Another Opportunity
I t is a privilege and an honor to contribute
to the 2001 AFCA Summer Manual. I
have learned that coaching is a constant
learning process and a lot of what we teach
we have learned, begged and borrowed from
other coaches. In writing this article it is a
way to thank all those coaches who have
gone out of their way to take the time to pro-
vide information, answer questions and
teach me the information that I hope can help
you in coaching your special teams.
Also, I feel very fortunate to be coaching
at the University of Pittsburgh. Our head
coach, Walt Harris, believes strongly in the
kicking game and provides the time and facil-
ities to be successful. He attends our meet-
ings and practice periods which I think sends
a great message of their importance to our
players and coaching staff for their dedica-
tion and efforts to helping our special teams
make a positive contribution to winning.
About the title: when I first started coach-
ing the special teams I had an opportunity to
listen to Dick Vermeil, the first special teams
coach in the NFL. He defined special teams
as another opportunity to make a positive
contribution to winning. That always stuck
with me and I have carried that philosophy
Bob Ligashesky with me. He believed in the attitude that if
your team had the belief that you could help
Tight Ends/Special Teams win 1-2 games a year just based on your
Coordinator contributions in the kicking game you had it
rolling. And that when two teams being
University of Pittsburgh equal would play, special teams would make
the difference. So we sell to our players that
Pittsburgh, Pa. their role or contribution on the special
teams is as important as their role or contri-
bution on offense and defense.
During our freshman practice, besides
taking a pre-practice specialists period for
all kickers, punters, snappers, holders and
returners, we also take one period a prac-
tice to evaluate kicking game techniques.
To emphasize the importance of the
kicking game when our new comers come
on campus for their first practices we take
one period a practice to introduce tech-
niques and evaluate our newcomers in
special teams situations. Most teams put
the new recruits on offense and defense for
one practice but we have found that by
putting our new recruits in these drills it has
improved our evaluations of them.
The first practice we teach our punt tech-
niques. We teach all our newcomers how to
vertical set. We start them on the sideline so
that they learn how to work straight back. We
start with the stance. We want our feet slight-
ly wider than shoulder width apart. Our inside
• AFCA Summer Manual — 2001 •
foot is up. We want all our weight on our front
foot. We tell our players to curl their toes in
their shoes to emphasize them pushing off
their inside foot. We stagger our outside foot
anywhere between six and 18 inches. We
bend at our ankles, knees and waist so that
our chest is as close to our thigh as possible
allowing us to get as deep off the line of
scrimmage as possible with our helmets still
breaking the belt line of the center. We place
our hands on our knees.
They key the ball for movement. We tell
them to keep one eye on the man and one
eye on the ball. We are aligned so that we
are facing the sidelines with our inside foot
on the yard line. We are spaced five yards
apart and usually have six lines.
Diagram 1
On movement, push off your inside foot
and kick with your outside foot. We kick
slide two steps. We want to work straight
back keeping their inside foot on the yard
line. They will want to pop up at first, so we
emphasize pressing their chest on their
thigh. Keeping the shoulders square, and
maintaining a base. Working from a low
plane to a high plane. We punch against air
with our hands. Again working low to high.
Elbows in, thumbs out we strike with the
butt of our hands. Once you engage the
rusher, widen him away from the block spot
and release to your landmark. If we have
time we will align in our punt formation and
do a half line vertical set and release vs. air
to our landmarks.
Our second drill relates to our punt return
and field goal block phase. It is a course block
drill using cones. The purpose of the drill is to
evaluate a player’s stance, get-off, course,
and ability to block kicks. We will align two
drills, a left side and a right side. The drill
starts with ball movement. There is a front
row of cones four yards apart. Behind the
front cone is another cone three yards deep.
There is a punter or coach nine to nine-and-
half yards from the ball (Diagram 2).
We are coaching the player to get into a
sprinters stance. We tell our players hand
behind the ball, head behind the hand to get
as much of the ball as possible without being
 Diagram 2
offsides. On ball movement we want to see
the player get upfield as fast and as low as
possible to the second cone. Once they
approach the second cone we are working to
get the inside foot pointed to the block spot
bending the knee, dipping the inside shoul-
der and ripping the inside arm. As they
approach the block spot we want to see them
run full speed to the block spot seeing the
ball come off the kicker’s foot. We have a
player or coach take a one step kick and punt
the ball. Waiting for the rusher to approach to
let him block the ball. You can add the snap
later. We have coached him to take the ball
off the kicker’s foot at the last possible
moment with your thumbs together and your
hands below your eyes. We do not leave our
feet. Most kids will run with their arms out or
slap at the ball. We emphasize to them to
take the ball off the kicker’s foot. Do not run
with your arms out. It slows you down. Do not
slap at the ball it also slows you down and
decrease your chances to block the ball.
