Kevin Kelley decided to flip football convention on its head after Pulaski (Ark.) Academy's second game of the 2007 season.
Never a fan of taking his offense off the field, the coach became miffed when his Bruins punted away to Pine Bluff (Ark.) Dollarway High only to see Pulaski allow an 80-yard touchdown on the return.
"That was stupid," Kelley said. "We should've gone for it."
As a result, his 2008 team did not punt during 14 games. Such an unorthodox strategy may seem like lunacy, but it was successful: Pulaski won the 5A state title on Dec. 6.
Kelley's team only punted twice in 2007 − once as an act of sportsmanship to prevent running up the score − and never after that Dollarway game.
That's pretty sweet. I have often wondered about some of that. The odds for/against you in those situations. Another of those is kicking extra points. I can't imagine a team not getting to the point where they could convert a two-point conversion at least 60% of the time and making it worth it to not go for the XP.
joelamosobadiah wrote:That's pretty sweet. I have often wondered about some of that. The odds for/against you in those situations. Another of those is kicking extra points. I can't imagine a team not getting to the point where they could convert a two-point conversion at least 60% of the time and making it worth it to not go for the XP.
Funny that you said that, this past year, my High School team had gone for two-points every single time, until the last game of the season, where we kicked our only extra point of the season (and it was successful). We must have completed about 50-55% of two-point conversions. Our coach always felt that, it was like scoring twice against the defense and just crushing there spirits even more after just giving up a touchdown, now the two-point conversion.
The Pulaski coach has adopted an unusual approach to kickoffs as well. About 75 percent of the time, he uses an onside kick instead of a standard kickoff. To illustrate why, Kelley again relies on numbers.
If his team does not recover the onside kick, the opponent likely will field the kick around its own 47-yard line. On a typical kickoff, the other team usually starts around the 33-yard line.
"You're only giving up 14 yards," Kelley said. "And you get a chance to get the ball."
In high school or lower this certainly makes good sense. Anything after, you do this and you're fired.
The Pulaski coach has adopted an unusual approach to kickoffs as well. About 75 percent of the time, he uses an onside kick instead of a standard kickoff. To illustrate why, Kelley again relies on numbers.
If his team does not recover the onside kick, the opponent likely will field the kick around its own 47-yard line. On a typical kickoff, the other team usually starts around the 33-yard line.
"You're only giving up 14 yards," Kelley said. "And you get a chance to get the ball."
In high school or lower this certainly makes good sense. Anything after, you do this and you're fired.
Agreed. In HS you can get away with a lot more, especially if you're physically superior to the other team, since you have a decent chance of recovering the onside if that's the case.
Both of those strategies would be miserable failures if the two teams were equal. This guy's superior team makes his bone-headed moves look good, not the other way around.
Art Vandelay wrote:Both of those strategies would be miserable failures if the two teams were equal. This guy's superior team makes his bone-headed moves look good, not the other way around.
You're thinking of college and pro football and in that mindset, you're right; however, given that it's high school, it's really not a bad idea. I'm not in favor of going for it on ever 4th, but if you have a good offense, I'm find going for it on every 4th and 5 or less outside of your own 30.
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