OT: The Punt-Pass!
I'm closer to 50 than 40 and never seen this, nor even realized the rule existed.
Question: If the punter's punt is caught by the punting team behind the line of scrimmage, what's the rule? And -- can you use this to your advantage?
Answer: Yes. http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/ncaaf-dr-saturday/film-study-rare-look-legal-kick-pass-first-223417840--ncaaf.html
So there's hope for Wile's crappy, short, misdirected punts!
September 24th, 2013 at 9:02 AM ^
Though all they did was run normal tunnel screen action off of it, so unless your punter has a noodle arm then I don't see a huge advantage to it. But interesting nonetheless. Thanks for posting.
September 24th, 2013 at 9:52 AM ^
Perhaps it prevents the receiving team/sideline from yelling "fake"? The punter cocks his arm and everyone is yelling. He continues with punting motion and everything else is just a weird way to get into coverage? Only thing I can think of...
September 24th, 2013 at 3:03 PM ^
You sometimes get the "what the f--- is going on" effect when you do something strange like that. They might have caught the opposing team standing and watching the play...I am personally in favor of it just because it's awesome.
September 24th, 2013 at 9:09 AM ^
September 24th, 2013 at 10:35 AM ^
I am supposed to be the only EKU Alum around these parts!
But in all seriousness I didn't think there was another fellow Colonel on this site! Awesome!
September 24th, 2013 at 12:41 PM ^
Yup, kinda weird I won't lie, when did you graduate? I graduated in 2009. I majored in Aviation. Lived in Keene Hall for one whole year. Then lived in the hockey house. Have you been back lately? The amount of changes are insane.
September 24th, 2013 at 3:09 PM ^
September 24th, 2013 at 3:08 PM ^
I went to high school in Richmond. Used to work in the EKU campus bookstore. Small world, boys.
September 24th, 2013 at 9:15 AM ^
In the article the writer notes that it was the wrong time to do this and now everyone will be wise.
Let's be honest here, this is really not the highest percentage fake out there. So here's my theory. On many punts going foward, the other team will spy on this. They will be looking at the gunner who doesn't gun as it were. They will be splitting their attention from the return a bit to defending the fake.
They pulled off this play at a time where if it fails nothing is lost.
I think that is some quality coaching and knowledge of the rules there. Plus one more thing: The rest of the teams they face will probably be trying to figure out when and what this team will pull out of the obsure rules hat in the future.
September 24th, 2013 at 9:16 AM ^
The thirty-two fans in attendence must have been thrilled to see such a rare play executed successfully.
September 24th, 2013 at 9:16 AM ^
Just throw it with your arm. I'm not seeing the advantage in kicking it here.
September 24th, 2013 at 2:32 PM ^
so long as the ball stays behind the line of scrimmage it can hit the ground and the play won't be blown dead.
This is why the kicking team can advance a blocked kick so long as the ball is behind the LOS.
September 24th, 2013 at 9:17 AM ^
One of the relevant passages, I think, from the rulebook - this is in the section on Scrimmage Kicks:
"ARTICLE 1. a. A scrimmage kick that fails to cross the neutral zone continues in play. All players may catch or recover the ball behind the neutral zone and advance it (A.R. 6-3-1-I-III)."
September 24th, 2013 at 9:19 AM ^
The only advange is making it look like a rugby style rollout punt which would draw the rush. Accuracy wise, I'm not sure how easy it is to aim that kind of a kick. It's cool but not all that advantageous.
It's like kicking a field goal by dropkicking it off the ground.. Cool but ineffective.
September 24th, 2013 at 9:37 AM ^
The problem is that with the shape of a football and the ground, it is very, very difficult to do it consistently. But there is a really so many soccer keepers use a drop kick to drive the ball into the wind. It's basically a free tee to gain distance on a kick. Just very difficult to do correctly in football, especially with any sort of distance.
September 24th, 2013 at 10:19 AM ^
September 24th, 2013 at 11:35 AM ^
4 points. good, very good, best evr
September 24th, 2013 at 12:01 PM ^
As a former keeper, I can attest that it does put a lot of distance on your kicks.
September 24th, 2013 at 9:38 AM ^
I admired (IIRC) Fresno State's fake punting, their QB and P have the same jersey number...genius there!
September 24th, 2013 at 3:18 PM ^
Not sure about Fresno(you're probably right, I just haven't watched them to know) but Cal did that against Ohio.
September 24th, 2013 at 5:34 PM ^
I didn't have to open the link because I had already had it forwarded to me. However, in h.s., our top RB also had an uncanny gift of being able to lift the gall off the tee without hitting the ground for about 10-12 yds. Of course we used this simply by lining him up next to our regular kicker and having him do this for onside kicks. I was also good at it, but I could only kick the ball about ten yards max, so I'm not sure if that counts, and I couldn't place it where I wanted to either. I do like it when teams utilize little known rules to take advantage of lack of knowledge, merely because other teams, including most coaches have never seen it. I do know the NFL has a crazy rule I've neve seen use about the receiving team being able to receive the ball and punting it back to the kickof team on the same play with a bizarre result should they do it effectively. Thanks for the inspiration. Think I'll google that and find out what that rule is.
September 24th, 2013 at 10:22 AM ^
It's an interesting rule but it seems fairly insane to try it. Your kicker will have to be really accurate with his kick (or really noodle-armed as noted above) to make the risk worth it. I can't say your odds of executing a punt-pass are very high, just throw the ball
September 24th, 2013 at 10:41 AM ^