Once the ball is blocked behind the line of
scrimmage scoop and score with the ball.
Bend your knees, place your palms under
the ball and scoop it up or forward. If it is
blocked across the line of scrimmage it is a
poison call and get away from it.
We add to the drill by adding a blocker.
We will shuffle a player from the front cone
to the back cone trying to push or widen the
rusher. The blocker is facing the sideline so
he will start his movement on the move-
ment of the rusher. This forces the rusher
to rip and dip his inside arm and shoulder
past the blocker or he will be widened. See
Diagram 3. We will go one line at a time
with both drills going at the same time.
Diagram 3
Our next drill is to evaluate kickoff cover-
age ability. We start the drill from the sideline
and work across the field in a 10 yard lane.
Diagram 4
This drill allows us to evaluate a player’s
ability to avoid an open field block, take on
and get off a blocker and make a tackle.
We do the drill in a 10 yard lane so that
the cover man runs down a line with five yard
opening on both sides. The drill starts on the
whistle. At the start, blocker No. 1 starts on
the numbers and sprints back to the hash
and sets up to try to block the cover man.
The kickoff cover man tries to beat blocker
No. 1 to the hash. If he can beat the blocker
to the hash with speed that is ideal. If the
blocker is able to set up before he arrives, we
use an avoid technique. Coaching points are
to not slow down to make your move. Give
one head or foot fake. A lot of times more
than one move slows you down. After mak-
ing your fake stay as tight to the blocker to
avoid getting too far out of your lane.
We teach two avoid techniques, a rip and
a quick swim. We emphasize the rip because
it keeps you lower. The first thing we empha-
size in avoiding the block is to not slow down
to make your move. Alot of players will shuf-
fle their feet and get high. Try to attack the
blocker full speed and give him one move to
get him to transfer his weight. After you avoid
the block get back on your line and stack the
blocker as fast as you can. Blocker No. 2
does not start until the cover man gets clear
of blocker No. 1. Blocker No. 2 wants to come
straight out and try to base block the cover
man. We want to engage blocker No. 2 and
press him into the hole as much as possible
to decrease the angle for the returner. The
returner does not want to leave until the cover
man has blocker No. 2 locked out. The return-
er gets a one way cut to the right or left stay-
ing in the 10 yard lane. The cover man wants
to shed the blocker and make an angle tack-
le and drive the returner out of the 10 yard
lane. We will rotate by cover man going to
returner, returner going to blocker No. 2,
blocker No. 2 going to blocker No. 1, and
blocker No. 1 going to the end of the cover
line. Everyone moves up one spot in the drill.
• AFCA Summer Manual — 2001 •
Again this drill gives us a chance to
evaluate a player’s ability to cover a kickoff,
but we also can evaluate a player’s ability
to block on kickoff return by being at the
blocker No. 1 and No. 2 positions.
The last drill we do is a 3-on-1 leverage
drill. We evaluate a player’s ability in space
to keep the ball inside and in front of him.
We start the drill with a returner 30 yards
down field. Throw the ball to the returner to
insure a good kick. Once the returner
catches the ball he wants to run laterally to
try to out-leverage the coverage. The cov-
erage will align in three lines, one guy in the
middle of the field. The two outside guys
align between the numbers and the hash.
Diagram 5
On the throw, the coverage will squeeze
and cup the ball. When the cover man runs
laterally on the returner. They will use a defen-
sive run — keeping their shoulders square
and turning their hips to run laterally. We
emphasize this technique to defend against
the big block on a wall return. In coverage the
outside cover man on run to will try to keep the
ball closed inside and in front. The outside
defender away will stay in a cutback position.
The middle cover man will try to maintain a
head up position. All three will squeeze and
defend the returner laterally to both the right
and left then cup the ball in the middle and
break down in front to finish the drill.
Diagram 6
It has been an honor and a privilege to
contribute to this manual. I hope these drills
can help you evaluate and improve your
players’ techniques and abilities in the kick-
ing game. We believe these drills can
emphasize our belief in teaching that through
the kicking game we can positively contribute
to helping the team win games.