Simply Put- "Punt Formations "

10/9/08
By Clint Cox

There are many aspects of the modern high school football game that I like over better than "back when" I played 30 years ago. I like the fact that players now get all the fluids (water / Gatorade, etc.) they want during practice and in the games. Back when I played we usually got one water break at each practice. The coaches said something about making us tough by not giving us too much water. I always though it was odd that our fluids were limited in practice, but we got all we wanted on game night.
I like that many coaches now allow their kickers to specialize and that is all that player does in practice. "Back when" I played the kickers were just one of the better athletes on the team that doubled as the kicker. We usually spent the last 10-15 minutes of practice working on special teams with these kickers. I like the idea of a kicker spending the entire practice working on kicking. It is such a key part of the game and I don’t see much need for them to spend time blocking and tackling.
But there is one aspect of the modern game that I don’t care for and that is the current punt formations used by the high schools, colleges and pros. Punt formations used to be simple. Everybody lined up on the line of scrimmage except the punter and one up back. But not anymore. They’ve got players spread out from one side of the field to the other with huge gaps in between them. Then they have 3 up backs in front of the punter. The middle up back stands behind one of the other up backs until the ball is snapped. The middle up back then fills the hole and awaits the oncoming defenders.
As hard as I try I just can’t get used to these new punt formations. I personally don’t think they work any better than the old ones. In fact it seems to me that we have more punts blocked and more bad snaps than we used to. Think about the difficulty for the long snapper to snap the ball between his legs 15 yards behind him, all the while having to "thread the needle" so to speak between the two up backs. In FSU’s win over Miami on Saturday the snapper hit one of the up backs. I had been waiting for that to occur.
But last time I checked my e-mail and answering machine, no coaches had contacted me to inquire about my thoughts on these new punt formations. So I thought I would save them the trouble and just offer up my opinion, free of charge. Simply Put, I don’t like them and wish they would go back to the old way.
From the front porch: Uncle Bob says his daughter was complaining that nobody loved her, that the whole world hates her. Her brother responded "That’s not true. Some people don’t even know you."