Coach never punts...

[RShack]

Plus, also does onside kicks 75% of the time.
And he wins...

In both cases, his rationale is based on stats.

http://highschool.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=892888

He's a HS coach (for the moment), not college, but there's no forum for HS here.
If he keeps winning, I bet some college will take a chance on him.

[BaltimoreTerp]

http://forum.orioleshangout.com/forums/showthread.php?t=55501&highlight=Punt

We know ;)

Seriously though, this might end up being a sabermetric thing for football. Punting is an overvalued strategy, especially on shorter yardage and ESPECIALLY in opposing territory.

Reminds me too much of sacrifice bunting in baseball.

[Birds of B'more]

http://forum.orioleshangout.com/forums/showthread.php?t=55501&highlight=Punt

We know ;)

Seriously though, this might end up being a sabermetric thing for football. Punting is an overvalued strategy, especially on shorter yardage and ESPECIALLY in opposing territory.

Reminds me too much of sacrifice bunting in baseball.

Tell that to the Indianapolis Irsays after what Mike Scifres did to them Saturday night. ;)

This is just MHO and not based on any statistical evidence.....but at the high school level you can often have mismatches between teams in size, speed and skill level that are quite extreme. When that happens, elements of the game such as field position are often moot. At the college level, those mismatches are less. At the major college level they are far less. And in the NFL the difference in talent between teams is very minute. The less difference you have between the athletes on the field, then the more the little details are magnified.....the battle for field position being one of them.

[Mackus]

This is just MHO and not based on any statistical evidence.....but at the high school level you can often have mismatches between teams in size, speed and skill level that are quite extreme. When that happens, elements of the game such as field position are often moot. At the college level, those mismatches are less. At the major college level they are far less. And in the NFL the difference in talent between teams is very minute. The less difference you have between the athletes on the field, then the more the little details are magnified.....the battle for field position being one of them.Very well said.

Its similar to how you barely see the option run in the NFL and yet there are top notch college programs that run it almost all the time.

[geschinger]

Tell that to the Indianapolis Irsays after what Mike Scifres did to them Saturday night. ;)


Heh, so true. I have never seen a punter have the kind of impact on a game that Scifres did. It has to go down as one of the greatest postseason performances in the history of the game.


This is just MHO and not based on any statistical evidence.....but at the high school level you can often have mismatches between teams in size, speed and skill level that are quite extreme. When that happens, elements of the game such as field position are often moot. At the college level, those mismatches are less. At the major college level they are far less. And in the NFL the difference in talent between teams is very minute. The less difference you have between the athletes on the field, then the more the little details are magnified.....the battle for field position being one of them.

Good points although I do think the answer is somewhere in between. I think NFL coaches generally punt too often and would benefit by going for it more often when they are inside the opponents 50 yardline. Especially when they have a punter who is not great at pinning teams.