And he put it in the corner nearly every time. This type of kick sure makes coverage a lot easier.

I'm sure one of the numbers brainiacs out there can tell us if the statistics prove that Navy is on to something, (or just on something)?

 

[Lafayette]

DinwiddieProud I couldn't agree more that the KO is the most dangerous play in HS football. The lack of discipline in maintaining your lanes, tackeling issues in the open field, the often change in direction of runners and lack of good kick distance is tough at this level. I have said why not just kick it out of bounds beyond the 35 yard line? Prevents big run backs and injuries. Even on good kicks the return usually goes to the 20-30 yard line anyway, strategically why take the risk for the minimal gain? On punts I have seen this year most now going out of bounds. The one Bruton left in the field? Proof! TD Lafayette.

 

[HS-SportsFan]

What is the average amount of practice time spent per week on special teams? I'm guessing it's less than 25 minutes, and probably only done on the day before a game.

 

[mojo on tapp]

First you have to have a kid willing to learn how to kick in off season, and a kicker needs a good long snapper. I have seen a bunch of teams that had a good kicker but snapper was bad. Most coaches are not going to take the time to develope kickers, most use the bare minimal of practice time for special teams, so they just use the hope and prayer method!